Just opened at City Theatre is Celebrity Autobiography. This is a Pittsburgh version of an ongoing Off-Broadway hit. The hilarious experience here consists of many different, talented and versatile nationally and locally well-known performers interpreting parts of autobiographies written by …duh…. celebrities. If that sounds obvious, never let it be said that what’s read aloud sounds subtle, insightful and thought-provoking. Nor, evidently, is it intended to be funny, even if it comes across as a non-stop hoot. Rather the people who wrote this stuff take it seriously as they do the minutiae of their daily lives, their interactions with other famous people and their always remarkable belief that the ins and outs of their sexual connections come loaded with fascination. i.e This is for an adult audience.
At the opening yesterday the cast consisted of Pittsburgh’s Robin Abramson, Michael Fuller and Patrick Jordan plus visiting Annie Golden, John Marshall Jones, Lee Merriwether, plus two of the people behind the concept: Eugene Pack and Dayle Reyfel. Among the celebrities whose brainless candor assisted in their own sendups were Loni Anderson, David Cassidy, Kenny Loggins, Joan London, Burt Reynolds, Sylvester Stallone, Suzanne Summers, Ivana Trump, Vanna White and Tiger Woods, plus Eddie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds and Elizabeth Taylor cross-referencing each other. Appropriately, the intimate Lester Hamburg Studio Theater makes this thigh-slapper up close and personal. Tony Ferrieri’s design turns it into a kind of club, so there are tables and chairs to which drinks from the bar are permitted. This show will vary in whose actual words get used, from over 300 such books and the casts will also alternate during the open-ended run.
There is no break in this 90 minute laugh fest. So, if you want to go, go soon and go often.
Celebrity Autobiography is at City Theatre on Pittsburgh’s South Side
Tickets at 412.431.CITY (2489) or CityTheatreCompany.org.
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