CALENDAR
Bryant Lake Bowl and Theater is a charming venue in Minneapolis, known for its intimate atmosphere and vibrant programming. With a cozy capacity of just 82 seats, the theater features a 9' x 22' stage that has hosted an impressive array of performances, including the quirky holiday favorite "A Very Die Hard Christmas." The venue also showcases musical talent, featuring renowned artists such as Dan Wilson, The Civil Wars, Jeremy Messersmith, and Soccer Mommy. This blend of theater and live music creates a unique community hub where audiences can enjoy a diverse range of artistic expressions in an inviting setting.
Take a look at our calendar to see what excellent shows we have happening this month.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
HOW DO I BUY TICKETS?
You can purchase tickets from our website using the link under the show’s description.
Any remaining tickets will be available at the door.
Doors typically open 30 or 60 minutes before the show; please check the event page on our website for specific times.
Tickets are available online up until two hours before each show. If the show isn’t sold out we will release the remaining tickets at the door.
I CAN’T MAKE IT TO THE SHOW.
CAN I GET A REFUND?
Sorry, but no.
No refunds or exchanges once you’ve purchased a ticket.
I JUST BOUGHT A TICKET.
DO I HAVE AN ASSIGNED SEAT?
Nope. All of our shows are general admission.
First come, first served.
CAN I EAT AND DRINK INSIDE THE THEATER?
For sure! (Bryant-Lake Bowl food and drinks, that is.)
We serve our full restaurant and bar menus inside the theater, which means you can order from and eat directly in your seat.
I’M INTERESTED IN BOOKING A SHOW.
WHAT DO I DO?
Reach out to Kristin Van Loon at Kristin@bryantlakebowl.com
When visiting Bryant Lake Bowl and Theater, convenient parking options are available to make your experience hassle-free. There’s a parking lot located directly behind the building, offering easy access for guests. Additionally, you'll find free off-street parking nearby, perfect for those looking to save on costs. For those who prefer guaranteed spots, paid off-street parking is also available in the vicinity. With these options, you can focus on enjoying the show without worrying about where to park!
Tubthumping Thursdays
We'll be singing, when we're winning. Join us with a whiskey drink, a vodka drink, a lager drink, or a cider drink, any kind of drink. And enjoy a comedy variety show. Each monthly Thursday show will feature unique comedy from short/long form improv groups, comedians, and/or comedy sketches.
Comedy for the good times, and comedy for the better times.
Tickets are $12. Doors open at 6PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Lizzy Sunshine
With her co-star unaccounted for, ever-positive Lizzy Sunshine carries a vaudevillian double act alone…because THIS is a show that GOES ON!
This show-within-a-show is giving "Fleabag" meets Bo Burnham... the GLEE VERSION!
A FUNNY, FULL-ON HOUR CHOCK FULL OF:
Musical numbers
Special effects & magic
Bottomless props, boundless energy
Audience participation
Crowd work
Take-home rose-colored glasses under your seat!
Lived experiences
Costumes & Cartwheels.
Liz Coin is a NYC-based improviser, actor, and comedian originally from Bettendorf, Iowa. Liz holds a BA from Northwestern University and is a proud Second City alum. As a professional silly goose, Liz has appeared on stages and screens around the country – notably, The Second City, The PIT, Magnet Theater, and regional sketch tours. She tours with “Broadway’s Next Hit Musical” as their emcee.
"Lizzy Sunshine" was first produced at The PIT's SoloCom Festival where it completely SOLD OUT. The PIT brought it back as a stand-alone show in July, this time it was a RECORD-BREAKING performance, overselling and almost doubling the house!
After her run in NY, “Lizzy Sunshine” is off to see the USA! She played at the 200-seat Center for Living Arts (IL) this summer and is thrilled to be in Minneapolis!
Website
Instagram
Facebook
TikTok
Tickets are $15 in Advance / $18 at the Door. Doors open at 6PM. Online ticket sales end at 4PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Hiahli w/ Jantzonia
Hiahli:: Hiahli (high uh lie) is a live hip-hop band that plays rock n roll instruments. This Minneapolis-based group formed in 2020. The high-octane MC Cold Sweat delivers his Golden-Age Hip-Hop lyrics over a variety of musical stylings. In addition to the usual fatback rhythms, you may hear some undercurrents of outlaw country, disco, and grungy rock. Hiahli is also known to throw in a few deep covers from the archives of hip-hop.
For Fans Of: The Roots, Rage Against The Machine, Brother Ali
Jantzonia:: Jantzonia is a hiphop artist from Grand Forks, ND. Coming from such an unclaimed area, Jantz has been focusing on giving his listeners anthems they can call their own.
For Fans Of: Mac Miller, Ab-Soul, Joey Bada$$
Hiahli Website
Hiahli Facebook
Hiahli YouTube
Hiahli Spotify
Facebook Event
Tickets are $10. Doors open at 9:30PM. Online ticket sales end at 7:30PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Babe Train presents CRUSH
Babe Train Presents CRUSH
Have you ever had... a CRUSH?!
Come join Babe Train on November 23rd & 24th at Bryant Lake Bowl and get swept away in the power of infatuation.
This will be a totally unscripted long-form improvised narrative based on audience members gushing about their past (or current?!?) crushes.
We promise you won't want to miss this show.
xoxo, Babe Train
Tickets are $10 in advance / $15 at the door. Doors open at 6PM. Show starts at 7PM. Online ticket sales end at 4PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
The LIFT
Borinqueña Bonita and Del the Funky Homosexual are teaming up to bring you The LIFT. This show is a community-centered cabaret aimed at upLIFTing and highlighting BIPOC artists of all forms. BLB's full food and drink menu are available in the theater to enjoy during the show!
18+
**Show may contain nudity and use of flashing lights.**
Del the Funky Homosexual on Instagram
Borinqueña Bonita on Instagram
VIP Tickets are $25. General Admission is $15. Doors open at 9:30PM. Online ticket sales end at 7:30PM.
VIP seats are the floor seats that go right up to the stage and along the catwalk with tables. These seats have the most potential for performer interaction and ensure an up close experience. GA seats are the theater seats behind the VIP section and also include the bench and accessible seating. Theater seats are raked, and include space for food and beverages.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Babe Train presents CRUSH
Babe Train Presents CRUSH
Have you ever had... a CRUSH?!
Come join Babe Train on November 23rd & 24th at Bryant Lake Bowl and get swept away in the power of infatuation.
This will be a totally unscripted long-form improvised narrative based on audience members gushing about their past (or current?!?) crushes.
We promise you won't want to miss this show.
xoxo, Babe Train
Tickets are $10 in advance / $15 at the door. Doors open at 6PM. Show starts at 7PM. Online ticket sales end at 4PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Uproar Comedy Open Mic
Winner of CityPages Best of the Twin Cities Comedy Open Mic 2020 and MNComedy’s Open Mic of the Year 2021, Uproar continues with its first shows of 2024 at the Bryant-Lake Bowl Theater.
Show is free! There will be a donation bucket at the door if you’d like to support Uproar!
Doors and open mic sign-up are at 6 PM. Full menu available from your seat! Come eat and drink in the theater before and during the show!
A Very Carey Christmas Cabaret
Local chanteuse Nichole Carey returns to the Bryant Lake Bowl with another heartfelt and hilarious holiday cabaret!
Following in the footsteps of Dean Martin and Carol Burnett, this high-energy variety show features live music, burlesque, big laughs, surprise guests, and so much more! With only two performances to enjoy, don't miss your chance to spend an evening with the always-entertaining Nichole Carey and company and kick off the season the right way.
Also featuring the talents of:
Jordan Goette, Megan Guidry, Doug Hooker, Megan Kim, Andrew Lester, Justin Michael, Courtney Miner, and Nicole Wilder
Musical Direction by:
Blake Brauer
Choreography by:
Doug Hooker and Andrew Lester
Nichole Carey is a versatile and accomplished vocalist who has graced notable Twin Cities venues, including Jazz Central, Honey, Vieux Carré, Crooners, the Acadia, and the Dakota Jazz Club. Her talent has also taken her beyond Minnesota, with performances at the historic Duplex in New York City and Davenport’s Piano Bar and Cabaret in Chicago. In addition to her vocal career, Nichole is a published playwright, contributing to local companies such as Freshwater Theater, Smartmouth Comedy, and Theatre Unbound. She is an active member of the Twin Cities Cabaret Artists Network and a proud alumnus of the prestigious International Cabaret Conference at Yale University.
Tickets are $20 in Advance / $22 at the Door. Doors open at 6PM. Online ticket sales end at 4PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
A Very Carey Christmas Cabaret
Local chanteuse Nichole Carey returns to the Bryant Lake Bowl with another heartfelt and hilarious holiday cabaret!
Following in the footsteps of Dean Martin and Carol Burnett, this high-energy variety show features live music, burlesque, big laughs, surprise guests, and so much more! With only two performances to enjoy, don't miss your chance to spend an evening with the always-entertaining Nichole Carey and company and kick off the season the right way.
Also featuring the talents of:
Jordan Goette, Megan Guidry, Doug Hooker, Megan Kim, Andrew Lester, Justin Michael, Courtney Miner, and Nicole Wilder
Musical Direction by:
Blake Brauer
Choreography by:
Doug Hooker and Andrew Lester
Nichole Carey is a versatile and accomplished vocalist who has graced notable Twin Cities venues, including Jazz Central, Honey, Vieux Carré, Crooners, the Acadia, and the Dakota Jazz Club. Her talent has also taken her beyond Minnesota, with performances at the historic Duplex in New York City and Davenport’s Piano Bar and Cabaret in Chicago. In addition to her vocal career, Nichole is a published playwright, contributing to local companies such as Freshwater Theater, Smartmouth Comedy, and Theatre Unbound. She is an active member of the Twin Cities Cabaret Artists Network and a proud alumnus of the prestigious International Cabaret Conference at Yale University.
Tickets are $20 in Advance / $22 at the Door. Doors open at 6PM. Online ticket sales end at 4PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
A Very Die Hard Christmas
It started as a very simple question: Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?
After 12 years, over 100 performances, thousands of cheering patrons and unspeakable amounts of blood: the answer is an emphatic yes.
However, much like Christmas itself, it can't last forever.
The time has come to hang up the tank-top on the Twin Cities funniest, bloodiest and BLB-iest holiday tradition.
Announcing the final season of the greatest Christmas story ever told with all the trimmings: music, magic, and mayhem!
Come on down to the BLB, have a few laughs and take one more trip up and down Nakatomi Plaza.
"Yippee Kai Yay Father Christmas!"
Tickets are $28. Doors open at 9:30PM. Online ticket sales end 2 hours before doors open.
TICKETS ARE LIMITED TO 10 PER CUSTOMER
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
A Very Die Hard Christmas
It started as a very simple question: Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?
After 12 years, over 100 performances, thousands of cheering patrons and unspeakable amounts of blood: the answer is an emphatic yes.
However, much like Christmas itself, it can't last forever.
The time has come to hang up the tank-top on the Twin Cities funniest, bloodiest and BLB-iest holiday tradition.
Announcing the final season of the greatest Christmas story ever told with all the trimmings: music, magic, and mayhem!
Come on down to the BLB, have a few laughs and take one more trip up and down Nakatomi Plaza.
"Yippee Kai Yay Father Christmas!"
Tickets are $28. Doors open at 6PM. Online ticket sales end 2 hours before doors open.
TICKETS ARE LIMITED TO 10 PER CUSTOMER
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Holidating: Christmas!
An improvised musical love story inspired by this month’s holiday
Ding Dong Ding Dong Romance Bells Are Ringing!
It's Christmas! Time for everyone to fall in love as they fall in the snow. Holidating is excited to put their musical spin on the holiday tradition of bad romance.
Holidating is a musical celebration of the Hallmark spirit year round, and that means we go extra hard at Christmas! Each month, the cast improvises a musical about love, breakups, and meet cutes themed around this month’s holiday, Christmas. Grab your tissues and your laugh buckets, holiday lovers!
Produced By: Sarah Arnold-Simondet & Philip Simondet
Music Director: Daniel Goldschmidt
Tickets are $10 in Advance / $15 at the Door. Doors open at 6PM. Online ticket sales end at 4PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
A Very Die Hard Christmas
It started as a very simple question: Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?
After 12 years, over 100 performances, thousands of cheering patrons and unspeakable amounts of blood: the answer is an emphatic yes.
However, much like Christmas itself, it can't last forever.
The time has come to hang up the tank-top on the Twin Cities funniest, bloodiest and BLB-iest holiday tradition.
Announcing the final season of the greatest Christmas story ever told with all the trimmings: music, magic, and mayhem!
Come on down to the BLB, have a few laughs and take one more trip up and down Nakatomi Plaza.
"Yippee Kai Yay Father Christmas!"
Tickets are $28. Doors open at 6PM. Online ticket sales end 2 hours before doors open.
TICKETS ARE LIMITED TO 10 PER CUSTOMER
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
A Very Die Hard Christmas
It started as a very simple question: Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?
After 12 years, over 100 performances, thousands of cheering patrons and unspeakable amounts of blood: the answer is an emphatic yes.
However, much like Christmas itself, it can't last forever.
The time has come to hang up the tank-top on the Twin Cities funniest, bloodiest and BLB-iest holiday tradition.
Announcing the final season of the greatest Christmas story ever told with all the trimmings: music, magic, and mayhem!
Come on down to the BLB, have a few laughs and take one more trip up and down Nakatomi Plaza.
"Yippee Kai Yay Father Christmas!"
Tickets are $28. Doors open at 6PM. Online ticket sales end 2 hours before doors open.
TICKETS ARE LIMITED TO 10 PER CUSTOMER
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Letters To Santa...On The Rocks
One Woman. 10 Characters. Teetering on the edge.
For more than twenty years, Janelle Ranek, a comedic powerhouse renowned for her sharp wit and transformative abilities, has captivated audiences at the Bryant Lake Bowl with her acclaimed one woman holiday show. Co-created with her wife, Brenda Lucy, the show changes every year. Ranek embodies ten widely diverse characters - each more outrageous than the last. Her unique fearless style has earned her a devoted following who have made this their holiday tradition.
Meet POLLY, obsessive about everything from clothing tags to dish soap; AMANDA HUMP, a bouffant styled beautician / taxidermist; DELORES, the proud new Kwik Trip Rewards Member recounting her run-ins with the Amish, LUCILLE; the bird loving, squirrel hating, Target Greatland team member, and other unforgettable characters that you never knew you needed in your life! Don’t forget the legendary GLORIA; the chain smoking, martini-drinking old broad who answers audience questions with all of the subtlety of a freight train.
Get your tickets NOW and prepare to laugh until your face hurts (and you may even pee a little).
Last year this show sold out fast, so don’t wait!
Tickets are $20. Doors open at 6PM. Online ticket sales end at 5PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
A Very Die Hard Christmas
It started as a very simple question: Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?
After 12 years, over 100 performances, thousands of cheering patrons and unspeakable amounts of blood: the answer is an emphatic yes.
However, much like Christmas itself, it can't last forever.
The time has come to hang up the tank-top on the Twin Cities funniest, bloodiest and BLB-iest holiday tradition.
Announcing the final season of the greatest Christmas story ever told with all the trimmings: music, magic, and mayhem!
Come on down to the BLB, have a few laughs and take one more trip up and down Nakatomi Plaza.
"Yippee Kai Yay Father Christmas!"
Tickets are $28. Doors open at 9:30PM. Online ticket sales end 2 hours before doors open.
TICKETS ARE LIMITED TO 10 PER CUSTOMER
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Mix N' Mash: Experimental Film Festival
Mix N' Mash is an experimental film festival led and curated by your favorite local MCAD students. We at Mix N' Mash celebrate variety, diversity, creativity, and the voice of the emerging artist, and are featuring a mix of live-action and animated short films!
Tickets are $10 in Advance / $5-15 Sliding Scale at the Door. Doors open at 1:30PM. Online ticket sales end at 11:30AM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Uproar Comedy Open Mic
Winner of CityPages Best of the Twin Cities Comedy Open Mic 2020 and MNComedy’s Open Mic of the Year 2021, Uproar continues with its first shows of 2024 at the Bryant-Lake Bowl Theater.
Show is free! There will be a donation bucket at the door if you’d like to support Uproar!
Doors and open mic sign-up are at 6 PM. Full menu available from your seat! Come eat and drink in the theater before and during the show!
The Star Wars Holiday Special Toys For Tots Spectacular!
The 19th annual Star Wars Holiday Special Toys For Tots screening is going to be on December 11th with shows at 3:30p, 6:30p & 9:30p.
Tickets will be available at noon on Dec 11th at BLB. Y’all know the deal, bring a rad, unwrapped toy or two for each attendee and I’ll give you a ticket to watch this sweet, hot garbage the safest way possible. Over the years you, our amazing and generous gluttons for punishment, have helped make the holidays merry and bright for countless children.
On behalf of Toys For Tots Twin Cities, Central Garrison - 501st Legion, Minnesota Costumers for a Cause and BLB, thank you for coming back year after year and making this celebration part of your holiday traditions. I am happy to share that once again proceeds from the sale of the event poster will be donated to TPT in honor of our friend Lev Mailer who passed away in February of 2022. Lev was a gem. A warm and bright personality who so graciously invited Zechariah Thormodsgaard, Philip Glover, Teresa Bolwerk and I into his home years ago to talk about his experience on the Star Wars Holiday Special. He also had the baddest mustache in the galaxy. That’s the details, friends! Go forth, spread the word and prepare yourselves for the strangest holiday celebration in the galaxy!
Free Entry with an Unwrapped Toy! Doors open 30min before showtime.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
A Very Die Hard Christmas
It started as a very simple question: Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?
After 12 years, over 100 performances, thousands of cheering patrons and unspeakable amounts of blood: the answer is an emphatic yes.
However, much like Christmas itself, it can't last forever.
The time has come to hang up the tank-top on the Twin Cities funniest, bloodiest and BLB-iest holiday tradition.
Announcing the final season of the greatest Christmas story ever told with all the trimmings: music, magic, and mayhem!
Come on down to the BLB, have a few laughs and take one more trip up and down Nakatomi Plaza.
"Yippee Kai Yay Father Christmas!"
Tickets are $28. Doors open at 6PM. Online ticket sales end 2 hours before doors open.
TICKETS ARE LIMITED TO 10 PER CUSTOMER
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
A Very Die Hard Christmas
It started as a very simple question: Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?
After 12 years, over 100 performances, thousands of cheering patrons and unspeakable amounts of blood: the answer is an emphatic yes.
However, much like Christmas itself, it can't last forever.
The time has come to hang up the tank-top on the Twin Cities funniest, bloodiest and BLB-iest holiday tradition.
Announcing the final season of the greatest Christmas story ever told with all the trimmings: music, magic, and mayhem!
Come on down to the BLB, have a few laughs and take one more trip up and down Nakatomi Plaza.
"Yippee Kai Yay Father Christmas!"
Tickets are $28. Doors open at 6PM. Online ticket sales end 2 hours before doors open.
TICKETS ARE LIMITED TO 10 PER CUSTOMER
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Bring Your Kids!
Bring Your Kids!
A comedy variety show for kids and their grown ups.
Perfect for ages 5 and up.
Featuring comedians, musicians and generalized silliness.
Kids - bring a joke to tell! Grown ups - I hope you like jokes.
More information at bringyourkidscomedy.com
Tickets are $7 for Kids / $12 for Adults. Doors open at 2PM. Online ticket sales end at 12PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Letters To Santa...On The Rocks
One Woman. 10 Characters. Teetering on the edge.
For more than twenty years, Janelle Ranek, a comedic powerhouse renowned for her sharp wit and transformative abilities, has captivated audiences at the Bryant Lake Bowl with her acclaimed one woman holiday show. Co-created with her wife, Brenda Lucy, the show changes every year. Ranek embodies ten widely diverse characters - each more outrageous than the last. Her unique fearless style has earned her a devoted following who have made this their holiday tradition.
Meet POLLY, obsessive about everything from clothing tags to dish soap; AMANDA HUMP, a bouffant styled beautician / taxidermist; DELORES, the proud new Kwik Trip Rewards Member recounting her run-ins with the Amish, LUCILLE; the bird loving, squirrel hating, Target Greatland team member, and other unforgettable characters that you never knew you needed in your life! Don’t forget the legendary GLORIA; the chain smoking, martini-drinking old broad who answers audience questions with all of the subtlety of a freight train.
Get your tickets NOW and prepare to laugh until your face hurts (and you may even pee a little).
Last year this show sold out fast, so don’t wait!
Tickets are $20. Doors open at 6PM. Online ticket sales end at 5PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
A Very Die Hard Christmas
It started as a very simple question: Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?
After 12 years, over 100 performances, thousands of cheering patrons and unspeakable amounts of blood: the answer is an emphatic yes.
However, much like Christmas itself, it can't last forever.
The time has come to hang up the tank-top on the Twin Cities funniest, bloodiest and BLB-iest holiday tradition.
Announcing the final season of the greatest Christmas story ever told with all the trimmings: music, magic, and mayhem!
Come on down to the BLB, have a few laughs and take one more trip up and down Nakatomi Plaza.
"Yippee Kai Yay Father Christmas!"
Tickets are $28. Doors open at 9:30PM. Online ticket sales end 2 hours before doors open.
TICKETS ARE LIMITED TO 10 PER CUSTOMER
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Winter Solstice with Kari Tauring and Friends
These are the darkest days...but for the full Moon that shines tonight. Hope of the Moon, a brother's love, preserving the light of sister Sun. Lean into darkness in the darkest of days - together - with runes and runos - poetry magic. Join in traditions of song and dance carried in the body - just for these times. Because we must. Kari Tauring brings together family and friends to celebrate the dark nights of Winter Solstice with song, dance, poetry, and ritual. Her son Jack joins on favorite songs from her 1999 release, "A Yuletide Celebration." Carol Sersland brings light into our hearts with Norwegian song and dance. Finnish American poets Lynette Reini-Grandell and Morrey Nellis stir thoughts and feelings with word magic. It has always been important to come together in the winter. It’s time to look out for the most vulnerable of our community. Feelings of anxiety, depression, and sadness can overwhelm us. In these fragile times of change and uncertainty, we can look to myth and music as a guide. What is certain in this world? The Sun and Moon and our ability to be together in the quiet and dark.
Featuring Jack Tauring-Traxler, Lynette Reini-Grandell, William Morrey Nellis, and Carol Sersland
Tickets are $12 in Advance / $14 at the Door. Doors open at 2PM. Online ticket sales end at 12PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Letters To Santa...On The Rocks
One Woman. 10 Characters. Teetering on the edge.
For more than twenty years, Janelle Ranek, a comedic powerhouse renowned for her sharp wit and transformative abilities, has captivated audiences at the Bryant Lake Bowl with her acclaimed one woman holiday show. Co-created with her wife, Brenda Lucy, the show changes every year. Ranek embodies ten widely diverse characters - each more outrageous than the last. Her unique fearless style has earned her a devoted following who have made this their holiday tradition.
Meet POLLY, obsessive about everything from clothing tags to dish soap; AMANDA HUMP, a bouffant styled beautician / taxidermist; DELORES, the proud new Kwik Trip Rewards Member recounting her run-ins with the Amish, LUCILLE; the bird loving, squirrel hating, Target Greatland team member, and other unforgettable characters that you never knew you needed in your life! Don’t forget the legendary GLORIA; the chain smoking, martini-drinking old broad who answers audience questions with all of the subtlety of a freight train.
Get your tickets NOW and prepare to laugh until your face hurts (and you may even pee a little).
Last year this show sold out fast, so don’t wait!
Tickets are $20. Doors open at 6PM. Online ticket sales end at 5PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Uproar Comedy Open Mic
Winner of CityPages Best of the Twin Cities Comedy Open Mic 2020 and MNComedy’s Open Mic of the Year 2021, Uproar continues with its first shows of 2024 at the Bryant-Lake Bowl Theater.
Show is free! There will be a donation bucket at the door if you’d like to support Uproar!
Doors and open mic sign-up are at 6 PM. Full menu available from your seat! Come eat and drink in the theater before and during the show!
Mistress Ginger’s Generation X-mas
Hark! Mistress Ginger is here to make your Yuletide extra gay. With her 3rd annual X-mas spectacular, this cabaret queen is serving up a sleighful of holiday tunes from Christmas past, some from beloved TV specials, some from your favorite pop divas, and some from way, way back (Nutcracker, anyone?). With George Maurer on piano and dancer Jarod Boltjes, it’ll be a rousing romp brimming with live music, high kicks, and a stud muffin or two – sure to get your chestnuts roasted.
Mistress Ginger is a singer and dancer, captivating audiences with her cabaret performances in the Twin Cities since 2006. From intimate gatherings at the Bryant-Lake Bowl Theater to enchanting evenings at the Crooners Supper Club, she weaves stories through her songs, inviting listeners on whimsical journeys brimming with heart, imagination, and the occasional fan kick. And she can cook too! Her cookbook, Mistress Ginger Cooks, is a campy primer for plant-based eating with pizzazz, and signed copies will available after the show – a perfect holiday gift!
“Mistress Ginger is a cabaret singer who brings warmth and depth to a lyric, and always lets the song shine through. She moves easily from the steam of a torch song to the campy wink of a double entendre – always while holding up the classic composers and lyricists she loves.” –Michael Whistler of Interact Center for the Arts, for MPR News Art Hounds, 2021
“Mistress Ginger took their Broadway, Circa 1986 audience on a journey from musical-obsessed, closeted queer kid, to fully-formed, gender-expansive diva in a transcendent, camp show. She joked that their vocal range is like Bea Arthur’s, but strong vocal skills were presented all throughout the show. Not once did she falter, in a show that felt well-rehearsed — yet off-the-cuff — with room for improvisation, like personally interacting with the audience on a first-name basis…” -Derek Maurawski-Harguth of Derek Please, Twin Cities Gay Scene
George Maurer (piano) is a performer, arranger, music director and composer – talents that have taken him all over the world. He has performed with Eric Clapton, shared the stage with Bruno Mars, composed for renowned musicians, and music directed the Tony- and Grammy-awarded original cast of Broadway’s Jersey Boys in The Midtown Men. He was also the recipient of a McKnight Composers Fellowship in 2014. More info: georgemaurer.com
Jarod Boltjes (dancer), a MN native, is a current company member with James Sewell Ballet and Collide Theatrical. Some previous credits include Contempo Physical Dance, St. Paul Ballet, and Twin Cities Ballet. Outside of the dance studio you can find Jarod teaching yoga and barre fitness classes as a certified instructor, under the circus tent cross-training aerialist at Circus Juventas, and embracing the MN seasons outside with his two dogs Thomas and Luna.
Website
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube
Tickets are $18 in Advance / $22 at the Door. Doors open at 6PM. Online ticket sales end at 5PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Mistress Ginger’s Generation X-mas
Hark! Mistress Ginger is here to make your Yuletide extra gay. With her 3rd annual X-mas spectacular, this cabaret queen is serving up a sleighful of holiday tunes from Christmas past, some from beloved TV specials, some from your favorite pop divas, and some from way, way back (Nutcracker, anyone?). With George Maurer on piano and dancer Jarod Boltjes, it’ll be a rousing romp brimming with live music, high kicks, and a stud muffin or two – sure to get your chestnuts roasted.
Mistress Ginger is a singer and dancer, captivating audiences with her cabaret performances in the Twin Cities since 2006. From intimate gatherings at the Bryant-Lake Bowl Theater to enchanting evenings at the Crooners Supper Club, she weaves stories through her songs, inviting listeners on whimsical journeys brimming with heart, imagination, and the occasional fan kick. And she can cook too! Her cookbook, Mistress Ginger Cooks, is a campy primer for plant-based eating with pizzazz, and signed copies will available after the show – a perfect holiday gift!
“Mistress Ginger is a cabaret singer who brings warmth and depth to a lyric, and always lets the song shine through. She moves easily from the steam of a torch song to the campy wink of a double entendre – always while holding up the classic composers and lyricists she loves.” –Michael Whistler of Interact Center for the Arts, for MPR News Art Hounds, 2021
“Mistress Ginger took their Broadway, Circa 1986 audience on a journey from musical-obsessed, closeted queer kid, to fully-formed, gender-expansive diva in a transcendent, camp show. She joked that their vocal range is like Bea Arthur’s, but strong vocal skills were presented all throughout the show. Not once did she falter, in a show that felt well-rehearsed — yet off-the-cuff — with room for improvisation, like personally interacting with the audience on a first-name basis…” -Derek Maurawski-Harguth of Derek Please, Twin Cities Gay Scene
George Maurer (piano) is a performer, arranger, music director and composer – talents that have taken him all over the world. He has performed with Eric Clapton, shared the stage with Bruno Mars, composed for renowned musicians, and music directed the Tony- and Grammy-awarded original cast of Broadway’s Jersey Boys in The Midtown Men. He was also the recipient of a McKnight Composers Fellowship in 2014. More info: georgemaurer.com
Jarod Boltjes (dancer), a MN native, is a current company member with James Sewell Ballet and Collide Theatrical. Some previous credits include Contempo Physical Dance, St. Paul Ballet, and Twin Cities Ballet. Outside of the dance studio you can find Jarod teaching yoga and barre fitness classes as a certified instructor, under the circus tent cross-training aerialist at Circus Juventas, and embracing the MN seasons outside with his two dogs Thomas and Luna.
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Tickets are $18 in Advance / $22 at the Door. Doors open at 6PM. Online ticket sales end at 5PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
A Very Die Hard Christmas
It started as a very simple question: Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?
After 12 years, over 100 performances, thousands of cheering patrons and unspeakable amounts of blood: the answer is an emphatic yes.
However, much like Christmas itself, it can't last forever.
The time has come to hang up the tank-top on the Twin Cities funniest, bloodiest and BLB-iest holiday tradition.
Announcing the final season of the greatest Christmas story ever told with all the trimmings: music, magic, and mayhem!
Come on down to the BLB, have a few laughs and take one more trip up and down Nakatomi Plaza.
"Yippee Kai Yay Father Christmas!"
Tickets are $28. Doors open at 6PM. Online ticket sales end 2 hours before doors open.
TICKETS ARE LIMITED TO 10 PER CUSTOMER
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
A Very Die Hard Christmas
It started as a very simple question: Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?
After 12 years, over 100 performances, thousands of cheering patrons and unspeakable amounts of blood: the answer is an emphatic yes.
However, much like Christmas itself, it can't last forever.
The time has come to hang up the tank-top on the Twin Cities funniest, bloodiest and BLB-iest holiday tradition.
Announcing the final season of the greatest Christmas story ever told with all the trimmings: music, magic, and mayhem!
Come on down to the BLB, have a few laughs and take one more trip up and down Nakatomi Plaza.
"Yippee Kai Yay Father Christmas!"
Tickets are $28. Doors open at 6PM. Online ticket sales end 2 hours before doors open.
TICKETS ARE LIMITED TO 10 PER CUSTOMER
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Letters To Santa...On The Rocks
One Woman. 10 Characters. Teetering on the edge.
For more than twenty years, Janelle Ranek, a comedic powerhouse renowned for her sharp wit and transformative abilities, has captivated audiences at the Bryant Lake Bowl with her acclaimed one woman holiday show. Co-created with her wife, Brenda Lucy, the show changes every year. Ranek embodies ten widely diverse characters - each more outrageous than the last. Her unique fearless style has earned her a devoted following who have made this their holiday tradition.
Meet POLLY, obsessive about everything from clothing tags to dish soap; AMANDA HUMP, a bouffant styled beautician / taxidermist; DELORES, the proud new Kwik Trip Rewards Member recounting her run-ins with the Amish, LUCILLE; the bird loving, squirrel hating, Target Greatland team member, and other unforgettable characters that you never knew you needed in your life! Don’t forget the legendary GLORIA; the chain smoking, martini-drinking old broad who answers audience questions with all of the subtlety of a freight train.
Get your tickets NOW and prepare to laugh until your face hurts (and you may even pee a little).
Last year this show sold out fast, so don’t wait!
Tickets are $20. Doors open at 6PM. Online ticket sales end at 5PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
A Very Die Hard Christmas
It started as a very simple question: Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?
After 12 years, over 100 performances, thousands of cheering patrons and unspeakable amounts of blood: the answer is an emphatic yes.
However, much like Christmas itself, it can't last forever.
The time has come to hang up the tank-top on the Twin Cities funniest, bloodiest and BLB-iest holiday tradition.
Announcing the final season of the greatest Christmas story ever told with all the trimmings: music, magic, and mayhem!
Come on down to the BLB, have a few laughs and take one more trip up and down Nakatomi Plaza.
"Yippee Kai Yay Father Christmas!"
Tickets are $28. Doors open at 9:30PM. Online ticket sales end 2 hours before doors open.
TICKETS ARE LIMITED TO 10 PER CUSTOMER
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Letters To Santa...On The Rocks
One Woman. 10 Characters. Teetering on the edge.
For more than twenty years, Janelle Ranek, a comedic powerhouse renowned for her sharp wit and transformative abilities, has captivated audiences at the Bryant Lake Bowl with her acclaimed one woman holiday show. Co-created with her wife, Brenda Lucy, the show changes every year. Ranek embodies ten widely diverse characters - each more outrageous than the last. Her unique fearless style has earned her a devoted following who have made this their holiday tradition.
Meet POLLY, obsessive about everything from clothing tags to dish soap; AMANDA HUMP, a bouffant styled beautician / taxidermist; DELORES, the proud new Kwik Trip Rewards Member recounting her run-ins with the Amish, LUCILLE; the bird loving, squirrel hating, Target Greatland team member, and other unforgettable characters that you never knew you needed in your life! Don’t forget the legendary GLORIA; the chain smoking, martini-drinking old broad who answers audience questions with all of the subtlety of a freight train.
Get your tickets NOW and prepare to laugh until your face hurts (and you may even pee a little).
Last year this show sold out fast, so don’t wait!
Tickets are $20. Doors open at 6PM. Online ticket sales end at 5PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Letters To Santa...On The Rocks
One Woman. 10 Characters. Teetering on the edge.
For more than twenty years, Janelle Ranek, a comedic powerhouse renowned for her sharp wit and transformative abilities, has captivated audiences at the Bryant Lake Bowl with her acclaimed one woman holiday show. Co-created with her wife, Brenda Lucy, the show changes every year. Ranek embodies ten widely diverse characters - each more outrageous than the last. Her unique fearless style has earned her a devoted following who have made this their holiday tradition.
Meet POLLY, obsessive about everything from clothing tags to dish soap; AMANDA HUMP, a bouffant styled beautician / taxidermist; DELORES, the proud new Kwik Trip Rewards Member recounting her run-ins with the Amish, LUCILLE; the bird loving, squirrel hating, Target Greatland team member, and other unforgettable characters that you never knew you needed in your life! Don’t forget the legendary GLORIA; the chain smoking, martini-drinking old broad who answers audience questions with all of the subtlety of a freight train.
Get your tickets NOW and prepare to laugh until your face hurts (and you may even pee a little).
Last year this show sold out fast, so don’t wait!
Tickets are $20. Doors open at 6PM. Online ticket sales end at 5PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Uproar Comedy Open Mic
Winner of CityPages Best of the Twin Cities Comedy Open Mic 2020 and MNComedy’s Open Mic of the Year 2021, Uproar continues with its first shows of 2024 at the Bryant-Lake Bowl Theater.
Show is free! There will be a donation bucket at the door if you’d like to support Uproar!
Doors and open mic sign-up are at 6 PM. Full menu available from your seat! Come eat and drink in the theater before and during the show!
Sound Unseen Film Festival | HELLO DANKNESS
""Hello Dankness" is a political fable that bears witness to the psychotropic spectacle of American politics from 2016 to 2021, and the mythologies and lore that took root around it. Taking form as a suburban stoner musical, the film follows a neighborhood through these years as consensus reality disintegrates into conspiracy and other contagions. What unfolds is a rogue retelling of history in which hotdogs debate the culture wars, trashcans preach QAnon, zombies rally for revolution, and real events are refashioned as Broadway bangers from Cats, Les Miserables, Annie, and The Phantom of the Opera. There are songs and dancing, moments of menace and melancholy, shitposting and deep sincerity. Brought to you by Sound Unseen alumni Soda Jerk, they have outdone themselves with their signature methodology, ""Hello Dankness"" is entirely composed of sampled media. Utilizing extensive rotoscoping and digital VFX, the feature-length narrative has been grafted together from almost one thousand film, television and audio sources. Begun in 2016 and labored on throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, Hello Dankness is a record of the time, written from the time. Premiering at the Berlinale in 2023, it went on to win numerous cinema awards including Best Feature at the Atlanta Film Festival and Lausanne Underground Film & Music Festival, as well as the Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation Award and the Berwick New Cinema Award. The Hollywood Reporter announced Hello Dankness as ”the most original and bizarrely elevating movie of the 2023 Berlin International Film Festival”, and the Guardian and Time Out published 4 and 5 star reviews. In New York, Hello Dankness played an extended theatrical run at Manhattan’s iconic Film Forum and was praised with reviews from the The New York Times and Brooklyn Rail. The cast of characters include Tom Hanks, Annette Bening, Bruce Dern, Ice Cube, Wayne and Garth, Maya and Ana, Rue and Jules, Seth Rogen and Reyn Doi. American politicians play themselves, with Jesse Eisenberg in the role of Mark Zuckerberg, and The Phantom of the Opera as Vladimir Putin."
Dir. Soda Jerk, 70min, 2022, Australia, MN Premiere
Tickets are $15. Doors open at 5:30PM. Online ticket sales end at 3:30PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Sound Unseen Film Festival | THE HANDS OF ORLAC (100th Anniversary featuring a live score with Katie Condon)
A pianist has a transplant operation that gives him a new pair of hands. Unfortunately, the hands belonged to a murderer, and he finds the hands starting to take over his life and commit crimes. A seedy magician suspects what is happening and tries to blackmail him.
Dir. Robert Wiene, 112min, 1924, Austria, Germany
Tickets are $15. Doors open at 2:30PM. Online ticket sales end at 12:30PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
KATIE CONDON
Katie Condon is a pianist, percussionist, teacher, and composer based in Minneapolis. Past performance work includes improvising live scores at the Trylon Cinema, Minnesota Film Arts, the Heights Theater, and the Sound Unseen Film Festival. Other performance experience includes the composition several children's musical theater productions, work with Landmark Center, Zenon Dance Company, and Salon Saloon. During the day, she works for YourClassical MPR, MacPhail Center for Music, and the Friends of the Minnesota Orchestra.
Sound Unseen Film Festival | SHARI & LAMB CHOP + THE MUSIC FACTORY (short film)
SHARI & LAMB CHOP
Shari Lewis changed the face of children’s television even before Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street. Through the creation of her sock puppet sidekicks, Hush Puppy, Charlie Horse, and the beloved Lamb Chop, Shari created a playful, non-judgmental world for children and adults alike. As the daughter of the Official Magician of New York City and a performer with her own aspirations, Shari rose to fame at a young age, hosting pioneering children’s shows. When her own national show was unexpectedly canceled, Shari moved to Hollywood – and later to Las Vegas – to reinvent herself as an actress and dancer. But no matter how hard she worked, audiences only wanted to see Lamb Chop. It was a blessing and a curse that she created something as magical as Lamb Chop, who was becoming a cultural icon and threatened to overshadow Shari herself. Shari was the queen of reinvention. She used her puppets as an outlet – to say the things that women couldn’t say in mid-century America and also to maintain control over her personal story. Shari spent nearly 40 years trying to get back on television and, in the 1990s, she finally succeeded. She defied ageism in her 60s, singing and dancing in her own TV show, PBS’s Lamb Chop’s Play Along. Shari and Lamb Chop became more popular than ever before and connected with a whole new generation of children. Shari used her renewed popularity to reinforce her commitment to children’s education. At its heart, "Shari & Lamb Chop" is an empowering story of a multi-talented, continually underestimated woman who refused to give up in the face of myriad obstacles, who lost her voice for a time and, by finding it again, wound up enriching the lives of multiple generations of children. Shari leaves a profound legacy of lessons to live by in our ever-changing, complex world. Perhaps most powerfully: The more you are friends with your own self, the better you will survive what the world throws at you.
Dir. Lisa D'Apolito, 92min, 2023, USA, MN Premiere
THE MUSIC FACTORY
In “The Music Factory” we meet Herbert, who has synesthesia; a cross-sensory condition that makes him see shapes and colours when he hears sound and music and we are presented with the story of how he found his way to the music factory. During his infanthood music, colours and shapes all came together in pure joyful synthesis, but when he gets older his synesthesia turn into a distraction with catastrophic results. At a low point in the film the sound of a beautiful violin brings him out his sadness, and he follow the trails of synesthesia and discovers the music factory. He sneaks in, and is taken on a journey through the factory. In the grand finale Herbert finds out he is capable of controlling the colours and shapes, and he brings the synesthesia down, shapes it and throws it back up in the air. All in harmony with the music created by a full philharmonic orchestra. In the end Herbert gets a job as head of R&D at the Music Factory and the film ends with him working his way through the factory.
Dir. Cina Espejond og, Alf Martin Løvvold, 9min, 2023, Norway, North American Premiere
Sound Unseen Film Festival | CHAINSAWS WERE SINGING
"Monty Python meets Texas Chainsaw Massacre meets... Les Misérables."
"Chainsaws Were Singing" is an absolutely bonkers action-horror-musical-comedy B-movie epic from Estonia. Shot guerilla-style in 2013, this true love letter to crowd-pleasing exploitation cinema then spent a modest 10 years in postproduction and is finally out in 2024. A fan favorite at the most recent Fantasia and Fantastic Fests' "Chainsaws Were Singing" is special kind of music film, one with a massive body count.
Due to some rude language and over-the-top comedic violence, it is probably not suitable for children under 12.
Dir. Sander Maran, 117min, 2024, Estonia, MN Premiere
Tickets are $15. Doors open at 9:15PM. Online ticket sales end at 7:15PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Sound Unseen Film Festival | S/HE IS STILL HER/E
Very few artists lived their art, Genesis died three times for it. Pioneering electronic musician/avant garde artist/spiritual explorer/gender revolutionary/cult leader? Genesis P. Orridge has been featured in numerous films and videos, but never the full story…never this intimate... until now. In this authorized but extremely raw and personal documentary, award-winning director David Charles Rodrigues (Gay Chorus Deep South) documents the final year of P-Orridge’s existence as they grapple with mortality. Featuring William Burroughs, Brion Gyson, Timothy Leary, Alice Genesse (PTV), David J (Bauhaus/Love and Rockets), Nepalese monks, African Witch doctors, and a special cameo by her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, plus never before-seen archival treasures, performances from COUM Transmissions, Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV. This film is Executive Produced by LAURA JANE GRACE — trans activist and AGAINST ME! singer.
Dir. David Charles Rodrigues, 97min, USA, MN Premiere
Tickets are $15. Doors open at 6:30PM. Online ticket sales end at 4:30PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Sound Unseen Film Festival | THE TARGET SHOOTS FIRST + HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT short film (Filmmakers Present)
Featuring a post screening Q&A with THE TARGET SHOOTS FIRST director Chris Wilcha and HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT director Jeff Krulik
THE TARGET SHOOTS FIRST
“Christopher Wilcha’s fascinating feature-length video reminds us how seldom we’re allowed to see certain businesses operating from the inside. Wilcha, a 22-year-old college graduate and alternative-rock enthusiast, was hired by the Columbia Record and Tape Club—apparently as a fluke—to help launch a whole new niche-marketing division, which brought him face-to-face with the contradictory meanings of the term ‘alternative’ once it’s been embraced by the mass market. He brought his video camera to work every day, and what emerge are selective glimpses of—and thoughtful reflections on—his extended stint with the company.”
Dir. Chris Wilcha, 70min, 1999 USA
HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT
"When aspiring filmmakers Jeff Krulik and John Heyn descended upon the Capital Centre parking lot on May 31, 1986, they had little more in mind than to document a fan scene at full peak. The result was ""Heavy Metal Parking Lot"", a 16-minute film featuring local heavy metal fans expressing their enthusiasm for Judas Priest before the band performed in concert later that night. The film's subsequent nearly 40-year journey into popular culture - which started from bootleg copies passed among fans and video collectors, and grew into multi-generation dubs on an underground tape-trading network - has earned it an international fan base all its own. Filmmakers, musicians, actors, artists, music fans and scholars have embraced it as both an iconic representation of a unique subculture and a valuable primary source worthy of anthropological study. Having screened at the 1st annual Sound Unseen back in 1999, we're thrilled to bring back this absolute pitch-perfect short documentary, which almost 40 years later still resonates with old and new audiences alike."
Dir. John Heyn, Jeff Krulik, 16min, 1986, USA
Sound Unseen Film Festival | GARLAND JEFFREYS: THE KING OF IN BETWEEN (Filmmaker Present)
Featuring a post-screening Q&A with director Claire Jeffreys Hubris, anger, prejudice...doo-wop, reggae, rock...expectations, heartbreak, transformation... "Garland Jeffreys: The King of In Between" examines the fifty-year career of this genre-bending, biracial singer-songwriter. An enigmatic performer since his start in the Greenwich Village clubs, Jeffreys never reached the success predicted for him. The film asks why and explores how his commitment to writing about race in America is more relevant now than ever.
Dir. Claire Jeffreys, 70min, 2023, USA. MN Premiere
Tickets are $15. Doors open at 1PM. Online ticket sales end at 11AM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Sound Unseen Film Festival | THIS IS A FILM ABOUT THE BLACK KEYS
This is a film about The Black Keys traces Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney's journey from a jamming session in a basement in Akron, Ohio, to rock ’n’ roll super-stardom. They barely knew each other when they made their first recordings, yet quickly realized they shared a powerful musical connection and a drive to succeed. Touring relentlessly for ten years, the duo navigated the highs and lows of life on the road, finally reaching escape velocity with their hit records Brothers and El Camino. As so many forces have threatened to pull them apart, the band has managed to stick together. 24 years later, they’re tighter than ever, still making great music, and still asking what’s next.
Dir. Jeff Dupre, 89min, 2024, USA, MN Premiere
Tickets are $15. Doors open at 9:15PM. Online ticket sales end at 7:15PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Sound Unseen Film Festival | DECIBEL + IN THE DARKNESS (short film)
DECIBEL
"Decibel" follows Scout, a talented but struggling musician, who performs in a small, sparse club. Her unique looping performance catches the attention of Donna Alby, a wealthy and enigmatic former biotech entrepreneur turned record label owner. Donna invites Scout to record at her isolated, cutting-edge studio in the desert, promising her creative freedom and financial reward. Scout is intrigued and agrees, seeing this as a chance to elevate her music. However, upon arriving at Donna's high-tech, wirelessly integrated studio, Scout quickly realizes that Donna's intentions go beyond mere music production. The studio is more than it appears—its technology monitors and manipulates Scout’s biorhythms, and Donna pushes Scout to create under increasingly stressful and invasive conditions. Scout becomes a prisoner of Donna's vision, her creative freedom hijacked by the eerie, experimental environment. As tensions mount, Scout must find a way to regain control of her music and her life, navigating Donna’s obsessive behavior and the terrifying hold the studio has over her."
Dir. Zac Locke, 80min, 2024, USA, MN Premiere
IN THE DARKNESS
A frightened and lonely child arrives at an orphanage, where a newly acquired friend finds a way to shine light on his grief that he has to pass on to the next newcomer.
Dir. Adilet Abish, 6min, 2024, Kazakhstan, USA Premiere
Sound Unseen Film Festival | IT'S ALL GONNA BREAK
"In the early 2000’s in Toronto, a group of young creative musicians collectively known as, Broken Social Scene, got together and soon became a worldwide phenomenon. Cinematographer and friend, Stephen Chung was there, behind the lens of his camera, capturing it all. Words were not his strong suit, but his camera was. Friendships, relationships, business, and art… Stephen lovingly documents the highs and lows of a band who only wanted to create music on their own terms and ended up changing everything. It is a celebration of the creative process, an homage to art and artists, and a love letter to the community and city which allowed it to thrive. With actual footage from a time before everyone had a camera in their pocket, ""It’s All Gonna Break"" is a time capsule showing how special those moments were, and how they helped form the people we are today. Featuring never before seen personal archival footage, and modern day interviews with Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning, Leslie Feist, Emily Haines, Amy Milan, Charles Spearin, Andrew Whiteman, Justin Peroff, John Crossingham, Evan Cranley, James Shaw, Jeffrey Remedios, and David Newfeld, along with special appearances by Peaches and Scott ""Spiral Stairs"" Kannberg (Pavement). "
Dir. Stephen Chung, 88min, 2024, Canada, Midwest Premiere
Tickets are $15. Doors open at 9:15PM. Online ticket sales end at 7:15PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
![Sound Unseen Film Festival | SALAD DAYS: A DECADE OF PUNK IN WASHINGTON DC (10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY DIRECTOR'S CUT) [Filmmaker Present]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e74c09c5a4a9f1a9c812045/1728500720653-LU8KYUQ4NHMRJKR5S6WQ/SaladDaysStill2+-+Rich+Gill.JPG)
Sound Unseen Film Festival | SALAD DAYS: A DECADE OF PUNK IN WASHINGTON DC (10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY DIRECTOR'S CUT) [Filmmaker Present]
Featuring a post-screening Q&A with director Scott Crawford “Salad Days: A Decade of Punk in Washington, DC (1980-90)” is a documentary film that examines the early DIY punk scene in the Nation’s Capital. It was a decade when seminal bands like Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Government Issue, Scream, Void, Faith, Rites of Spring, Marginal Man, Fugazi, and others released their own records and booked their own shows—without major record label constraints or mainstream media scrutiny.
Buffalo Show
Oyate Hotanin (Voice of the People)—in collaboration with musical duo Buffalo Weavers and Change Narrative, and storyteller Al Gross present an evening of global Indigenous thought on climate and life —Society of Mother Earth (S.O.M.E.).
This month’s specials guest include: Richard Moves Camp, Oglala Lakota, taps into five generations of his family’s healing knowledge; with Christopher Harrington, songs for the Burial Mounds; Change Narrative - Live Storytelling; Lower Sioux Youth 2024 music videos; Welby June, Oglala Lakota, Musician, LuvSoldier, Wanderin Star; and our own Buffalo Weavers, musical poets!
Oyate Hotanin Website
Oyate Hotanin Facebook
Flower Power Heal on Facebook
Oytate Hotanin on Instagram
Flower Power Heal on Instagram
Change Narrative LLC on Instagram
Tickets are $8 in Advance / $10 at the Door. Doors open at 6PM. Online ticket sales end at 4PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Uproar Comedy Open Mic
Winner of CityPages Best of the Twin Cities Comedy Open Mic 2020 and MNComedy’s Open Mic of the Year 2021, Uproar continues with its first shows of 2024 at the Bryant-Lake Bowl Theater.
Show is free! There will be a donation bucket at the door if you’d like to support Uproar!
Doors and open mic sign-up are at 6 PM. Full menu available from your seat! Come eat and drink in the theater before and during the show!
The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society LIVE
A live podcast recording from the “talented and hilarious” (TC Stages) Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society with special guest-host Shanan Custer!
Join society members Eric Webster, Tim Uren, Joshua English Scrimshaw and Shanan Custer for a live recording of their five-star (iTunes) podcast The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society.
This month, the Society presents a special double-feature curated by Shanan Custer, featuring two 14-minute plays from the CBS radio series Ceiling Unlimited (1942–1944). Created by Orson Welles and sponsored by the Lockheed-Vega Corporation, Ceiling Unlimited aimed to glorify the aviation industry and highlight its role in World War II.
Following the radio plays, your Mysterious Old Hosts debate the dramas’ merits and determine whether they stand the test of time. The evening concludes with a freewheeling Q and A with your hosts as they share their views on all things mysterious and old-timey.
PREVIOUS PRAISE FOR THE MYSTERIOUS OLD RADIO LISTENING SOCIETY:
“Shanan Custer, Joshua English Scrimshaw, Tim Uren, and Eric Webster have this down cold — not just the technical aspect, but the tone… Chilling as it might be to experience these tales (complete with old-school ads) alone in the dark, it’s much more fun to experience them with a crowd.” -City Pages
“An artisanal, old-school way of making entertainment... The fun is in watching these fine actors work almost exclusively with their voices … and to see them create a sepia-toned world with handmade sound effects.” - Pioneer Press
“This show is an entertaining and creepy homage to an era gone by, that of the radio drama. The creators of this show have a podcast of the same name… and their love for and knowledge of the genre is evident… There's a reason these radio horror shows were so popular, and happily they continue to exist in some form today thanks to Ghoulish Delights.” -Cherry and Spoon
ABOUT THE MORLS:
The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society performed their first staged old-time radio recreation in 2016 at the Bryant-Lake Bowl Theater in Minneapolis. Since then, they have appeared at the Minnesota Fringe Festival, Daleko Arts in New Prague, and the Wabasha Street Caves in Saint Paul. Their recreations were also featured monthly from 2017 to 2019 at the James J. Hill Center and from 2020 to 2022 at Park Square Theater in Saint Paul. Currently, the MORLS can be seen regularly at Crooners Supper Club and the Bryant-Lake Bowl Theater.
ABOUT THE PODCAST:
The Society’s live performances are inspired by the podcast of the same name. The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society Podcast revisits the great crime, horror and suspense shows from the golden age of radio, including tales from Suspense, Lights Out, Quiet Please, The Shadow, and more. Each episode features a classic, or maybe-not-so classic story from the mysterious old-time radio vault, complete with historical notes and nerdy trivia. At the end of each podcast, your hosts, Tim, Joshua and Eric discuss the merits of the story and decide whether or not it stands the test of time.
Tickets are $18. Doors open at 6PM. Online ticket sales end at 4PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Hard Man soft boy
Hard Man soft boy is a wild, chaotic live comedy show brought to you by nationally touring comedians Jake Silberman and Hunter Donaldson. With short sets from some of Minneapolis’ top comedians, the real star of the show is YOU, as the audience submits your craziest anonymous stories for the comics to riff on. With sold-out shows coast to coast, grab your tickets now before they're gone!
Featuring Minneapolis favorites Pearl Rose, Ahmed Khalef, Aidan McCluskey, and Benji Nate, this is a can't miss comedy party!
Hard Man soft boy on Instagram
Jake Silberman on Instagram
Hunter Donaldson on Instagram
Jake Silberman on Twitter
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Jake Silberman on YouTube
Tickets are $10 in Advance / $15 at the Door. Doors open at 6PM. Online ticket sales end at 4PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Bring Your Kids!
Bring Your Kids! A comedy variety show for kids and their grown ups. Perfect for ages 5 and up.
Featuring circus performers, comedians, musicians and generalized silliness.
Kids - bring a joke to tell!
Grown ups - I hope you like jokes.
More information at bringyourkidscomedy.com
Tickets are $7 for kids and $12 for adults. Doors open at 2PM. Online ticket sales end at 12PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Denim on Denim
Denim on Denim Improv at Bryant Lake Bowl
Denim on Denim presents a show made up on the spot, bringing a wonderful long-form improv show to Bryant Lake Bowl full of goofs, gaffes, and characters with heart.
Denim on Denim, local improv troupe, and absolute hotties are back at Bryant Lake Bowl! Whether you know them for their multiple appearances at HUGE Improv theatre, Thursdays at Norseman Distillery, backyard shows, or you’re seeing them for the first time; you’re in for a real treat. This improv troupe will blow your mind by creating a cohesive narrative full of engaging plot, fascinating characters, and non-stop humor, all from a single audience suggestion.
Tickets are $8 in advance / $10 at the door. Doors open at 6PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Monster Science First Thursdays: Cooking with Odin
How to prepare meals fit for a Viking!
Or other, less violent Nordic person!
Learn the creation of the finest Scandinavian dishes from acclaimed theater creator Boo Segersin (filling in for Allfather Odin), and learn the facts about the horrifyingest Scandinavian monsters from Reverend Matt!
Come and see!
Tickets are $12 in Advance / $14 at the Door. Doors open at 6PM. Online ticket sales end at 4PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Insurgent Transmissions: The Roof by Kamal Aljafari + Ambience by Wissam Aljafri
Insurgent Transmissions is a film series highlighting the varied Palestinian experience. Made by contemporary Palestinian makers, the films depict the many ways that Palestinians resist occupation in their daily lives and filmmaking practices. Beginning with Annemarie Jacir’s touching family drama, Wajib, the programming will unfold as a series of transmissions: Jacir chooses the second film, and each subsequent filmmaker will select the next film in the series. The films in Insurgent Transmissions highlight the works of contemporary Palestinian filmmakers, amplifying their voices through their films and the films they see as most urgent in this moment of cultural erasure and genocide.
This monthly series is presented by Mizna at Bryant Lake Bowl. Ticket fees go towards supporting the featured Palestinian filmmakers. Online tickets are $10, in-person tickets are sliding scale of $5–15. Additional opportunities to support urgent grassroots fundraisers in Gaza will be available at the screening.
NOVEMBER SCREENING
On November 6, 2024 at 7pm, join us for a screening of The Roof by Kamal Aljafari and Ambience by Wissam Aljafri. In addition to ticket fees going to support the featured Palestinian filmmakers, we will be raising money for Middle East Children’s Alliance’s efforts in Gaza, an initiative which has been responding to the urgent needs of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
ABOUT THE FILMS
The Roof by Kamal Aljafari This deceptively quiet film presents a portrait of Aljafari’s family in Ramleh and Jaffa that hovers between documentary and cinematic memoir, guided by a nimble camera moving calmly but ceaselessly around the rooms of homes inhabited, damaged and ruined.
The title refers to the roof missing from the house where Aljafari’s family resettled in 1948, a home unfinished, an incomplete construction project. The use of stillness and off-screen space creates a sense of suspension, of time spent waiting, of aftermath, of lives lived elsewhere.
Aljafari’s striking use of his “cast,” his family, reveals the influence of Bresson’s use of nonprofessional actors as models whose performances emanate from their presence, not from acting.
Ambience by Wissam Aljafri Despite the noise and chaos of the refugee camp, two young Palestinian refugees discover a creative way to record music in order to meet a competition deadline.
Tickets are $10 in Advance / $5 - $15 Sliding Scale at the Door. Doors open at 6PM. Online ticket sales end at 4PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Holidating: Election Night
An improvised musical love story inspired by this month’s holiday Have you ever hoped holiday romcoms happened all year? Holidating is a musical celebration of the Hallmark spirit year-round! Each month, the cast improvises a musical about love, breakups, and meet cutes themed around this month’s holiday. Grab your tissues and your laugh buckets, holiday lovers!
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Tickets are $10 in Advance / $15 at the Door. Doors open at 6PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Uproar Comedy Open Mic
Winner of CityPages Best of the Twin Cities Comedy Open Mic 2020 and MNComedy’s Open Mic of the Year 2021, Uproar continues with its first shows of 2024 at the Bryant-Lake Bowl Theater.
Show is free! There will be a donation bucket at the door if you’d like to support Uproar!
Doors and open mic sign-up are at 6 PM. Full menu available from your seat! Come eat and drink in the theater before and during the show!
A Drinking Game Minnesota presents Coco
A Drinking Game MN returns on November 2nd for an adventure like no other. Join us as we follow Miguel’s journey, trying to navigate his family’s ban on music and through mysterious events, journey’s into the Land of the Dead to find his great-great-grandfather, A legendary singer! There will be music, antics with Hector, family adventure and yes, Dante!
A Drinking Game MN is a live stage reading and for the Month of November we’ll have a cast to bring Coco to the stage! Our actors will have drinking cues throughout the show and you, our audience will also have your own drinking cues. Hear a bell, and take a drink of whatever you enjoy be it alcohol, mocktail, pop, water etc. Sing along with us too as we journey alongside Miguel and Dante into the Land of the Dead!
Tickets are $15 in Advance / $20 at the Door. Doors open at 9PM. Online ticket sales end at 7:30PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Bienvenidos Dystopia
The year is 2024 ... The United States starts to slide into social collapse. After years of power grabs, oligarchs have successfully staged a bloodless coup and begin their work to finalize the republic into a corporate state. With the world’s climate on the brink of collapse, the country experiences ‘once in a lifetime’ weather catastrophes several times a year. Rapidly advancing technologies erode personal privacy and freedoms, algorithms and AI grow more invasive and influential in day-to-day life. The graphic realities of an international U.S.-backed genocides undercut domestic state and media propaganda. Domestically, the sick cannot afford skyrocketing drug prices or medical costs, while an epidemic of gun violence sweeps the country and mass shootings against schools and civilians become routine while police kill record numbers of citizens. The sun is shining. People continue to make their art. Welcome to dystopia.
Bienvenidos Dystopia
To loudly proclaim our current social-cultural-aesthetic moment smack dab in Late Stage Capitalism, Taylor Carik and Megan Mayer have curated an evening of presentations, performances, music, comedy and more at the Bryant Lake Bowl Theater. An artistic variety show of sorts, the show highlights the many ways in which Minneapolis-St. Paul artists make work while the world burns, figuratively and literally. Why not come together and celebrate while we still can?
Artist proceeds will be donated to Mizna, a platform for contemporary, critical, and experimental art, writing, and film centering the work of Arab and Southwest Asian and North African artists.
Tickets are $8. Doors open at 6PM. Online ticket sales end at 4PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Mark Mallman
Mallman's stage persona precedes him, but stepping back one sees a stunning body of recorded work. his expansive catalog of indefinitely emotional and masterfully orchestrated songs has been blasted over airwaves worldwide from MTV to NPR. USA Today, Wired, NME have all sung his praises.
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Tickets are $15. Doors open at 7PM. Online ticket sales end at 5PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Grotesque Fest Presents: Channel 666
Do not be afraid. There is nothing wrong with your screen. There is no need for alarm, no need to change your channel. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. Take a deep breath, and let your body sink into your seat. We are in control, all you have to do is watch.
Grotesque Fest presents Channel 666 - a collection of older, lost, and retro media that will send chills down your spine. Everyone loves watching scary movies on Halloween night, and we want to spend our evening watching them with you. Prepare to have your mind twisted by horrifying images and your eyes fed by the beautiful sights throughout the films and animation we have prepared for you tonight. We are thrilled to share what we have gathered for you. We are looking forward to showing you films that have not yet been seen by an audience like you. Let the images sit with you tonight and make this Halloween one that you’ll never forget! Are you ready to watch?
Poster Art By Lou Thomas
Grotesque Fest
Derek Bauer
Lily Berg
Lou Thomas
Tickets are $9 in Advance / $13 at the Door. Doors open at 6PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
Uproar Comedy Open Mic
Winner of CityPages Best of the Twin Cities Comedy Open Mic 2020 and MNComedy’s Open Mic of the Year 2021, Uproar continues with its first shows of 2024 at the Bryant-Lake Bowl Theater.
Show is free! There will be a donation bucket at the door if you’d like to support Uproar!
Doors and open mic sign-up are at 6 PM. Full menu available from your seat! Come eat and drink in the theater before and during the show!
Minne-Melange SPOOKY HALLOWEEN IMPROV SPECTACULAR!
Minne-Melange is hosting an ALL improvisational comedy event the Sunday night before Halloween! We'll be joined by some of the best improv talent from across the Twin Cities performing their best stuff with a little spookiness sprinkled in. Come laugh before you scream!
Tickets are $10. Doors open at 6PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
WITCH, PLEASE!: Mistress Ginger's Halloween Fantasy
Get ready for a bewitching night of magic and mischief! Cabaret queen Mistress Ginger invites you into a world where spellcasting meets song and dance, as she conjures up hilarious musical numbers and reveals her WitchTok secrets. From love potions gone wrong to enchanting transformations, this show is filled with tricks, treats, and plenty of glitter. Don’t miss your chance to see your favorite showgirl brew up some Halloween magic—grab your broomsticks and your tickets now!
Starring cabaret queen Mistress Ginger
Featuring dancer Scott Stafford
Directed by David Hanzal
Since 2006, Mistress Ginger has been bringing her cabaret magic to a variety of Twin Cities venues, from the Bryant-Lake Bowl to the Ordway Center to Crooners Supper Club. With a passion for storytelling through song, she takes her audiences on whimsical journeys full of heart and imagination. Her cookbook, Mistress Ginger Cooks, was published in 2014.
“The fabulous Mistress Ginger performed rousing, live vocal cabaret numbers between dances — and even during them. A Juilliard-trained dancer, Mistress Ginger performs cabaret in the Twin Cities. Her comedic timing and quick-wit were on full display, and her audience was enraptured… Her nuanced facial expression work while singing in a Broadway-ready tone? Masterful… It was a campy and vampy delight.” -Derek Maurawski-Harguth, Twin Cities Gay Scene
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Tickets are $18 in Advance / $22 at the Door. Doors open at 6PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.
WITCH, PLEASE!: Mistress Ginger's Halloween Fantasy
Get ready for a bewitching night of magic and mischief! Cabaret queen Mistress Ginger invites you into a world where spellcasting meets song and dance, as she conjures up hilarious musical numbers and reveals her WitchTok secrets. From love potions gone wrong to enchanting transformations, this show is filled with tricks, treats, and plenty of glitter. Don’t miss your chance to see your favorite showgirl brew up some Halloween magic—grab your broomsticks and your tickets now!
Starring cabaret queen Mistress Ginger
Featuring dancer Scott Stafford
Directed by David Hanzal
Since 2006, Mistress Ginger has been bringing her cabaret magic to a variety of Twin Cities venues, from the Bryant-Lake Bowl to the Ordway Center to Crooners Supper Club. With a passion for storytelling through song, she takes her audiences on whimsical journeys full of heart and imagination. Her cookbook, Mistress Ginger Cooks, was published in 2014.
“The fabulous Mistress Ginger performed rousing, live vocal cabaret numbers between dances — and even during them. A Juilliard-trained dancer, Mistress Ginger performs cabaret in the Twin Cities. Her comedic timing and quick-wit were on full display, and her audience was enraptured… Her nuanced facial expression work while singing in a Broadway-ready tone? Masterful… It was a campy and vampy delight.” -Derek Maurawski-Harguth, Twin Cities Gay Scene
Website
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube
Tickets are $18 in Advance / $22 at the Door. Doors open at 6PM.
Our full restaurant and bar service is available in the theater! Order from your seat and enjoy the show, we'll take care of the rest.