The musical version of Tuck Everlasting is coming up on a major milestone: April 26, 2026 marks 10 years since it opened on Broadway. If this is the first time you’re hearing about the show, that’s no surprise; the theatrical take on Natalie Babbitt’s beloved children’s story — which marks 50 years since it was published this year — only played 67 performances in New York, including previews. In other words, it was a major flop.
One of my biggest theater regrets is that I didn’t catch it during its two-month run, when I was living in New York. But I was broke at the time and unable to shell out for even discounted Broadway tickets, and I also wasn’t as big of a fan of Tuck Everlasting as I am now. How could I have been? The cast album wasn’t released until a few days after it closed, so I didn’t have the chance to dig into Nathan Tysen’s inviting lyrics and Chris Miller’s mesmerizing music until afterwards. Since then, I’ve also happened upon a recording of the stage production too. You could now call me a Tuck disciple.
Yet, I had never actually attended a performance of Tuck Everlasting until this past weekend when I drove down to Lakeville to see a high school production put on by Twin Cities Homeschoolers for the Arts, a Christian-centered nonprofit that provides performing arts opportunities to home-schooled kids. What I saw there, at the historic All Saints Catholic Church which was converted into the Lakeville Area Arts Center at the turn of the century (stained-glass windows thankfully remain), proved an idea that I’ve contemplated for a long time: this musical is a hidden gem that deserves to be staged much more often, by schools, community theaters, and professional companies alike.
According to the website of Concord Theatricals, which handles licensing for many plays and musicals, there are only two productions of Tuck Everlasting currently slated for the next year within 100 miles of Minneapolis: this one from TCHA and one at Fridley High School in November. Concord Theatricals told me that since the show was released for licensing in August 2017, “there have been tens of productions and close to 100 performances” in MN specifically.
As a point of contrast, in the coming year there are six planned productions of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella (including youth and full-scale versions) and seven of the teen edition of Hadestown. But those are huge hits, you may say. Of course they are, but Tuck deserved to be, too. I believe it just got lost in the noise. For one, it opened during the same jam-packed Broadway season as Hamilton, Waitress, School of Rock, and Bright Star, among others. I also believe some (but not all) critics were just too jaded to connect with something this earnest.
Twin Cities Homeschoolers for the Arts, as you may surmise, is on the opposite end of the spectrum from Broadway. Their production includes a cast of kids aged 13 to 18; they sing along to recorded music rather than to live musicians; and the scene changes are conducted by kids in costume who roll trees and doors and fences on and off stage in plain view of the audience. This is shoestring high school theater through and through. And yet, this gung-ho company of home-educated Minnesota students and the adult educators supporting them, including director Jaylin Hustedde and music director Michelle Rose, still proved the might of this unsung musical.
Tuck Everlasting tells the story of Winnie Foster, a precocious child who’s kept on a tight leash by her family in the town of Treegap, New Hampshire in the year 1893 (in the original musical, Winnie is 11 years old; in this production, she’s 14). After running off to seek adventure, she ends up in the woods where she happens upon the Tucks, a family of four who harbor a secret: they are immortal, thanks to a magical spring they drank from some 100 years earlier. Will Winnie join them? Or more specifically, join the eternally 17-year-old Jesse Tuck who wants to spend an eternity together once she also turns 17? Or will the rest of the Tuck family convince her that living forever is a curse, not a blessing?
Even if you’ve read the book upon which it is based, there are new twists and turns added here by Miller, Tysen, and book writers Claudia Shear and Tim Federle. (The musical does not draw from the 2002 Disney movie.) Part of what makes this musical so successful is that these additions hew to the original intent of the book: it’s written for children, but it’s not childish, and thus it can be fully appreciated by adults too. And not in a we slipped in some adult jokes that kids don’t pick up on kind of way.
Tuck Everlasting wrestles with absorbing philosophical questions, not only about the concept of eternal life, but about how we view our own inevitable transitions from childhood to adulthood to old age. These are themes that will resonate with young people, but also have the chance to profoundly speak to adults, especially in an age of tech bros who want to live forever, corporations eschewing work-life balance, and AI “reanimating” the deceased. Case in point about the effect Tuck can have on older theatergoers: the mom next to me in Lakeville quietly wept during the penultimate scene.
I encourage you to seek out the cast album wherever you can, as the songs by Miller and Tysen combine a folksy charm with a generous helping of childhood wonder, strung together with unforgettable melodies (including one that emanates from the book’s famous music box) that are woven into and repeated throughout the score to stunning effect.
I’m not here to review this amateur Twin Cities Homeschoolers for the Arts production, but here are some highlights from these hard-working kids: Olivia Ybarra’s heartfelt rendition of “My Most Beautiful Day,” in which matriarch Mae Tuck recalls the day Angus Tuck (played by Owen Swanson, who does the patriarch proud) proposed to her, when they were both full of the fire of life; “Partner in Crime,” in which the ebullient Jessamyn Tiffany as Winnie and spry Soren Brovold as Jesse sneak out at night to a traveling fair, and dream of seeing the world together; and “Time,” which begins with Josiah Hunt as Miles Tuck, the older brother, explaining the scars he holds from eternal life, and expands into the poignant “Time Reprise” (or “Time Quartet” on the album) which brings in Mae, Angus, and Jesse. In the latter song pairing, as in “My Most Beautiful Day,” Miller and Tysen take a solid character solo and extend it into a whirlwind of deft storytelling that sucks you further into this enchanting folk tale.
Every musical that appeals to children needs a helping of humor, and TCHA proved this show’s strength in that regard, too. The nearly full auditorium during my performance cackled with laughter whenever Eli Opseth opened his mouth as Hugo, a young deputy helping solve Winnie’s disappearance; and they guffawed during his duet with his superior, Constable Joe (played with an outrageous fake mustache by Isaiah Stadler). There’s also the Man in the Yellow Suit, the eccentric villain, which is ripe for all sorts of oddball interpretations, and Asher Piper didn’t disappoint.
For other high schools interested in putting on this musical, Tuck Everlasting has some unique benefits: TCHA aged Winnie up from 11 to 14, potentially to make it believable for the actress playing her, and they stuffed the carnival scene in “Partner in Crime,” and a few other songs, with ensemble members to allow for a larger cast. For community theaters, the show is ideal as the ages required span children to teenagers to middle-aged adults to the elderly. And there are endless avenues for directors in professional theaters to put their stamp on this family-friendly (not a dirty word!) show, by leaning into menace or goofiness with the Main in the Yellow Suit, by reinterpreting the surprising ballet that ends Winnie’s story, by paring down the musicians to a folk band or ramping them up to capture the exceptional Broadway orchestrations by John Clancy, et cetera, et cetera.
That ballet I mentioned is the scene where the woman in the audience wept. And I must admit, it’s also where I welled up, even during this scrappy high school show with pre-recorded music. Such is the power of Tuck Everlasting, if you’re not too cynical to open yourself up to it.
Now, who else in the Twin Cities is going to do it next?
If you want to go…
Tuck Everlasting
Twin Cities Homeschoolers for the Arts
Lakeville Area Arts Center
20965 Holyoke Avenue
Lakeville, MN 55044
October 17 – 26
Read more at Twin Cities Homeschoolers for the Arts
*Tuesday, October 28th: This story was edited to add a note from Concord Theatricals about the number of productions in MN.
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