Join us as a Jazz Series Season Ticket member for the 2026/2027 season!

The season will consist of four fantastic shows featuring pianist Ted Godbout and a rotating cast of incredible jazz musicians.

Along with helping us have the ability to keep bringing in high quality jazz music to the theater, your season ticket membership gets you:

• Ticket to all four shows
• Priority Seat Selection
• You save $20

Friday September 11th

THE BEST OF BENNY GOODMAN performed by THE PICK-A-RIB THREE

Friday December 4th

A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS by THE VINCE GUARALDI TRIO performed by THE TED GODBOUT TRIO

Friday January 29th

BILL BLATZHEIM SINGS THE BEST OF MEL TORME featuring THE TED GODBOUT TRIO

Friday April 9th

OSCAR PETERSON TRIO'S WEST SIDE STORY performed by THE TED GODBOUT TRIO

**Individual concert tickets on sale soon - these are for season tickets!

Join us for the first concert of our JAZZ SERIES with Pick-a-Rib Three playing the music of Benny Goodman!

Traditional jazz without a net! Jimmie Noone, Edmond Hall, Barney Bigard, George Lewis—the list goes on of clarinetists who all at some point played their music alongside just piano and drums. Benny Goodman led the most famous of these trios with Teddy Wilson and Gene Krupa. The Pick-A-Rib Three, in fact, take their name from a Goodman song.

Twin Cities clarinetist Tony Balluff and drummer Dave Michael from Southside Aces, along with Gnarly Bard's favorite jazz pianist Ted Godbout will have you submerged in 1920s Decatur Street in New Orleans, 1930s New York penthouse parties, and 1940s Los Angeles jazz clubs.

First time in Central Minnesota!

Join us on Friday, September 18^th at Gnarly Bard Theater in downtown St. Cloud for the Trail Running Film Festival for a fun night of inspiring stories. Doors open at 6 p.m. with door prizes and beverages available for sale. The festival will start at 7 p.m. and will include trail running films from around the world.

All attendees will have the chance to win incredible door prizes donated by Scheel’s, Spi-Belt, various race entries, Ultrasignup, Petzl and more.

The films last approximately 90 minutes with a 10-minute intermission. As an added bonus, all attendees are provided with a link to watch 3 additional films at home.

More information can be found at: Trail Running Film Festival « The global film tour

Presented locally by the St. Cloud River Runners

Doors - 6:00pm ~ Films 7:00pm

Join us as a 2026/2027 Season Ticket Member!

Your membership gets you:

• Tickets to all four shows of the 2026/2027 season
• Saves you over $20 on ticket prices and fees
• Priority seat and show date selection before tickets go on sale to general public
• New this year - 10% off all other performances at Gnarly Bard Theater!
  

2026/2027 SEASON

What does it mean to be human when the odds are completely against you? Our 2026/27 season is all about people attempting to connect across impossible distances.

ANTHROPOLOGY

By Lauren Gunderson

October 9th - 18th

After her sister dies, Merril throws herself into her work. She's brilliant at it. She builds things that listen, respond, remember. Anthropology is a funny, devastating, and uncomfortably timely play about what we ask of the machines we build...and whether the connection we find there is really connection at all.

Merril has been spending more time with her sister, Angie, but she isn't ready for anyone to know about it. At least, not until Merril has decided that Angie is ready to see other people. Angie is an A.I. creation that Merril has developed to cope with her sister's death. But as the virtual Angie begins to demand more presence in Merril and her mother’s lives, reality and consciousness blur, and new moral questions arise about the right, safe, and acceptable ways to grieve.

THE NAUGHTY LIST 3

A Gnarly Bard Original

December 11th - 20th

KIWI THE ELF IS BACK! Help her decide who has been NAUGHTY and who has been NICE as she navigates another busy day in the department of naughty behavior! Checking the list twice is high stakes and big responsibility at Santa’s Workshop. With a live jazz trio, classic holiday songs, new original tunes, brand new sketches, a lot of laughs and a whole lot of festive cheer, THE NAUGHTY LIST celebrates the season and asks that tough question: Have you been NAUGHTY this year?

THE UNSEEN

By Craig Wright

February 26th - March 7th

Two prisoners. In seperate cells. A wall between them, in more ways than one. They've never seen each other, but they've spoken everyday for years. Are the words they share enough to let them hold on to some sense of humanity? The Unseen is a very dark comedy about the power of language, in all of its beauty and brutality. (Content warning: strong language.)

Imprisoned by a totalitarian regime and mercilessly tortured for unknown crimes, Wallace and Valdez live without hope of escape or release. When an enigmatic new prisoner arrives and begins communicating in code, both men develop new relationships to each other, their captors, and themselves. A darkly humorous examination of faith in an uncertain world.  

ESCAPE POD ECHO

A Gnarly Bard Original Musical

By Bubba Hollenhorst & Nicole Wilder

May 7th - 16th

Five people. One escape pod. Zero rescuers. Escape Pod Echo is a black absurdist comedy musical about the particular cruelty of hope, which insists on showing up anyway, even when you're drifting into the void. Buckle up.

Join us for the first show of our 2026/2027 theater season - ANTHROPOLOGY by Lauren Gunderson, directed by Nicole Marie Wilder.

After her sister dies, Merril throws herself into her work. She's brilliant at it. She builds things that listen, respond, remember. Anthropology is a funny, devastating, and uncomfortably timely play about what we ask of the machines we build...and whether the connection we find there is really connection at all.

Merril has been spending more time with her sister, Angie, but she isn't ready for anyone to know about it. At least, not until Merril has decided that Angie is ready to see other people. Angie is an A.I. creation that Merril has developed to cope with her sister's death. But as the virtual Angie begins to demand more presence in Merril and her mother’s lives, reality and consciousness blur, and new moral questions arise about the right, safe, and acceptable ways to grieve.

Join Buck & Tammy Sue and their band for a night of live alternative country.

You'll hear songs from their 2021 Album Love & Other Troubles, their 2024 Album No More Horseplay, as well as a number of favorite covers that are sure to please. Fronted by Gnarly Bard's own Bubba & Nicole, the band is made up of members of Fred Savage & The Unbeatables! Don't miss out on a night of great original local music!

TICKETS GO ON SALE OCTOBER 1ST!

Synopsis:

In this two-man musical spoof, a pair of aspiring playwrights perform a backers’ audition for their new, ill-advised project – a big, splashy musical about printing press inventor Johann Gutenberg. With an unending supply of enthusiasm, Bud and Doug sing all the songs and play all the parts in their crass historical epic, with the hope that one of the producers in attendance will give them that elusive Broadway contract.

Featuring local actors, Jon Legg and Kyle Seamans, "Gutenberg! The Musical" runs November 6-8 and 12-15 at Gnarly Bard Theater in downtown St. Cloud. Pre-sale tickets available to Lykke Theatre sponsors. Learn more at lykketheatre.org/support. 

Thursday, 11/12 is a Pay What You Can performance.

Lykke Theatre Bio:

Lykke Theatre (pronounced LOO-kuh)—based in St. Joseph and dedicated to “creating joy and meaningful connection through storytelling”—produces high-quality, collaborative theatre with local artists. With a vision for a professional, inclusive, and joyful artistic space, they’re proud to contribute to the vibrant theatre scene in Central Minnesota. Learn more at lykketheatre.org.