"Musical Mondays" at LUSH, January 2018

New location, same great entertainment. The monthly cabaret series formerly known as "Musical Mondays at Hell's Kitchen" has moved locations and is now "Musical Mondays at LUSH." The Northeast Minneapolis location is a nice space, slightly smaller, but with free street parking! This Monday, hosts and founders Max Wojtanowicz and Sheena Janson hosted the 4th Musical Mondays at LUSH (and the 55th overall!), with the theme of Bock and Harnick. While those names may not be familiar (they weren't to me), their work likely is, their most well known musicals being Fiddler on the Roof and She Loves Me (of which there are two productions coming up in #TCTheater this spring, if you go a little north or south - Lyric Arts in Anoka and DalekoArts in New Prague). Truth be told I knew very few of these songs, so it was a fun musical theater education.

With Artistry's resident music director Anita Ruth at the piano, the following six local music-theater artists performed. Also listed is where you can see them on stage next.

• Ben Dutcher: Theater Latte Da's Assassins, opening the second weekend of February (aka the busiest #TCTheater weekend of the year)
• Lara Trujillo: Mill City Summer Opera's Carmen this summer
• Momoko Tanno: currently touring with In the Heart of the Beast, performing at the Festival of Nations in May
• Riley Parham: Follies at Artistry in April
• Tara Schaefle: Theatre Elision's Melancholy Play in early March
• Tony Sofie: music directing She Loves Me at DalekoArts

And you can see our hosts here:

• Max Wojtanowicz: a reading of his new musical Delgadina at Strike Theater this weekend, appearing in Pirates of Penzance at Park Square in February
• Sheena Janson: Mermaid Hour: Remixed at Mixed Blood in April

After a performance by Ruthie Baker from Theatre Elision's upcoming Ruthless! (one weekend only, January 18-21) the cast entertained the crowd with the following numbers (the song list is always posted on their Facebook page the next day).

• Good Morning, Good Day (She Loves Me) - all
• Artificial Flowers (Tenderloin) - Ben
• Dear Friend (She Loves Me) - Momoko
• Ballad of the Shape of Things (The Littlest Revue) - Tony
• A Trip to the Library (She Loves Me) - Tara
• You’re Going Far (from the film The Heartbreak Kid) - Riley
• Dear Sweet Sewing Machine (cut from Fiddler on the Roof) - Momoko & Tony
• Boston Beguine (New Faces of 1952) - Lara
• Politics and Poker (Fiorello) - all
• Little Old New York (Tenderloin) - all
• I Don’t Know His Name (She Loves Me) - Lara & Tara
• Tonight at Eight (She Loves Me) Riley
• When Did I Fall In Love (Fiorello) - Lara
• Eve (The Apple Tree) - Tony
• Little Tin Box (Fiorello) - Ben/Riley
• I Couldn’t Be With Anyone But You (A Wonderful Life) - Tara
• Gorgeous (The Apple Tree) - Momoko
• She Loves Me (She Loves Me) - Ben
• To Life (Fiddler on the Roof) - all

And as a special treat, American Idol Season 5 finalist Paris Bennett shared a song from the upcoming Children's Theatre/Penumbra production of The Wiz, and it was pretty fabulous, so get your tickets now for the first must-see musical of 2018!

Musical Mondays returns to LUSH on February 5 with a Valentine's Day theme. Watch their Facebook Page for more details.

the cast of Musical Mondays (photo courtesy of MM)