“We started 28 years ago,” said Seasons Dinner Theatre producer Tom McCarthy. “We started actually through Blaine community theater.”
After a couple years, they say it became too much work for the volunteer board, so the McCarthys took the reigns, moved from a community theatre to a professional theatre, and moved their home to the Seasons restaurant at Bunker Hills.
“We had no idea when we started that it would still be going after 28 years,” said producer Patti McCarthy.
After spending about 20 years at Bunker Hills, the Seasons Dinner Theatre moved to Majestic Oaks Golf Club in Ham Lake.
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“We do just over 5,000 people in a month for dinner theatre,” said Majestic Oaks Golf Club general manager Dan Jacott. “For a golf course in the middle of winter up in Minnesota, that’s pretty good.”
It works out so well for both of them because the theatre needed a place to perform, and business at a golf club slows down significantly in the winter months when people can’t play golf.
“It’s a really good match because (Tom and I) both worked full time so it was kind of a seasonal thing. We did our Christmas show, we did a February/March show, but the golf course is very busy other times of the year,” said Patti McCarthy.
They’ve carved out their niche as a dinner theatre, and with very few dinner theatres in the metro, and no others nearby, some of their patrons have been coming to their shows for more than 20 years.
“They really like it because the food is part of the whole performance. They don’t have to go somewhere else to eat and then come to the theatre,” said Jacott. “They enjoy a phenomenal meal, then the show happens right after, they can stay right in their seats, so it’s very convenient.”
This year’s Christmas show is called “Christmas Byda Lake.”
“It’s about a writer who has tried to get away from it all, stay at his cabin and write this book he’s trying to finish,” said Patti McCarthy.
But, after a unique opening appears on the ice, this writer’s quiet winter takes a turn.
“This brings people making a pilgrimage because some people think it looks like the shape of an angel and some people think it looks like the shape of a moose head so their is a debate. Is it an angel, is it a moose, is it a sign from God?” said Patti.
Every Christmas show is an original script written by Patti. They pride themselves in having a professional, family-friendly show that gets the audience laughing.
“It’s 11 cast members including three children who these kids are pretty phenomenal,” said Patti McCarthy. “Two of them have done dinner theatre at the Guthrie: all 67 performances of A Christmas Carol at the Guthrie, all 94 performances of Peter Pan at the Children’s Theatre. So I mean they are very seasoned kids. We have professional actors who have worked all over the Twin Cities who come and work with us up here.”
With eight shows a week over four weeks, the entire cast and crew is extremely busy bringing a unique entertainment options to Ham Lake.
“The people in this area, in the northern metro, really understand that this is one of the premier theaters that they can go see in the winter season,” said Jacott.
