Holiday classic coming to downtown Pittsburgh later this year
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A twist on a holiday classic is set to premiere in downtown Pittsburgh later this year.
"Sugar Hill: The Ellington/Strayhorn Nutcracker" will grace the stage in October with toe-tapping jazz music.
This time around, Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington are taking the A train from New York City to Pittsburgh, back to Strayhorn's roots and bringing something different for the holidays.
"I heard it as a kid when it came out in 1960 because Billy came to be with us for Christmas and he brought this album. We said, 'Hey, this is pretty cool.' So all these years later now, it's amazing that is has remained important and now it's going to the next step to be part of a large production," Billy Strayhorn Inc. President Alyce Claerbaut said.
Claerbaut, Strayhorn's niece, said his hometown will now have the chance to hear his decades-old classics in a new way with the debut of "Sugar Hill: The Ellington/Strayhorn Nutcracker" at the Benedum Center.
"The Benedum Center is a symbol of the high cultural taste of Pittsburgh and the priority and culture that Pittsburgh made and how well they do it," Claerbaut said. "I'm so excited about this center and its capacity to be able to have this fabulous production."
The Benedum Center is the site of the old Stanley Theater, where Ellington and Strayhorn became friends. It will also be the site where theater-goers will be transported by the music and magic of Harlem's Sugar Hill.
"The name is Sugar Hill, and it talks about a very historic place for Black culture," Claerbaut said. "That gives it a lot of significance. And it talks about people rediscovering themselves and just some of the realities in terms of how we evaluate our lives."
The production hopes to bring about a message of diversity, hope and individuality. But one more thing, too.
"I hope they will sit and enjoy it," Claerbaut said. "And do the toe-tapping and enjoy the beat."
