A sign of unity and love at the end of a year largely devoid of those traits, Lee's Liquor Lounge will welcome back its former unofficial house band Trailer Trash on New Year's Eve after an acrimonious two-year hiatus. "This has always been a love story between a band and a bar, and after an unfortunate breakup we're getting back together," Trailer Trash bandleader Nate Dungan merrily declared last week. After a continually popular 22-year run, Trailer Trash abruptly pulled the plug on its Trashy Little Xmas shows and monthly gig at Lee's just before the holidays in 2015 over a contract dispute with new owner Craig Kruckeberg. Trailer Trash quickly turned the Xmas gigs into a roaming caravan, playing venues such as the Turf Club, where the band returns this Friday and Saturday nights (both sold out). Dungan and Kruckeberg found a common goal to help them settle their differences: charity. The NYE gig will double as a fundraiser for Urban Homeworks, a Twin Cities organization that revitalizes neighborhoods by building homes. Tickets are on sale now for $20 via Ticketfly.com. "It's a homecoming, that's exactly what it is," Dungan said.
CHRIS RIEMENSCHNEIDER
No rest for the successful
They're taking off a whole two weeks at Jungle Theater, which closes "Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley" Dec. 30 and begins its 28th season Jan. 13 with the one-man (and three-bluegrass-musician) Herman Melville adaptation "Ishmael." February brings another solo musical, Jonatha Brooke's "My Mother Has 4 Noses," and there'll be more music in May with "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill," featuring Thomasina Petrus as Billie Holiday, performing her last concert. The season also includes two smashes from New York. Sarah DeLappe's "The Wolves," about a high school girls' soccer team, opens in May, and "Hand to God," set in a Sunday-school classroom that is visited by evil, closes the season in July. Artistic director Sarah Rasmussen may not take off much time before the 29th season, either. Next fall the Jungle will shift from seasons mirroring the calendar year to ones that roughly correspond to the school year — the model used by most theaters in town.
CHRIS HEWITT
Reopening 'Closing Time'
The only time you'll hear "Closing Time" as the opening song at a Semisonic show, last week's live performances of the band's 1998 album "Feeling Strangely Fine" at First Avenue offered another first: Dan Wilson publicly admitted to being lambasted by Oasis singer Liam Gallagher during their tour for the record. "If you have memories wrapped up in this album, just think what it's like for us," the singer said last Friday. "It launched us into traveling the world for two years, and doing everything from meeting Kermit the Frog to getting berated by Liam Gallagher in a dressing room because he thought American melodies are 'shite.' " Fans still love those American melodies of "Closing Time" so much that the room lit up when the band repeated the song at show's end because, well, they just sort of had to. C.R.
'Hamilton' gets its Hamilton
Producers have announced casting for the second national tour of "Hamilton" — the one that will start in Seattle in February and play Minneapolis at a date to be named later. The title character, described in the megahit's title number as a "bastard, orphan, son of a whore," will be played by Joseph Morales, who also took on the role in the Chicago company. The founding father's frenemy, Aaron Burr, will be played by Nik Walker, a veteran of the chorus of the musical's Broadway company. Ta'Rea Campbell, who came to the Twin Cities in the lead role of "Sister Act" when it was at Orpheum Theatre in 2014, gets the toughest song in the show, the fast-rapping "Satisfied," as Angelica Schuyler, who sets up Hamilton and her sister, Eliza. The latter role will be played by Shoba Narayan. In keeping with other companies of the musical — which will number five when this tour kicks off — it's a wildly diverse cast but those hoping for some gender-inclusivity aren't getting their wish: No female Hamilton yet.C.H.
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