"Jersey Boys" and the Three Rivers Arts Festival

We took in the first show of the Pittsburgh CLO season this year, which, if you zoom in on the picture of the marquee above, you can see if "Jersey Boys", the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.   The show was terrific, great performances by the cast, wonderfully staged, and, of course, all that great music of the Four Seasons.  Just a great theatrical experience.  

Seeing it on Saturday brought to mind two memories.  One was seeing the play back in 2009 on one of Marilyn's and my trips to Las Vegas.  There's a great story there about how we ended up with tickets in the second row that night, but too long to go into here.  The other memory was seeing Frankie Valli perform live at Heinz Hall, back in either 2008 or 2009.  A client of mine had asked if I could get tickets through Highmark for he and his wife, who REALLY wanted to see Valli perform, so off we went with low to medium expectations.  Valli was 75 years old at the time, so how good could he be?  Well, he was terrific, and it was and remains one of the better evenings of professional show biz entertainment that we had ever experienced.  I believe that Frankie Valli is still performing, even thought he now is in his late eighties.

A Three Star rating from The Grandstander for the CLO's "Jersey Boys".

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While in town for the matinee performance, we strolled through that long time staple of the Pittsburgh summer scene, The Three Rivers Arts Festival.  Something now this year:  the Festival has abandoned its forever location at Gateway Center and Point State Park and has taken residence within the "Cultural District."  What they have done is block off Penn Avenue between Seventh and Ninth Streets and set up all of the booths and other exhibits, including the big stage, within those two blocks.  I'm sure that there is a story of political football behind such a move, but how was it anyway, you may ask?

First off, it seemed smaller.  There just could have been as many exhibitors there than in years past.  Also, the TRAF has been reduced to one week over two weekends, as opposed to two weeks over three weekends.  Whether all of this is good or bad for the Arts Festival, its vendors, and the economic impact it has on the City is to be determined, I suppose, but I must say that we liked the new set up.  It seemed that the foot traffic flowed more easily and you never felt as claustrophobic while walking through the place as you did in Gateway Center.