Paige Schmella and Caroline O’Neil lead a 23-member company in the world premiere of Girls Just Want To Have Fun, a new stage musical drawn from the 1985 film, which runs November 11–22 at the Pittsburgh Playhouse’s PNC Theatre.
The Pittsburgh Playhouse, Lively McCabe Entertainment and Primary Wave Music confirmed the full company on October 26. The engagement is a two-week run in the PNC Theatre, one of three stages in the Playhouse building that Point Park University operates in Downtown Pittsburgh.
Schmella plays Janey Glenn, and O’Neil plays Lynne, the friend who talks her into chasing her dream. Alejandro Tinnell is Jeff Malene and Bee Walker is Natalie Sands. The other principal roles go to Autumn Papczynski (Mother Superior), Bianca Dixon (Sister Eileen), Marshall Benton (Colonel Glenn), Devin Claudio (Drew), Isabella Corea (Mrs. Glenn and Mrs. Dobson), Evan Williams (Mr. Malene), Cadee Velasquez (Rikki), Sam Welborn (the DTV Assistant and J.P. Sands) and Jaqueline Trinh-Juarez (Maggie Malene). The ensemble includes Eric Acosta, Joel Balinao, Casey Rose Colcombe, Kaylee Deenihan, Melissa Garlock, Anthony Raymond, Amber Gibson and Lucas Lee.
The book is by M Dickson, a writer on How I Met Your Father, and the actor, singer and songwriter Lauren Marcus, working from the screenplay by Amy Spies. Janey is a gifted dancer and the buttoned-up daughter of a strict colonel, and she only lets herself go when nobody is watching. Another change of school brings her a fearless new best friend in Lynne, a shared devotion to the program Dance TV, and an audition for it that her father must never hear about. On screen the two girls were played by Sarah Jessica Parker and Helen Hunt.
The score is drawn from 1980s hits made famous by artists including Whitney Houston, Huey Lewis and the News, Olivia Newton-John and Culture Club, arranged and orchestrated by the Broadway composer and music director Georgia Stitt. Two songs from the film, Dancing In Heaven and I Can Fly, are part of it too.
Jennifer Werner, whose credits include The Book of Mormon and the national tour of Mystic Pizza, directs and choreographs. The design team is Christian Fleming (sets), Michael Montgomery (costumes), Dalton Hamilton (lighting) and Zach Moore (sound). Camille Villalpando Rolla is music director and conductor, Leonard Sullivan and Saki Kawamura are associate directors, and Kristyn Pope is associate choreographer. Olivia Mohnkern is production stage manager, and Kobi Kassal is line producer for Lively McCabe.
The production puts students from Point Park’s Conservatory of Performing Arts in the room with Broadway and industry professionals, so they see a new musical built from the first day. After Pittsburgh, the producers expect further productions, and the show is due to join Lively McCabe’s ‘Hits’ Musicals Collection, licensed exclusively through Music Theatre International.
Girls Just Want To Have Fun runs November 11–22, 2026 at the PNC Theatre, Pittsburgh Playhouse, Point Park University. Tickets are on sale now from the Pittsburgh Playhouse.
