Welcome to One Show to See This Week. Every week I send out a newsletter with the one play or musical I think you should buy a ticket for in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area in the next seven days, along with tips for discounts and things to do in the area, because I think theater should be part of your weekly routine. My inbox is always open, as are my DMs. Glad you’re here!
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One Show to See This Week
Merrily We Roll Along
Morris Park Players
Gremlin Theatre, 550 Vandalia St., Suite 177, St. Paul, MN 55114
December 5th – 21st
Merrily We Roll Along is one of those musicals I would buy a ticket to no matter the circumstances. It’s a high school staging a production without live musicians? Fine by me. It’s a brand new company with actors I’ve never seen before? I’m down. It’s a community theater pulling out all the stops for a run in St. Paul? I hope you’re as game for that last situation as me, because that’s the case with my show of the week.
Morris Park Players, a community theater whose roots go back to 1952, is no stranger to ambitious work, having staged both Ragtime and Falsettos in the last three years. Now, they’re tackling Merrily We Roll Along, a 1981 musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by George Furth that is infamous for closing on Broadway after just 44 previews and 16 regular performances and severing the partnership between Sondheim and director Hal Prince. (The documentary Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened, about the original production, is essential viewing. Make sure you have tissues nearby.)
It seems that every Twin Cities stage is festooned with tinsel right now, so if you’re looking for something beyond the festive snowglobe, this is for you. However, I also think Merrily might just be the perfect musical to end the year: it follows friends Franklin, Charley, and Mary from their disillusioned forties back in time to their bright-eyed twenties. In that sense, it calls to mind Scrooge: hard-hearted at the beginning, optimistic and full of possibility at the end. What better way to say goodbye to 2025 and welcome in 2026?
Oh, and if the phrase “community theater” scares you a bit, check out their sitzprobe. I’m counting 13 musicians in their orchestra from where I’m scrolling. Meanwhile, Theater Latté Da only had a five-piece band when they staged Merrily in 2022. It’s not a competition, just another reason to buy a ticket to this show.
What to Do Before or After
For those who’ve never been, the Gremlin Theatre is in a warehouse district off I-94 between Highway 280 and Snelling. It’s right next to Lake Monster Brewing Co., King Coil Spirits, and OG Zaza (the latter is a pizza spot in King Coil, but you can order it from Lake Monster too). So you’ve got options for grabbing a bite or a drink before or after the show without having to travel far.
How Much Are Tickets? Any Discounts?
Tickets are general admission: $30 for adults, $25 for seniors (55+), and $25 for students. Also important to note that performances are only on Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. through the run.
Merrily…the Movie?
I’m not sure if the folks at Morris Park did this on purpose, but there’s a Merrily We Roll Along movie hitting theaters the same weekend they’re opening the show. No, it’s not the Richard Linklater one that’s being filmed over 20 years. I’m talking about the recent Tony-winning Broadway production starring Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff, and Lindsay Mendez which was professionally shot and is now coming to theaters starting Thursday night. You should get a ticket to that, too.
Question of the Week
Is there a community theater or school in your neck of the woods that puts on theater worth writing home about writing a newsletter about? Drop them in the comments! I’d love to hear about others I may have missed.
See you here next week!
Alex
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