FUN AT 40 BELOW WITH GUYS ON ICE AT THE JON HASSLER THEATER

(Plainview, MN) Jon Hassler Theater’s 2004 Season wraps up November 19th through December 19th with the musical comedy GUYS ON ICE THE ICE FISHING MUSICAL, a co-production with Twin Cities-based Troupe America, Inc., the folks who brought HOW TO TALK MINNESOTAN THE MUSICAL to southeast Minnesota.

Originally developed as a joint production of American Folklore Theater and Milwaukee Repertory Theater, GUYS ON ICE made its debut at Ephraim Village Hall in Door County in 1998. With book and lyrics by Fred Alley (co-creator of The Spitfire Grill) and music by James Kaplan, the hilarious musical comedy has played to sold-out houses from Madison, Wisconsin to Ashland, Oregon.

Through a series of twelve songs including “The One That Got Away”, “Ode to a Snowmobile Suit”, “Twelve Beers In A Twelve Pack” and “Fish is de Miracle Food” backed by keyboard, drums and a series of accordions, GUYS ON ICE finds long-time pals and fellow cheeseheads Marvin and Lloyd in their ice shanty, keeping warm with a mutual appreciation of good bait, cold beer (Leinie’s, of course) and the Green Bay Packers, and a mutual dislike of fellow angler “Ernie the Moocher”. As they sing about life, love and the one that got away, the chums anxiously await their opportunity to be interviewed by a popular sportscaster for a local TV fishing show.

GUYS ON ICE is directed by Curt Wollan (MY WAY and HOW TO TALK MINNESOTAN THE MUSICAL at the Jon Hassler Theater), with choreography by Elizabeth M. Desotelle (TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN and GIFTS OF THE MAGI at JHT) and music direction by Kevin Rotty.

Wollan has chosen three seasoned actors and all-around fun-loving guys to fill the roles of Marvin, Lloyd and Ernie: Tim Drake (last seen at the JHT as Miller in HOW TO TALK MINNESOTAN THE MUSICAL) takes on the role of Marvin, the loyal cheesehead trying to juggle his wedding anniversary with a crucial Packers/Bears game, Dale Givens plays Lloyd, the confirmed bachelor with dreams of television stardom, and Sam Landman as Ernie The Moocher, the neighbor everyone loves to hate.

During the run of GUYS ON ICE, the management of the Jon Hassler Theater has decided to attempt an experiment in dinner theater, an idea often suggested and requested by the Theater’s patrons, especially following the recent demise of popular nearby eatery Rebekah’s. Every Saturday night at 6:30pm the JHT will offer a sit-down, down-home meal prepared by Bluegrass Catering of Elgin, followed by a performance of GUYS ON ICE at 8:00pm.

“We’re hoping it’s an idea whose time has come,” says JHT producing director Clark Cruikshank, who coincidentally started his professional performance career as a singing waiter at a dinner playhouse in Rock Island, Illinois in 1978. “That place is still successful after all these years, so I know it can be a popular concept if presented correctly.”

Although he has high hopes that the idea will take off, Cruikshank says the Theater has no delusions of grandeur at this point in time. “We have no aspirations of becoming the next Chanhassen,” he says, “at least not yet.”