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Patti ConleyTIMES STAFF

PITTSBURGH — Bob Lohrman cut tothe quick when he talked aboutthe Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera’snew cabaret show “Shear Mad-ness.”

After all, in 19 years he’s direct-ed 16 productions of the interac-tive whodunit comedy so fashion-ing the show’s premiere for a Pitts-burgh-area audience is like trim-ming a longtime customer’s hair. Asnip there, highlights here, andvoila, soon “Shear Madness” hasits own Pittsburgh “do.”

Each city’s show is somewhatdifferent, yet basically the same,he said. Sort of like hair. It comesin all sorts of colors, textures andlengths, but it’s still hair.

The show is permanently set ina beauty salon called “Shear Mad-ness,” a hub for glamour and gos-sip among the staff and regulars.In Pittsburgh, the fictional ShearMadness is at 1818 East Carson St.on the city’s South Side.

In each locale, the landlady wholives upstairs, is murdered, with— you guessed it — a pair of hairdresser’s shears. Here, the lady’sname is Isabelle Frick Turney, aworld famous piano player turnedrecluse.

And in each production it’salways up the audience to straight-en up the matted murder mess.

Since audiences — like hair-styles — change, the outcome isdifferent from show to show,Lohrman said in a recent phoneinterview.

The audience has its say. “They vote. They question the

subjects. They look at the evi-dence,” Lohrman said. “They getto follow the threads of wherevertheir suspicions go.”

That poses a task for the actors.“The actors have to know exact-

ly what they did and said andwhen they said what. And theyhave to know what the truth is andwhat secrets they are keeping,which changes every night,” thedirector said.

The actors are prepared withbasic scenarios and their lines arespritzed with all sorts of Pitts-burgh references and the talk ofthe town these days.

At the start of rehearsal,

That’s about right, but there’s more. Film-maker George Lucas created a complicatedflawed fictional hero in Indiana Jones, and thethree movies that he dominates are studdedwith clues to his identity.

More biographical details are embedded in“The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles,” Lucas’TV series now available on DVD, and in a bot-tomless trove of Jonesiana.

The fourth movie, “Indiana Jones and theKingdom of the Crystal Skull,” which opensMay 22, will doubtless bring more clues, but

here’s theJones boy’sdossier thus far:

Henry “Indiana”Jones Jr. was born on thecusp of the new century —July 1, 1899, in Princeton,N.J., according to his enter-prising biographer, JamesLuceno. Luceno ought to know: Heransacked the world of Indiana Jonesnovelizations, comics, game books andother materials for his book, “IndianaJones: The Ultimate Guide.”

As a child, Indiana traveled around theworld with his father, Henry Jones, andmother, Anna, on a lecture tour. As a youth,he survived the trenches of World War I toreturn to the United States to study archeolo-gy at the University of Chicago, disappointinghis father so much that they didn’t speak fordecades.

SECTION DSUNDAY MAY 18, 2008

C M Y K

C M Y K

C M Y K

Wow, talk about undergroundmusic.

The JamBaloosa festival inWampum has added a third stagethat’s 150 feet below the surfacewithin the limestone-lined walls ofa former mushroom mine.

Fans will congregate in thatcave on June 27 to 29 to witnesstechno and bluegrass acts, while abevy of jam bands performs aboveground on two stages inside theMines & Meadows ATV park offRoute 18.

“People have never experi-

enced anything like this,” said JayRogovin, the western New York-based production manager forJamBaloosa. “There have beenraves in caves, but we’re puttingon live bands.”

Confirmed for the undergroundstage is EOTO, a drumming duocomposed of Jason Hahn andMichael Travis from the nationallyknown jam band String CheeseIncident.

The cave stage also will wel-come Johnny Rabb, who the Guin-ness Book of World Records has

recognized as the planet’s fastestdrummer.

The above-ground stages willfeature acts like Burning RiverBand, Papadosio, Jones forRevival and Lotus Grove — fromthe Ohio cities of Columbus,Athens, Youngstown and Kent,respectively — along with acts likethe Slow Learners from Marylandand Digital Frontier from Ver-mont.

THE MAN,THE HERO

He has braved en ter ta inment even t s in andaround Beaver Coun ty for 11 years bu t canSCOTT TADY f ind the h idden t reasure andsave us a l l be fore t ime runs ou t? Ind ianaJones has no th ing on our hometown hero .

THEATER WHAT’S ON NOW

Who is Indy?

Tish Wells, McClatchy Newspapers

A s the Army intelligence offi-cer in the movie “Raiders ofthe Lost Ark” describes

him: “Professor of archeology,expert on the occult, and, uh, howdoes one say it? Obtainer of rareantiquities.”

Subterranean hometown jam

Scott TadyTIMES ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

PITTSBURGH — Imagine a bandof gypsies with indie-rock atti-tude and European folk instru-ments, fronted by a Roy Orbi-son-ish singer crooning songsworthy of an authentic Mexicanrestaurant.

There, you’ve just imaginedDeVotchKa. Or something simi-lar to DeVotchKa, the genre-jumbling Denver band thatentertains Wednesday at Dieselon Pittsburgh’s South Side.

Best known for the evocativesoundtrack work on the Oscar-nominated “Little Miss Sun-shine,” DeVotchKa is windingup a world tour supporting itscritically celebrated fourthalbum, “A Mad and FaithfulTelling.”

While in Europe, JeanieSchroder, the band’s tuba,sousaphone and upright-bassplayer, granted an e-mail inter-view that touched on late-nightsandwiches and the big moneythe band rejected from a fast-food giant.

Q: Your songs are so roman-tic, intense and at times haunt-ing. Could you write a silly bub-blegum pop song if you tried?

A: Probably. We could for fun.Q: There’s such a wide

range of styles and instrumen-tation in your music. At the ear-liest point in your songwritingprocess, what instrument doyou use or hear in your head?

A: A lot of stuff gets started onkeyboard or guitar and thenlater on is switched to anotherinstrument.

Q: On May 21 you play Pitts-burgh, a city that holds a strongattachment to its Eastern Euro-pean heritage, which is one ofyour main musical influences.What are your most prominentmemories of Pittsburgh?

A: One of the times we playedthere was at Mr. Small’s The-atre, and we all remember thesmall brick streets and sort of

WHAT’S UPEvent: DeVotchKa in concert.Time: 7 p.m. May 21.Place: Diesel, South Side.Tickets: $17.50 and $19.50.Information: www.dieselpgh.com

Madmix upDeVotchKa to offerits variety at Diesel

WHAT’S UP● Event: “Shear Madness”●● Where: Pittsburgh Civic LightOpera Cabaret, downtown Pittsburgh.●● When: Now through Sept. 28.● Performances: 7:30 p.m.Wednesday through Saturdays; mati-nees at 2 Saturdays and Sundays;matinees at 1 on select Thursdays.● Tickets: evenings, $39.50; mati-nees, $34.50. ● Information: (412) 456-6666 orwww.CLOcabaret.com

Cabaret stage show is ‘Shear Madness’ for audience, actors

“There have been raves in caves,but we’re putting on live bands.”

Jay Rogovin, the western New York-based production manager for JamBaloosa

SCOTT SUCHMAN

SHOWN is a scene from Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera’s “Shear Mad-ness.”

DON’T BE RUDE: PUT YOUR CELL PHONE AWAYConcerts are being ruined by technology. D8

See INDY, Page D3

See TADY, Page D2

See DEVOTCHKA, Page D8

See MADNESS, Page D8

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