Skip to main content

PICT Stages Interesting Match up of Andy Warhol and a Homestead Blue Collar Bar Owner

Matt Henderson and Andy Warhola and Johnny Patalano as Mario “Bones” Bonino Credit: Courtesy Photo

Last evening I caught the long-anticipated relaunch of PICT, short for Pittsburgh International Classic Theatre, with its staging of "Andy Warhol's Tomato" at Carnegie Stage in Carnegie, Pa. Written by McKeesport native and now resident of Los Angeles, Vince Melocchi, the play is set in a Homestead bar in 1946 and features a fictional relationship between an 18-year-old Andy Warhola and a Italian-American bar owner. At the time Warhola was an art student on the edge of expulsion at Carnegie Tech, now Carnegie Mellon University, The playwright studs the script with several references to Pittsburgh and the era, which should appeal to Pittsburgh nostalgia buffs in the audience. Sound designer, Steve Shapiro adds a lot of period flavor with his musical selections of the era especially the jazz snippets. Pittsburgh jazz artists like Mary Lou Williams and Ahmad Jamal also get a mention in the script which adds even more local color to the narrative.
I can't conceive of any two more compatible and complimentary actors director Elizabeth Elias Huffman could have picked
to play the two roles of Warhola and bartender Mario “Bones” Bonino than Matt Henderson and Johnny Patalano.
The story line, while based on extensive research by the playwright, is a fictionalized account of two unlikely match ups that occurs serendipitously when Warhola passes out in front of Bone's bar and is brought inside to recover.

Johnny Patalano as Mario “Bones” Bonino and Matt Henderson as Andy Warhola Credit: Courtesy Photo


Warhola's gay apparent mannerisms and patois are a definite contrast to Bone's blue collar, machismo background and frictions arise from the start. Yet, over the course of the summer, their relationship blossoms; Bones gets more paternal, Warhols gets more respectful, sympathetic and supportive, especially after he learns of Bone's repressed artistic tendencies.
Henderson, topped by a wig emblematic of the Warhol look, shows some of the artist's early penchant for iconoclastic avoidance of social conventions and personal boundaries in his inquisitive exploration of his surroundings. For one, he borrows Bone's manuscript without asking him for permission pushes his own ideas for creating an outdoor sign for the bar in complete disregard for the intent of the bar owner.
In contrast to Warhol's energy, impulsiveness and comfortable acceptance of his own identity, Bones is more reflective, responsible and ready to hide his true identity from others, especially the mill hunks who frequent his bar.
As PICT's artistic director, Huffman is bringing an appropriate play, one that should touch the heart strings of Pittsburgh audiences, to the stage as the newly reorganized theater's first production. "Andy Warhol's Tomato" is at the Carnegie Stage, 25 W. Main Street in Carnegie, through October 6. For tickets, go to https://pictclassictheatre.ludus.com/index.php
The theater is including three Sunday Matinee Talks Backs following several select shows. They include;
A Conversation with Vince Melocchi (September 29); Uncle Andy Stories: The Pittsburgh Years with Don Warhola (October 6); Hidden in Plain Sight: Being Queer in Pittsburgh Before Decriminalization, hosted by Richard Parsakian. As a special preperformance dinner option, De Blaze at 131 Restaurant is offering a three-course prix fixe menu for $35. The dinner includes a choice of a Starter (Italian Wedding Soup, DeBlaze Seasonal Salad or a Caesar Salad), a main course (Chicken Parmesan, Chicken Piccata, Rigatoni Bolognaise or Chicken Marsala) and dessert (Blueberry Cheesecake or Cinnamon Roll Cheesecake). For reservations, Phone 412-310-7475 Pre-show seating is from 5 to 6:30 p.m.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sanctified Explores Through Music How Diverse Attitudes are Transformed into an Inspired Unity

  Marissa Lily, Mils James, Manny Walker, Emir Hardy, Chuck Timbers, Cheryl El Walker, Katy Cotten & Brenda Marks Set by Mark Clayton Southers Credit all Photos: Kim El One of the many things live theater does well is taking its audience to different places, times and moods through the power of story-telling. While this is a fairly obvious observation, this thought became especially poignant when, over a period of less than 24 hours, when I found myself on board a battleship in late 18 th century Portsmouth, England, then, 17 hours later, walking into a small Black church in rural South Carolina in the present day. The vehicles for this geographic time travel to places and times worlds apart were Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera, “H.M. S. Pinafore” and playwright Javon Johnson’s “Sanctified.” Both works, while musical comedies with morals to the story, came from diverse and rich cultural backgrounds. I’ve already published my review of Pinafore on my arts and enterta...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review of The First Lady- An Autocrat Gets Her Comeuppance

  Elizabeth Elias Huffman as First Lady and Doren Elias as Elish Photo Credit PICT Theatre           PICT Theatre’s U.S. premiere staging of Turkish/French playwright, Sedef Ecer’s, political satire The First Lady opens on a government ministers meeting in a hypothetical country somewhere in Mesopotamia.           Seen on video on a pair of screens on either side of the stage, the trio of officials (Art DeConsillis, Ricardo Vila-Roger and John Dolphin) scramble for a solution to the large-scale demonstrations taking place in the capital streets against their authoritarian regime,           The president has fled the country, and the crisis seems to be growing larger with every passing hour. “What do we do?” they ask one another in desperation.           They decide to enlist the help of the countr...
Post a Comment
Read more

Art of Wise – Antebellum Horror in the Deep South

  Karla C. Payne, Justus Payne, Sheldon Ingram and Adjoa Opoku-Dakwa Credit All Photos:  Credit:  L. Martello/18ricco If you’d want to experience a good example of how those in power use fear as a tool of subjugation, you might want to reserve a ticket or two for the world premiere production of Art of the Wise . The play, the fifth in playwright Mark Clayton Southers’ series of ten works, each set in a different decade of the 19 th century, centers on two families living on a cotton plantation in 1822 Deep South Alabama. Jenny Malarkey, Joseph McGranaghan* and Maddie Kocur The slave owning Wise family is shown in marked contrast to their enslaved cotton field workers, who, as was the custom, took the surname of their master. In the past I’ve said that playwright Southers is one heck of a story teller, and his latest opus follows suit by having a strong narrative that’s both intricately written, intensely entertaining and emotionally rousing. The drama wastes n...
Post a Comment
Read more