For its summer 2009 Benedum Center season, Pittsburgh CLO turns the corner into a new era, supplanting the traditional, classic musicals that have been its mainstay with shows of more recent vintage and mode.

The schedule includes two of the modern pop operas that took over Broadway for two decades: the CLO's first-ever production of "Les Miserables" and Andrew Lloyd Webber's frequently seen "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat."

Two newer shows that hark back to earlier musical styles are "Swing!," a revue of familiar big band numbers of the '30s and '40s, and "Barry Manilow's Copacabana," a musical version of the story in the song, which the CLO itself launched in 2000.

Beside these, "Legally Blonde," the recent adaptation of the popular movie that is arriving as part of its first national tour, seems positively traditional. And in this context, "Into the Woods," Stephen Sondheim's witty, revisionist adaptation of fairy tales, is the only one to represent the dominant Broadway musical comedy tradition.

CLO chief Van Kaplan explains that the shape of the upcoming season isn't entirely a matter of choice. More and more, rights to the famous old musicals, or even those less famous, are tied up for years because some producer contemplates a Broadway revival or a national tour. He says this year was especially difficult.

But he is very excited for the CLO to be producing its own "Les Miserables" as part of its subscription season for the first time. (CLO has previously presented the tour as a non-subscription extra.) Since a new national tour is about to begin, few regional companies have gotten the rights, and usually only in small cities the tour wouldn't visit. But producer Cameron Mackintosh personally gave his permission -- it can't hurt that the CLO shop built the set for the new tour and Mackintosh once received the CLO's Richard Rodgers Award.

Kaplan likens "Swing!" to last year's successful "Smokey Joe's Cafe": "We are finding an audience for these non-book musicals," he says, calling them "just light entertainment. One in a season is a nice diversion."

As to "Copacabana," it's back on the schedule because it has consistently come up in the top five of the CLO's annual patrons poll.