What Renovated Cultural District Space Will Bring New Entertainment to Downtown?

The fully updated Greer Cabaret Theater formally re-opened Friday night with the Pittsburgh CLO’s production of “tick, tick … BOOM!”

Starting Friday night, visitors to Pittsburgh’s Cultural District will have a chic new destination for dining, drinks and entertainment — all under one roof (Even the parking).

The fully renovated Greer Cabaret Theater, which for two decades has offered musicals, cabaret-style musical performances and more, will celebrate its grand reopening Friday. Guests who buy tickets for the re-opened space’s debut production, Pittsburgh CLO’s “tick, tick … BOOM!,” will find a stylish, inviting new theater and bar — both so thoroughly changed as to feel brand new.

In a media event Tuesday morning, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust President and CEO Kendra Whitlock Ingram praised both the glamour and the amenities of the new Greer, which was designed in a collaboration between Pittsburgh-based Moss Architects and the DLR Group. “This is truly an outstanding, elevated, state-of-the-art audience experience — that is still welcoming and inclusive,” she said.

Guests who park in the Cultural District garage can go from their cars to the Lounge at the Greer Cabaret to the theater without setting foot outside, as the new spaces are more naturally integrated into the existing Theater Square complex.

New menus and new drinks will be on offer, both in the Lounge — which is open to anyone, not just ticketholders — and inside the theater, where food and drink can be ordered and paid for via on-table QR codes for less obtrusive service.

Inside the theater, a variety of seating options have replaced the fully modular seating of the theater’s previous incarnation. Booths and banquettes line the walls; rail seating brings guests face-to-face with performers. Seating in the rear theater has also been improved (and for the first time is ADA-accessible).

The CLO, which also presented the inaugural production at the theater’s first opening, will present “tick, tick … BOOM!” through Oct. 22. A Seussian holiday show (for grown-ups), “Who’s Holiday!,” will run in the Greer from Dec. 1-31, starring Pittsburgh-born favorite lara Hayhurst as Cindy Lou Who.

In addition to shows from the Pittsburgh CLO and other third-party organizations, the Trust will present its own Trust Cabaret series in the Greer on select Monday nights. Upcoming shows include Emmy winner and Broadway veteran Mauricio Martínez on Oct. 2 and singer, comedian and performance artist Meow Meow on Nov. 6.