Thirteen years ago today — May 1, 2007 — the Homegrown Music Festival partnered with Renegade Theater Company and 91.3 FM KUWS for an hour of radio sketch comedy and music. Featured here are several clips from the broadcast. The above segment is titled “Cowardly Lion’s Club Pancake Breakfast.”
Renegade Theater Company has earned its second consecutive Perfect Play or Musical plaque, this time for a dramatic musical that marked the centennial of the tragic sinking of the SS Eastland. The 1915 shipwreck resulted in the death of 844 passengers, the largest loss of life from a single shipwreck on the Great Lakes.
Titled Eastland: A New Musical, the play was partially inspired by Jay Bonansinga’s 2004 historical novel The Sinking of the Eastland: America’s Forgotten Tragedy. The show debuted in 2012 at the Lookingglass Theater in Chicago. Renegade’s staging in August 2015 was just the second professional production of the haunting musical written by Andrew White, with a folk, blues and ragtime score by Ben Sussman and Andre Pluess.
It was close, and it has to be considered an upset. Renegade Theater Company’s two-character biographical play, Red, staged in the roughly 100-seat Teatro Zuccone theater, was the winner in Perfect Duluth Day’s poll to name the best play or musical of 2014. It edged out the Duluth Playhouse’s centennial-marking, big-budget musical production of Les Misérables, which was staged in the 2,200-seat Symphony Hall at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center.
Renegade Theater Company Presents The Wild Party
Book, Music and Lyrics by Andrew Lippa
Directed and Choreographed by Jenna Kase
Welcome to the Roaring Twenties. This is the story of one wild evening in the Manhattan apartment shared by Queenie and Burrs, a vaudeville dancer and a vaudeville clown. In a relationship marked by vicious behavior and recklessness that mirrors the time in which they live, they decide to throw a party to end all parties. As the guests arrive, we meet an assortment of people living on the edge. Queenie and Burrs set out to make each other jealous, but Queenie begins to fall in love with her conquest named Black. After a long night of decadence, Burrs’ jealousy erupts and violence rears its ugly head.
Sex. Violence. Sin … and Gin. These elements, along with show-stopping choreography and serious vocal fireworks, combine to fuel this bold, bawdy and mesmerizing musical.
August 4-6, 11-13 & 18-20
Tickets on sale now!
Opening night of Reasons to Be Pretty is Thursday, June 2, at 8pm. Stick around after the show for the after party in the Zeitgeist lobby featuring food from the Zeitgeist Cafe and music by Mae Martin. Then, stick around for a free Long Form Improv set from the newly formed Long Form Team of Renegade Improv.
And if all that wasn’t enough, opening night is pay what you can! Only have $1? That’s fine! Feel like the show is worth $100? We will totally accept!
But come out and celebrate with us. Whatever you decide to pony up to see Reasons to Be Pretty also gets you free food and music, plus a free late-night improv set. Because we think you are all awesome and we like hanging out with you.
The 2nd Annual Season Kickoff and Silent Auction is almost here! Join Renegade on Feb. 3 to celebrate what promises to be a year of excellent shows. Our event this year will once again include a silent auction and raffle, with tons of great items generously donated by community businesses. There is no cost to this event, but donations are more than welcome.
Hey you. Yes, the guy sitting at his computer in his underwear “working from home.” Need an excuse to put some clothes on and do something? Renegade Theater Company has live improv comedy every Friday and Saturday night at 10:30 at Teatro Zuccone. It only costs $5. Details at renegadetheatercompany.org.
Thanks so much to everyone who donated!
