Nancy Zionts has worked for nearly two decades to build Front Porch Theatricals into one of the region’s premiere purveyors of musical theater — and Pittsburgh’s most adventurous company in terms of show selection. The company focuses not on oft-produced Broadway blockbusters, but rather on rediscovering thoughtful shows that may have faded from the popular consciousness. Zionts, one of three Front Porch producers along with Bruce Smith and her husband, the late Leon Zionts, believes that theater companies should be working for you — and, in return, you should deepen your relationship with them.

Find all Nancy Zionts’ tips on how to watch a musical in her own words below as you prepare for Front Porch’s presentation of Come From Away at the New Hazlett Theater from August 14-23.

Tips for Watching a Musical From Front Porch Theatricals’ Nancy Zionts

• Some people go to the same musical time and time again, and they compare. ‘I saw this five years ago; I like this [production] better or worse.’ Come fresh. Come with a new set of eyes for that day. If you’re trying to recreate an experience you had before, that almost invariably sets people up for disappointment.
• I’m always amazed when people say to me, ‘I didn’t realize it was a musical.’ We only produce musicals! You need to come with a little bit of information — but fresh eyes.
• A director and a music director should be able to give you something you can understand if you’re seeing it for the first time. I’ve seen audiences go too far … People who come and see Gilbert & Sullivan and bring the scripts with them. It’s a little much … You’re not present.
• You can be too prepared for what you’re expecting to see.
• Find out what time the shows start. All of our shows now begin at 7:30 in the evening and 2:00 in the afternoon … nothing worse than showing up at 7:59 for a 7:30 show.
• I cannot stand bad audience members. People who are on their phones; people who are videotaping. People who are rattling papers or sipping drinks all the way to the end. I can’t stand it. [That said], I am never without purse chocolate. I’ve been known to unwrap and enjoy a piece of purse chocolate during the second act of the show.
• [Broadway] producers who take a risk on putting new material out there are very brave. It’s a big risk, financially — reputation-wise, also. It’s hard to know what’s going to capture the imagination of audiences.
• The lane that we at Front Porch Theatricals have tried to be in [involves producing] lesser known, meaningful musicals. That in and of itself will frighten away some people who say, ‘I am looking for a night of entertainment.’ We want to give someone something to think about and talk about on the way home.
• What we’re swimming upstream to overcome is people’s preconceived biases … If you get them in the room [for a musical], they have an enjoyable evening, and that’s how you turn them.
• There are a whole lot of musicals out there that haven’t been around, for whatever reason, for a long time. It’s worth taking a look at them.
• Some people think that all musicals are the same — they’re all that ’50s and ’60s, dance-around-on-the-stage style. Some musicals are like that. Some have a lot of balance. We’ve done bluegrass musicals, we’ve done swing musicals.
• There are people who don’t like Shakespeare. There are people who don’t like musicals. There are people who don’t like immersive theater. That’s okay for them — as long as they don’t say, ‘People shouldn’t do those things.’
• This is maybe a dip in time that the [musical-theater] industry is taking. I think it will right-size itself — or right itself.
• Giving yourself over to other kinds of entertainment is just fine — and not everything has to be the best thing you’ve ever seen.
• You’re building a relationship with a theater company, and that’s nice. Sometimes it’s nice to try out a theater company for the first time, [too] … If you develop a relationship with theater companies … You’re giving them your patronage. They’re hoping you’ll trust them, as well.

As Told to Sean Collier
Photos by Deana Muro

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