DULUTH — In addition to the tail end of the Homegrown Music Festival, here are six things to do this week in the Northland.
“Culture Quest” is a PBS series hosted by Ian Grant, who grew up in Duluth and has found a career as a widely-traveled television producer. In a recent episode of “Culture Quest,” Grant turns a lens on his own former city: examining the area’s Indigenous history, spotlighting influential entrepreneurs and portraying the power of Lake Superior. (Surf’s up!)
The episode, titled “Duluth, Minnesota: Gateway to Lake Superior,” is screening at Zeitgeist on Tuesday, May 5
The touring Broadway production of “The Music Man” will stop at the DECC on Wednesday, April 29.
Contributed / Marshall Meadows
Despite
we’ve still got trouble with a capital T right here in the
The 2025-26 Broadway at the DECC season wraps up Wednesday, April 29, when “The Music Man” marches into Symphony Hall. (The asterisk is that “Hadestown,” rescheduled from March 16 due to winter weather, will now take the stage Oct. 19.)
Meredith Willson’s “Music Man,” which hit the Great White Way in 1957 at the tail end of Broadway’s Golden Age, won the Tony for Best Musical and has become one of the most ubiquitous American stage works. Still, it’s hard not to smile when watching the boisterous show unfold, even if the current revival has been dinged for being a little too old-fashioned
“Slow Ride” is in the company of songs like “On the Road Again” (Canned Heat) and “Spirit in the Sky” (Norman Greenbaum) — a fuzzed-out, blissed-out single that makes you feel like you’re listening to A.M. radio and riding the contact high, certain you’ll find Margaret Qualley hitchhiking around the next bend.
The rest of Foghat’s catalog isn’t quite as iconic, but scratches the same itch. Expect Duluth’s dispensaries to do brisk business on Thursday, April 30, when Foghat plays Symphony Hall on a double bill with Nazareth
Sasha Andreev, Suzie Juul and Pedro R. Bayón star in Ten Thousand Things’ “The Most Happy Fella.” The musical will be presented in Cloquet and Duluth on Thursday, April 30.
Contributed / Tom Wallace
Ten Thousand Things is one of Minnesota’s most acclaimed and innovative theater companies. Casting top actors — people you might see in productions by the Guthrie Theater or Theater Latté Da — the company creates shows that use minimal sets. Performed in the round and with standard overhead lighting, Ten Thousand Things productions are crafted for touring to venues, such as prisons and community resource hubs, where professional theater may otherwise never reach.
The company will be in the Northland on Thursday, April 30, with its current production, “The Most Happy Fella.” The Frank Loesser musical about love and misdirection will be presented first at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College and then at Zeitgeist. Reservations for these performances are free, with donations encouraged
A student mixes paints on her palette at the Great Lakes Atelier of Fine Art (then the Great Lakes Academy of Fine Art) in 2025. The institution will hold its Annual Student/Instructor Exhibit on Friday, May 1, and Saturday, May 2.
Jed Carlson / Duluth Media Group file photo
Not everybody comes to Duluth to avoid distractions, but holing up over our long winters does bring a certain type of focus. Students at the Central Hillside institution now known as the Great Lakes Atelier of Fine Art spend 40 hours a week patiently honing their craft: exquisite representational art in the classical tradition.
If you have visited GLAFA, you know what wonders are available each year at the institution’s Annual Student/Instructor Exhibit. If you haven’t, you can remedy that on Friday, May 1, or Saturday, May 2. Most of the work will be available for sale if you’re ready to invest in a locally painted showpiece to last a lifetime
(greatlakesatelieroffineart.com).
Author Mary Casanova and illustrator Jordan Sundberg will present “Northwoods Lullaby” at two Duluth events Saturday, May 2.
Jay Gabler / Duluth Media Group
Author Mary Casanova, who lives “in a tiny cabin near Voyageurs National Park” according to a news release, and Duluth illustrator Jordan Sundberg have teamed up for a new book titled “Northwoods Lullaby.”
It’s the latest entry in the ever-popular genre of picture books that engage young children with language and images celebrating our distinctive ecosystem. In the book, an adult and a child spy loons, deer, frogs, bears, hares, wolves, swans, foxes and flowers (lady’s slippers, of course) as all prepare for a cozy night.
Both illustrator and author will be making two Duluth stops on Saturday, May 2 — first at Zenith Bookstore, then at The Bookstore at Fitger’s
Arts and entertainment reporter Jay Gabler joined the Duluth News Tribune in 2022. His previous experience includes eight years as a digital producer at The Current (Minnesota Public Radio), four years as theater critic at Minneapolis alt-weekly City Pages, and six years as arts editor at the Twin Cities Daily Planet. He’s a co-founder of pop culture and creative writing blog The Tangential; he’s also a member of the National Book Critics Circle and the Minnesota Film Critics Association. You can reach him at jgabler@duluthnews.com or 218-409-7529.