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Pittsburgh CLO had an opportunity to FIRST DATE’s set and production style at
sit down with writers Michael Weiner, Pittsburgh CLO is much more “immersive” than
the original, which was staged in a traditional
Alan Zachary & Austin Winsberg
proscenium theater. Why this change, and
and chat about FIRST DATE ’s journey what do you hope will be the impact on the
audience?
from Broadway to the ‘Burgh. MICHAEL: We always thought it would be fun to
What was the inspiration for FIRST DATE? have the show performed in a bar or restaurant and
make the audience truly feel like they’re in the room
AUSTIN: I’d say the inspiration was two-fold.
Number one – our genuine desire to write a musical where the date is happening.
together. We knew we wanted to do something real, AUSTIN: Since the action will be happening all
relatable, contemporary and comedic. And number around them, the audience will, hopefully, not feel
two – we all had a plethora of bad dating stories like passive observers but rather active participants
and igured there must be some way to use our in the date. Which means everyone can feel
personal pain for other people’s enjoyment. awkward and uncomfortable all at the same time!
How did the three of you come together as a What has your experience been working with
writing team? the artists and staff to bring this new version
to the stage?
ALAN: I met Michael in high school where we
performed in school musicals together. In the wake ALAN: Pittsburgh CLO has a great team of people
of all the Disney animated musical features like and the experience has been incredibly positive.
“Beauty and The Beast” and “The Lion King,” we From the top down, everyone has had great creative
decided to adapt a fairy tale and write a screenplay input, and they’ve provided us the tools necessary
and six songs for an animated feature. We were to workshop new material prior to the production.
17 years old and naïve enough to think that if They, very smartly, held a reading of the show a few
we submitted our project to Hollywood studios months back so we could hear all the new revisions
someone would buy it the next day and we’d be set! out loud, which gave us the opportunity to revise
Things took a little longer, but it did lead to us selling even further.
our irst song (when we were 18) to Hanna Barbera
for a “Flintstones” Christmas special. What excites you most about this new version
and its development at Pittsburgh CLO?
MICHAEL: Austin became a close friend post-
college and the three of us were always hanging AUSTIN: It’s going to be fun to see the show with
out, having lunch together while we were working a cast of ive as opposed to the seven we had on
on various projects. And one day we just decided Broadway. There are Aaron and Casey – the two
that it would be fun to write something together. people on the date – but the other actors play a
multitude of people from their lives… exes, family,
FIRST DATE had a Broadway run in 2013. Why friends, inner demons, therapists, etc. It will give the
rework the show for this new production? busy ensemble even more to do, and that seems
MICHAEL: We learned so much from the Broadway like a lot of fun for them and for the audience.
production of the show. Things that worked… things What are your hopes for this new version of
that didn’t. And now we have the chance to ix FIRST DATE?
all the things we either didn’t discover or ran out
of time to revise during the hectic and fast-paced MICHAEL: We hope that the audience in Pittsburgh
preview period on Broadway. have as much fun watching the show as we’ve had
writing and rewriting it! And we hope this ive-person
ALAN: Every time we as authors watch the show version becomes a model for theaters that want to
in front of an audience we see something new. We do the show at that scale instead of the slightly
also wanted to use the opportunity of working with larger version, which we equally love creatively.
a high-level theater like Pittsburgh CLO to inally
examine the last few moments we never felt we got
quite right.
Pittsburgh CLO had an opportunity to FIRST DATE’s set and production style at
sit down with writers Michael Weiner, Pittsburgh CLO is much more “immersive” than
the original, which was staged in a traditional
Alan Zachary & Austin Winsberg
proscenium theater. Why this change, and
and chat about FIRST DATE ’s journey what do you hope will be the impact on the
audience?
from Broadway to the ‘Burgh. MICHAEL: We always thought it would be fun to
What was the inspiration for FIRST DATE? have the show performed in a bar or restaurant and
make the audience truly feel like they’re in the room
AUSTIN: I’d say the inspiration was two-fold.
Number one – our genuine desire to write a musical where the date is happening.
together. We knew we wanted to do something real, AUSTIN: Since the action will be happening all
relatable, contemporary and comedic. And number around them, the audience will, hopefully, not feel
two – we all had a plethora of bad dating stories like passive observers but rather active participants
and igured there must be some way to use our in the date. Which means everyone can feel
personal pain for other people’s enjoyment. awkward and uncomfortable all at the same time!
How did the three of you come together as a What has your experience been working with
writing team? the artists and staff to bring this new version
to the stage?
ALAN: I met Michael in high school where we
performed in school musicals together. In the wake ALAN: Pittsburgh CLO has a great team of people
of all the Disney animated musical features like and the experience has been incredibly positive.
“Beauty and The Beast” and “The Lion King,” we From the top down, everyone has had great creative
decided to adapt a fairy tale and write a screenplay input, and they’ve provided us the tools necessary
and six songs for an animated feature. We were to workshop new material prior to the production.
17 years old and naïve enough to think that if They, very smartly, held a reading of the show a few
we submitted our project to Hollywood studios months back so we could hear all the new revisions
someone would buy it the next day and we’d be set! out loud, which gave us the opportunity to revise
Things took a little longer, but it did lead to us selling even further.
our irst song (when we were 18) to Hanna Barbera
for a “Flintstones” Christmas special. What excites you most about this new version
and its development at Pittsburgh CLO?
MICHAEL: Austin became a close friend post-
college and the three of us were always hanging AUSTIN: It’s going to be fun to see the show with
out, having lunch together while we were working a cast of ive as opposed to the seven we had on
on various projects. And one day we just decided Broadway. There are Aaron and Casey – the two
that it would be fun to write something together. people on the date – but the other actors play a
multitude of people from their lives… exes, family,
FIRST DATE had a Broadway run in 2013. Why friends, inner demons, therapists, etc. It will give the
rework the show for this new production? busy ensemble even more to do, and that seems
MICHAEL: We learned so much from the Broadway like a lot of fun for them and for the audience.
production of the show. Things that worked… things What are your hopes for this new version of
that didn’t. And now we have the chance to ix FIRST DATE?
all the things we either didn’t discover or ran out
of time to revise during the hectic and fast-paced MICHAEL: We hope that the audience in Pittsburgh
preview period on Broadway. have as much fun watching the show as we’ve had
writing and rewriting it! And we hope this ive-person
ALAN: Every time we as authors watch the show version becomes a model for theaters that want to
in front of an audience we see something new. We do the show at that scale instead of the slightly
also wanted to use the opportunity of working with larger version, which we equally love creatively.
a high-level theater like Pittsburgh CLO to inally
examine the last few moments we never felt we got
quite right.
