Straw Hat Players summer season
Gooseberry Park Players follow Straw Hat with youth production
Minnesota State University Moorhead’s Straw Hat Players Summer Theatre opened its 54th season with Forbidden Broadway’s Greatest Hits. The show is a musical revue, but there’s a twist. In this production, some of Broadway’s most legendary hits (Annie, Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Les Miserables and others) are poked fun at, but with plenty of affection. The musical ran May 30 to June 2 on the Gaede Stage.
The season continues with a sequel to last year’s Church Basement Ladies. The sequel features high school students at the Luther League Banquet, a church-sponsored Missionary Night and the rise and fall of a Vikings Super Bowl Sunday. Just like the original show, Church Basement Ladies 2: A Second Helping, focuses on the church women who find strength in each other as they deal with the joys and upheavals of life. The musical runs June 6 to 9 in Hansen Theatre.
Third in the lineup is The Glass Menagerie. The drama runs June 13 to 16 on the Gaede Stage. Playwright Tennessee Williams tells the story of the Wingfield family: frustrated writer Tom; his nagging mother, Amanda, who is often lost in memories of her Southern–belle past; and his painfully shy sister Laura and her “gentleman caller.”
The season closes with the blockbuster hit Hello Dolly!, one of the most beloved musicals in the history of Broadway. Full of humor, unforgettable tunes, romance and dancing, the musical tells the story of Dolly Gallagher-Levi, a turn-of-the-century matchmaker. Hello Dolly! runs June 20 to 23 on the Hansen Theatre stage.
All Straw Hat shows start at 7:30 p.m. and are rated PG. Signed performances for the hearing impaired are Thursdays for all Straw Hat shows.
Following the Straw Hat season is a production by the Gooseberry Park Players, a summer youth theatre company. Gooseberry takes the Hansen Theatre stage for their production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat July 11 to 16. The hit musical starts at 7:30 all days except for July 16, a matinee performance that starts at 1 p.m.
Hansen Theatre and the Gaede Stage are located in the Roland Dille Center for the Arts on the MSUM campus. Tickets are available for the entire Straw Hat season and for Gooseberry’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat online at www.mnstate.edu/tickets, or by calling the MSUM Box Office Monday through Friday from noon to 4 p.m. at (218) 477-2271.