A Crooners Holiday: The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society and Kate and Bradley Beahen

With the brief lull in #TCTheater that comes around the holidays*, I was able to head down the road to Crooners Supper Club in Fridley for a couple of shows. Crooners was a lifesaver for me in 2020, as it was pretty much the only place you could see live performance, in their makeshift parking lot drive-in theater. Now with four different performance spaces (all with food and drink service), there's always something happening at Crooners, much of it theater adjacent. A few days after Christmas I attended The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society's Christmas Post Mortem show, and a few days before New Year's I attended siblings Kate and Bradley Beahen's cabaret show Fresh Starts and Showstoppers. Read on for a brief summary of those shows, both of which will be returning in 2025. And if you don't already have your tickets for next Monday's A Grand UNITE for Civil Rights, a fundraiser for the ACLU hosted by #TCTheater artist Serena Brook and featuring a veritable who's who of local music-theater talent, you better get them right now before they're gone! What's better than a night of good food, great entertainment, and a worthy cause?

The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society

I've seen MORLS several times (they often perform at Minnesota Fringe) and there's really nobody that does what they do. They find actual radio plays from the '40s and '50s, and recreate them live on stage, complete with sound effects. Performers Tim Uren, Eric Webster, Joshua English Scrimshaw, and Shanan Custer do all of the voices of the characters in the play, make sounds of feet walking and doors slamming using old-timey Foley equipment, and even do the original ads. Since it was Christmas time, they did a couple of Christmas-themed plays of the suspense/horror variety, which was creepy and funny and delightful. They already have their Crooners dates lined up for 2025, about once every other month - click here for more info.

Fresh Starts and Showstoppers featuring Kate and Bradley Beahen

Kate was one of those lifesaver outdoor 2020 concerts that I saw. In addition to being a talented actor on stages around town, she also does these wonderful cabaret shows. And her brother Bradley, a talented music director/singer/actor, often joins her. So anytime I can experience the Beahen Family Music Hour, I'm in! They often invite a couple talented friends to join them; this time they were joined by Bradley Johnson, who in just a few years has become another one of my faves, and educator/performer Martha Eies, with whom I was previously unfamiliar but was super impressed by. From a lovely wistful rendition of Don't Rain On My Parade to an a capella unplugged Auld Lang Syne, they entertained in solos, duets, and group numbers. Other highlights include Kate and Martha singing "For Good" from a little indie film called Wicked (we'll have to wait for part two for this number), and the Bradleys doing a fun song from [title of show] that they were both in at Lyric almost two years ago. From musical theater classics, to standards from the American songbook, to originals (a very funny little ditty that Bradley wrote about how to spell their last name), it was a wonderful 80 minutes of songs, stories, and community. Watch Crooners calendar for the next installment of the Beahen Family Music Hour.