Darius de Haas Will Lead BILLY STRAYHORN: SOMETHING TO LIVE FOR at Pittsburgh Public Theater

 Pittsburgh Public Theater has announced the full cast and creative team of its upcoming world premiere musical Billy Strayhorn: Something to Live For, starring Broadway and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" regular Darius de Haas as legendary jazz composer Billy Strayhorn, along with J.D. Mollison of Broadway’s Les Miserables as the incomparable Duke Ellington.

Single tickets are on sale now at PPT.org/STRAYHORN or by calling the Box Office at 412.316.1600.

Billy Strayhorn: Something to Live For kicks off Pittsburgh Public Theater’s 2023/2024 season on September 19 at the O’Reilly Theater in Pittsburgh and will run through October 8. This new jazz musical, written by Rob Zellers (The Chief) with Kent Gash (Paradise Blue, City Theatre) and directed by Gash, features music and lyrics by Billy Strayhorn and a nine-piece jazz band led by Yamaha-sponsored artist and jazz phenom Matthew Whitaker.

Billy Strayhorn was one of the greatest composers, lyricists and arrangers in the history of jazz. His body of work includes standards such as Take the ‘A’ Train, Something to Live For, Day Dream and Lush Life. His body of work spanned Broadway, Film Music, every International Jazz Festival and venues as varied as Carnegie Hall and Canada’s Stratford Theatre Festival. He grew up poor in Pittsburgh, graduated from high school in 1933, then moved to New York where he settled in Harlem and joined the Duke Ellington orchestra. His 30-year collaboration with Ellington was one of the most prolific and groundbreaking in the history of American music. Strayhorn was also deeply committed to social and charitable causes, a strong supporter of the civil rights movement, and a personal friend of Martin Luther King, Jr. His life was tragically cut short; he passed away in 1967 at the age of 51.

Kent Gash (Director, Co-author) is an award-winning director and the Artistic Director of The Acting Company where he directed Kirsten Childs' new adaptation of The Three Musketeers, now playing at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.  New York credits include Robert O’Hara’s Barbecue at The Public Theater, Lockdown for the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, and its virtual co-production with WP Theater, Langston in Harlem (director and co-author, 2010 Audelco Awards Best Musical), the Off-Broadway premiere of Miss Evers’ Boys and Ellington’s Beggar’s Holiday for the York.

Most recent regional productions include Tarell Alvin McCraney's Choir Boy at Steppenwolf (Three Jeff Awards), Dominique Morisseau’s Paradise Blue for Pittsburgh's City Theatre,Guys and Dolls at the Guthrie,The Wiz at Ford’s Theatre (Washington Post Ten Best, Broadway World Best Musical, Three Helen Hayes Awards) August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean at South Coast Rep (LA Times Ten Best), and Topdog/Underdog (Elliot Norton Award – Best Director).  

Mr. Gash is the former Associate Artistic Director of The Tony Award-winning Alliance Theatre (2001-2009) and The Alabama Shakespeare Festival (1999-2001). Mr. Gash is the founding Director of The New Studio on Broadway at Tisch School of the Arts, NYU. Mr. Gash is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon School of Drama (BFA in Acting) and UCLA (MFA in Directing).

"The Black community of Pittsburgh (the Hill, Smoketown...) has nurtured some of our country's greatest musicians, entertainers and artists. From August Wilson to Lena Horne, Phyllis Hyman, Billy Eckstine and Billy Porter. Billy Strayhorn: Something To Live For dramatizes the story of one of the greatest musical innovators and singular stylists of the last century, the one and only Billy Strayhorn,” Kent Gash said. “Billy Strayhorn's body of work, particularly with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, became the International Gold Standard of America's greatest cultural contribution – jazz.  Forged in the Steel City and flourishing in the Harlem Renaissance, Billy Strayhorn's life is a surprising, timeless, and heroic behind-the-scenes saga of Black and Queer excellence that burns as brilliantly and as briefly as a comet. This is an inspiring story that belongs to everyone, and it's an honor to bring the Billy Strayhorn wit, humor, soul and swinging genius back home to the Pittsburgh community where it belongs! TAKE THE "A" TRAIN, NOW!"

Rob Zellers, a favorite of Pittsburgh audiences for The Chief and Harry’s Friendly Service, has developed plays at Pittsburgh Public Theater, Urban Stages, Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, The Lark, PlayPenn, New Harmony Project, Youngstown Playhouse, and Carnegie Mellon, Wake Forest and Youngstown State Universities. Zellers said Pittsburgh is a perfect city for the premiere of this new musical since it is where Strayhorn first discovered his love of music. 

“This is a Pittsburgh origins story that not many people are aware of,” Zellers said. “Strayhorn’s life began in the Homewood neighborhood of Pittsburgh. His gift for composing, arranging and performing jazz took him from Westinghouse High School to New York City at the pinnacle of American jazz music. Despite his decades-long partnership with Duke Ellington where he wrote music and lyrics for some of the band's best known work, he never received the recognition he rightly deserved.”

Whitaker, an internationally recognized 22-year-old jazz pianist and composer, began teaching himself how to play at 9 years old. He was named an official Yamaha Artist at 15 years old. His compositions and performances have won awards, including two ASCAP Foundation Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composers Awards. He has been profiled on 60 Minutes, and his journey to become a working film composer and musical director was captured in the NY Emmy-nominated 2022 documentary film Matthew Whitaker: About Tomorrow, directed and produced by Steven Tabakin.  

Billy Strayhorn: Something to Live For brings to life the remarkable true story of one of the greatest composers of all time. From his impoverished beginnings in Pittsburgh to his lifelong collaboration with Duke Ellington, this world-premiere new musical follows the highs and lows of Billy Strayhorn's career, the joys and heartbreak of his personal life, and the challenges he faced living as an openly gay Black man in mid-20th century America at the dawn of the civil rights movement. Through his collaborations with Lena Horne, Billie Holiday, and the greatest jazz orchestra of all time, Billy Strayhorn transcended racial and sexual barriers and brought a unique fusion of jazz and classical music to the world with all-time favorites including “Take the ‘A’ Train” and the immortal “Lush Life.”

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