You’ve heard of “jukebox musicals,” Broadway shows such as “Jersey Boys” or “Beautiful” that are built around the catalogs of a performer?
Well, get ready for a mixtape musical.
It’s called “Complicated Fun” and it takes its name from a Suicide Commandos song from the late 1970s. That title could also be used to attempt to describe the Minneapolis Sound of the 1980s, which was really a lot of different sounds: the funky rhythm-and-blues of Prince, the rock of the Replacements and Soul Asylum, the punk of Husker Du, the folk of Greg Brown, the influential production work of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.
“You remember how we used to make those mixtapes where, say, if you had a girlfriend, there would be a message on the tape or, even if you just made it for yourself, there would be a very specific narrative?” says Alan Berks, who wrote “Complicated Fun.” “For me, the show is, ‘What would be a great mixtape that I could make that would give a feel for this scene?’ In some ways, I wasn’t even sure we needed dialogue.”
Music has always been important to Berks, who says an album on tape — it was 1984, he was 12, it was either the Replacements’ “Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take out the Trash” or “Let It Be” and he can’t remember who gave it to him — changed his life, an event that makes its way into a scene in “Complicated Fun.”
Although it’s debuting in 2016 at the History Theatre, the play’s origins date back to at least 2002, when Berks moved to town and cold-called the theater’s artistic director, Ron Peluso, with a pitch.
“I was a huge fan of Prince and the Replacements and the Jayhawks and Soul Asylum,” recalls Berks, who first visited the Twin Cities in 1995 or 1996 because he wanted to see the place that spawned those artists. “So I called the theater and said, ‘You should do a show about that incredible music scene.’ ”
Cut to 2013, when Peluso decided to do the show and remembered Berks’ call. And then cut to Saturday, opening night of a show that combines three strands to create a love letter to the music of the Twin Cities.
One is an origins story of sorts, detailing the early years of First Avenue and its general manager, Steve McClellan. Another is a love story, the tale of two teenagers who fall for each other at the same time as they fall in love with a sound. And it’s the story of a trio of passionate-about-music record store clerks, who function as sort of a Greek chorus in “Complicated Fun.”
Writing the show required Berks to listen to a lot of music and chat with many people who were involved in its creation, including McClellan, whom he calls “this punk hero, this wonderful character.”
“There’s this joke where people say to him, ‘Steve, you think you’re talking to us but you’re yelling at us,’ ” says Berks, who can relate, based on a loud breakfast at Maria’s Cafe in Minneapolis. “He started yelling about something that pissed him off 30 years ago, how angry it made him that people hadn’t been willing to take a chance on a band. I realized that he just can’t stop caring and I kinda fell in love with the guy.”
There were lots of other interviews, with Lori Barbero of Babes in Toyland, Chris Osgood of Suicide Commandos (who was instrumental in getting rights to the show’s two dozen songs), Twin/Tone Records co-founder Peter Jesperson and more. Most of them didn’t end up being depicted in the show — Berks mentions music booker and promoter Chrissie Dunlap, in particular, as a key figure — but they contributed to it, just the same.
“The third or fourth song we play in the show is a Curtiss A song called ‘Laugh It Up.’ I had never listened to Curtiss A, but I found out recently the song was written by (Replacements member) Slim Dunlap, who was Curtiss’ guitarist for a long time,” Berks says. “Chrissie Dunlap wound up seeing a reading of the show and she’s the one who told us.”
Figuring out how to capture all the varying elements of the Minneapolis Sound falls to music director Nic Delcambre, who also plays keyboards and guitar and sings.
“I’ve been listening to hours and hours of these records, which has been pretty great. I knew The Replacements, for instance, but I didn’t know all of the other songs, so I’ve been getting to have this great experience of discovering these bands for the first time, almost the way people did years ago,” says Delcambre, who has pored over videos to figure out where the Replacements’ Paul Westerberg put capos on his guitar for “Here Comes a Regular” or how he seems to close up his throat when he sings.
The four-member band, augmented by seven different singers, will try to suggest the original versions, not imitate them. They don’t have to play exactly like Bob Mould or sing exactly like the influential Sue Ann Carwell (whose “Let Me Let You Rock Me” is in the show).
That makes Delcambre’s job a bit easier. In fact, he says the toughest part of the show is capturing an artist who may not be as instantly recognized as the Replacements, the Jets or the Suburbs.
“The show has such a wide variety and, for me, the hardest song is Greg Brown’s ‘Downtown,’ which is used as an example of the folk scene here. It’s a very tricky bit of guitar playing,” Delcambre says.
Berks didn’t necessarily come up with a definitive answer about what created the Minneapolis Sound. But the show — which is directed by Dominic Taylor and features choreography by Carl Flink — suggests some possibilities.
“There is something special about Minnesota, something that made it a place where musical geniuses came forward,” says Berks, who lists a few. “I think Steve (McClellan) is part of it. Prince, a once-in-a-generation talent who was so devoted to the local part of it. The inexpensiveness of living here. That there wasn’t a black radio station that played 24 hours of R&B music, so there was less segregation of music and musicians than in other places.”
He may have no definitive answers to the big question, but there is one thing Berks says he does know about the Minneapolis Sound and about “Complicated Fun:” “These are great songs and it’s good to hear more of them.”
IF YOU GO
What: “Complicated Fun”
When: Through May 29
Where: History Theatre, 30 E. 10th St., St. Paul
Tickets: $45-$15
