Summer of showtunes in Downtown Minneapolis

Back to all day live, if you are among those who like show tunes, well, downtown Minneapolis has you covered at least one more day this summer. The summer of show tunes happening in the open air on the lot next to the Orpheum Theater and Lauren Andreeu is live there and I can hear him. You're getting into him. I would say you're rocking out, but I don't know if that's- You a Mamma Mia fan, Rob? Oh, I love Mamma Mia, yeah. I saw- Probably the best ABBA song of all time. I don't know. Well, there's a lot of good ones and they're all in Mamma Mia, which I believe I saw many years ago at the Orpheum. Yes, classic. One of many classics that have been on the Orpheum stage and today over a hundred of my fellow Broadway freaks are here enjoying some of the best show tunes. This is a first time ever event put on by Hennepin Arts and Minneapolis Aquatennial and who better to spin the show tunes than DJ Mad Mardigan. Bit of a different assignment than you're used to, but this is fun. Little bit different, little bit different. Normally you guys see me doing sporting events, right? But deep down, I love theater. I love Broadway shows and my company, Generation Now Entertainment, we've been having a partnership with Hennepin Arts for almost 10 years now. So we DJ all their cast parties. What is preparation like for a Broadway show tunes type set? Well, first we got to meet with the client and let's see what's the vibe. What do they want to hear? They want all show tunes for this event. And then we're going to have some live performances here on the stage from the Wicked cast members themselves. So I'm going to be running music for that as well. So we have all that prepared. It's going to be a ton of fun today. Yes, it is. You have your hands tied, so I'll let you go, Nick. Thank you, DJ Mad Mardigan. I'm going to hop off the stage. You know, they gave us all these Elphaba glasses. I kind of feel like I look more like John Lennon or Harry Potter in them. Oh, now we've got some Hamilton playing. Don't get me started. Wicked has brought out all sorts of fans here today. It's going on again tonight, old and young. And I really think the movie got a lot of young fans like my new friends, Callie and Cece, who are here to listen to what kind of songs are you hoping to hear today? Popular. Popular from Wicked. Did you see the movie Wicked? Yeah. And you liked it? Yeah. Nice. What about you? Mom, what brought us down today? My girls love the theater, and so we saw what was going on and felt like it'd be a good thing to check out. Do you have a favorite Broadway show, any musicals, any songs that you really love? I'm a Chicago fan. You are a Chicago fan. Oh, my gosh. Well, maybe we'll hear a little bit of that coming up. Have so much fun today. We have some even more... Give me your names again. Elise. Elise and... Ingrid. Ingrid and dad, Charlie. I was asking you guys earlier if you liked Wicked. You said you do. What song are you excited to hear today? I pretty much like all of them. You like all of them. What about you? I also really like all of them. You like all of them. And I asked you guys kind of a difficult question earlier. Do you think you are more of a Glinda or an Elphaba? I like Elphaba. Yeah, more of a green than a pink. What about you? I like Elphaba because green is one of my favorite colors. Yes, and we're rocking the Elphaba glasses today, too. And you guys are going to see the show tonight. Yes. Are you excited? Uh-huh. Oh, my gosh. Have so much fun tonight. Thank you all so much for introducing your kids to the theater as well. It's so much fun to see all these people, all these fans of theater, here for free today right at 10th Street and Hennepin Avenue. I'm really holding myself back, Rob, from singing this song from Hamilton right now. Performances start at 1. Like you heard DJ Mad Mardigan say, the cast of Wicked and Artistry Minnesota and Brave New Workshop will be here singing some of your favorite Broadway hits. Concessions are here. You can get discount tickets to Wicked here as well. So if you're a lover of Broadway and you need something to do this afternoon, this is the spot you want to be. It goes until what time today? Three o'clock. And then Wicked is on tonight at 7.30 right here on the Orpheum stage, playing just through the first week of August. So you've got a limited time to get tickets and go see that. It was a great show with a great cast, and I'm in great company today. It looks like it. I think you should stick around and just keep entertaining the crowd. I think I will. I can't believe they picked a song I know the words to. Yeah, I guess I gotta brush up on my show tunes. Yeah, I'm a little behind on some of those. Thank you, Lauren.