Welcome to One Show to See This Week, a weekly newsletter where I recommend the one play or musical you should see in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area in the next seven days, because I believe live theater should be part of your routine. My inbox is always open, as are my DMs. Glad you’re here!
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One Show to See This Week
Grumpy Old Men: The Musical
The Conn Theater, Plymouth Congregational Church, 1900 Nicollet Ave., Minneapolis, MN 55403
April 4th – 19th
It’s a good thing the newsletter is coming late this week, because the first performance of Grumpy Old Men was canceled. On the flip side, that means the opening weekend of this Twin Cities premiere from Minneapolis Musical Theatre will only include one show — Saturday night, no matinee this Sunday — so I say get out there and help start this run with a full house. Winter’s sticking around, and this seems like the perfect romp to help endure a few more flakes.
I’m not intimately familiar with the musical, which has a book by Dan Remmes, music by Neil Berg and lyrics by Nick Meglin, but if you’re a Minnesotan like me, you’ve probably at least heard of the 1993 movie set in Wabasha that it’s based on. The story follows two neighbors, divorcee John (played by Jack Lemmon in the film, but Jim Ahrens in this MMT production) and widower Max (Walter Matthau in the movie, Ward Eames here), who have been feuding neighbors for years, with their animosity stemming from their high school days. Things heat up when a widowed woman moves in across the street. You can see where this goes…maybe.
The main reason to go is because every show that Minneapolis Musical Theatre does is worth seeing and supporting. If you’ve got a list of obscure musicals you’d love to see in person, that’s MMT’s entire mission: “providing community access to high quality yet affordable works of musical theatre never before — or very rarely — seen by Twin Cities audiences.”
For me, that’s meant seeing them stage an unforgettable production of Be More Chill (which they miraculously pulled off while the Broadway production was running), Daddy Long Legs at the James J. Hill House, and Night of the Living Dead! The Musical!
Even if Grumpy Old Men isn’t on your personal list of unsung musicals you’re dying to see, I have a feeling it will surprise you, considering the track record of MMT. And who knows, maybe your money will go to fund one of the shows on your musical theater bucket list.
Speaking of Obscure Musicals…
I saw one back at the beginning of March. It’s called Alice’s Wonderland, based on the Lewis Carroll classic and written and composed by two young theatermakers in the Twin Cities: Jack Moorman (book, lyrics) and Lucas Ellingson (music). The musical was performed at a one-night-only concert reading at Park Square Theatre, so while you can’t get a ticket, you can do the next best thing: listen to the concept album. I wrote some thoughts about the wild and tender show, my five favorite songs from it (seriously, go listen!), and why you should keep an eye on Moorman and Ellingson.
See you here next week!
Alex
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