Dinner theater is not meant to be edgy, since after all people are enjoying their meals, but the St. Croix Off Broadway Dinner Theatre walks the line between entertainment that at times pushes a limit and letting people savor their dessert.
Sounds a little like a bar and grill with live music that goes beyond pop standards.
So, when co-founder Jim Zimmerman wrote a play that was performed that had just a bit of rough language interspersed here and there, there were no real complaints, his wife and co-founder Jill Zimmerman said.
In the shows they choose, they do have to mind their P’s and Q’s. Even if they would want to tone some content down, in many cases there are agreements where production companies are required not to change even a single word of the original writing. Zimmerman notes that even The Odd Couple could be a bit racy.
In fact, Neil Simon has been notorious for sending out “spies” to ensure compliance, and one theater group Zimmerman knows even ended up with a veritable 20-year ban before they could do one of his works again, she said.
The shows are run by the Zimmerman married couple who pull out all the stops, and do most of the work themselves, to field professional productions with regionally renowned actors while on a tight budget. And they’ve found creative ways to accomplish their goals, while based out of an intimate setting at the Hudson House Grand Hotel.
Starting March 15 will be their most recent production, which gets heavily into music. Life Could Be a Dream is a “Doo Whop” music tribute that features some men who were banned from their high school prom and then enter a radio contest, falling in love along the way. Featured songs are Earth Angel, Unchained Melody and Only You.
The Zimmermans point out that their actors are professionals, and this is not amateur theater. “We draw (actors) from all over the Twin Cities and the St. Croix Valley,” she said.
An example is Fredrice Nord, who has performed in shows at the Phipps Center For the Arts in Hudson and has served on its board of directors.
A production at the theater, like band lineups, may have anywhere between two and many more actors, and there are a large run of quarterly shows arranged around the year’s four seasons. Zimmerman notes that the winter show won’t necessarily be a holiday-themed production.
“We try to pick plays that are known and that will grab people’s eyes,” Zimmerman said, adding that practical constraints keep them from doing a play like Oklahoma with its large and muscial cast.
Since this is theater that includes a meal, the productions chosen are usually on the lighthearted side, with a little fluff, comedy and farce. “We won’t be performing Twelve Angry Men,” Zimmerman said with a laugh.
But here they keep very busy. “We do pretty much everything ourselves, a little number of hands doing a lot of work,” Zimmerman said.
“We want to entertain people and give them a break from the everyday,” Zimmerman said. A lot of their patrons have become friends, and especially if they hold season tickets have joined former theater students and others they know as volunteer help, especially for things such as box office tasks. They will sometimes put on-contract some types of work, and usually do this to enlist a stage manager.
Jim is a theater professor at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, and the couple has been working on these types of shows since high school.
The local theater has a policy where people are sought to be made comfortable by not requiring them to sit next to someone they do not know. (Although that could change somewhat if they eventually expand beyond their 140 seat capacity — to be more like the availability at Dibbo’s, to draw a local comparison).
Like some rock stars, in our region and otherwise, their actors often prefer to work in smaller, intimate settings. The seating is arranged in a semicircle around the stage, with some balcony seating.
The patrons also can chose items off a menu, rather than have a prescribed dish or two be the entree of the evening. “So they can be made-to-order. For instance I don’t like mushroom sauce with mine, so people can ask for that change. No problem,” Zimmerman said.
Orders are taken before the show, not during it, and the last round of activity before the curtain goes up at around 8 p.m. is a choice of dessert, which is served at intermission. Some regular patrons come at 6 p.m., so there is plenty of time to mingle and have appetizers.
Shows are Fridays and Saturdays through May 11, with the exception of the Easter weekend, with matinees on April 13, 20 and 27 and on May 11. There is a Stay And Play option that includes hotel reservations, dinner theatre and breakfast the next day for $176.95 — if you choose to explore the rest of Hudson’s nightlife. For tickets, call (715) 386-2394.