From a magic show to a classic Broadway hit to a free dance party at the art museum, here's what to check out this weekend in Pittsburgh.
Stories and magic with "Sixty-Seven Keys"
Nationally touring storyteller and magician Siegfried Tieber brings “Sixty-Seven Keys” to Liberty Magic. The new show — inspired by the comedic mystery “The Seven Keys to Baldpate” — begins when the audience selects a single key. With sleight of hand and illusion, Tieber leads the audience through a series of die rolls, coin flips and more that determine the plot. He’s in town Wed., Aug. 16-Sept. 3.
"Now you know!"
In advance of a big-name Broadway revival this fall, Stephen Sondheim’s “Merrily We Roll Along” gets a production from Pittsburgh’s own Front Porch Theatricals. Famously told backward, the musical follows three friends from 1976, in their disillusioned middle age, back to 1957, and their youth. It’s at the New Hazlett Theater from Fri., Aug. 18, through Aug. 27.
Divinity/Femininity
Award-winning Zimbabwe-born artist Akudzwe Elsie Chiwa, now based in Wilkinsburg, gets their first U.S. solo exhibition at 937 Liberty Gallery, titled “Divinity/Femininity.” The multi-disciplinary artist uses soft sculptures to explore migrant identity and Afro-feminism. The show opens Fri., Aug. 18, just a block from SPACE Gallery, where veteran Pittsburgh artist Jesse T. Best opens “Analog Holiday,” a show of his new paintings. Both exhibitions run through Nov. 19.
Dance around the art
A new soundtrack comes to the Carnegie Museum of Art on Sat., Aug. 19, with Inside Out Night. This free dance party in the outdoor Sculpture Court curated by Pittsburgh’s DJ Soy Sos features Afrobeats, dancehall, soca, reggaeton, hip hop and techno from Philadelphia-based emcee Queen Jo and DJs Na$h and DJ Afrik, as well as Pittsburgh-based DJ Femi. It runs from 7 p.m. to midnight, with a cash bar and food truck.
16 mm at Bottlerocket
Flea Market Films and Glitterbox promise mind-altering movies on Sunday at Bottlerocket Social Hall. “Explore the outer fringes of the universe and human perception,” if you dare, with a trove of 16 mm films from Flea Market’s collection. Psychedelic 16mm: An Evening of Hallucinatory Film starts at 7 p.m. on Aug. 20 — but you can arrive early for a liquid-light pre-show.
Great Comet of 1812
“Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812” premiered in 2012 and became one of the decade’s most critically acclaimed musicals. The show, based on a romantic “War & Peace” subplot, is noted for composer Dave Malloy’s eclectic, pop-influenced score. A new Pittsburgh CLO production lands at the Benedum Center Tue., Aug. 22-Sun. Aug. 27.
