Larry McDonough Quintet Jazz Music + Movie Series presents Blue Moon (2025) and the Music of Rodgers and Hart
Wednesday, July 1, 2026
6 pm Doors // 7 pm Music // 8 pm Movie
All Ages
$15 ($20.21 w. taxes/fees) Advance General Admission
$20 ($23 w. taxes/fees) At The Door General Admission
Ticket purchases are final and non-refundable
Don’t miss the next installment of this special series, pairing music from legendary composers along with an acclaimed movie!
Renowned Twin Cities jazz ensemble the Larry McDonough Quintet perform the music of songwriting team Rodgers and Hart, who together wrote 28 stage musicals and over 500 songs – many that became classics of the Great American Songbook – ahead of a screening of the 2025 Oscar-nominated biographical comedy-drama, Blue Moon, starring Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale, and Andrew Scott and directed by Richard Linklater.
Inspired by letters written by Elizabeth Weiland to lyricist Lorenz Hart, Blue Moon follows Hart as he reflects on himself on the opening night of Oklahoma!, a new musical by his former colleague Richard Rodgers.
Blue Moon had its world premiere at the main competition of the 75th Berlin International Film Festival on February 18, 2025, where it won the Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance for Scott. At the 83rd Golden Globe Awards, it was nominated for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and Best Actor for Hawke. At the 98th Academy Awards, Kaplow was nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Hawke for Best Actor.
Rotten Tomatoes said, “Blue Moon boasts a wonderful performance by Ethan Hawke as he embodies a man hanging on by a thread while the audience hangs on to every word said." Moira MacDonald of The Seattle Times wrote, "Linklater really nails the atmosphere here; watching Blue Moon feels like sitting with smart people in a retro bar, covered in a gentle blanket of cocktail piano." Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian particularly praised Hawke's "terrific performance" and awarded the film four stars out of five.
Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart worked together on 28 stage musicals and more than 500 songs from 1919 until Hart's death in 1943. Their songs include "Blue Moon," "My Romance," "My Funny Valentine," “You’re Nearer,” "Falling in Love with Love,""Ten Cents a Dance," "Dancing on the Ceiling," "Lover," "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered," and "Have You Met Miss Jones?"
According to music critic Stephen Holden, "Many of Hart's ballad lyrics conveyed a heart-stopping sadness that reflected his conviction that he was physically too unattractive to be lovable." Holden also wrote, "In his lyrics, as in his life, Hart stands as a compellingly lonely figure. Although he wrote dozens of songs that are playful, funny and filled with clever wordplay, it is the rueful vulnerability beneath their surface that lends them a singular poignancy."
Rodgers's partnership with Hart began to founder because of Hart's unreliability and declining health from alcoholism. Rodgers began working again with Oscar Hammerstein II. Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote hits that are among the most popular in musical history. Each was made into a successful film: Oklahoma! (1943), Carousel (1945), South Pacific (1949), The King and I (1951), and The Sound of Music (1959).
The Larry McDonough Quintet will celebrate the music of Rodgers and Hart. Selections will include "Blue Moon," "My Romance," "My Funny Valentine," “You’re Nearer,” and more.
Larry McDonough is an award-winning St. Paul jazz composer, pianist, singer, and teacher, performing around the world and recording with his group the Larry McDonough Quartet as well as solo, and in duos and trios. He has performed with legendary saxophonist and composer Benny Golson, trombonist Fred Wesley, and trumpeter Duane Eubanks, as well as a who’s who of local jazz artists, and was inducted into the Minnesota Rock Country Hall of Fame for his work in the group Danny’s Reasons. His awards include the American Composers Forum Showcase Award for the composition “Strait of Gibraltar.” He has released twelve CDs and DVDs as a leader. His current CDs are Conversations with Bill Evans Live, Best of the Aster Classic Jazz Series, and Intermodulating Undercurrents Live at the Kos: The Music of Bill Evans and Jim Hall. Kind of Bill on the Palace Grounds, Marking 40 Years since the Death of Bill Evans was played on jazz radio stations and streaming services around the country. The two-CD set Alice In Stonehenge and other AcoustElectric Adventures has played on radio stations and streaming services around the world and charted #18 on the Roots Music Report’s Top 50 Jazz Album Chart. Simple Gifts reached number 29 on the CMJ Jazz Chart and also has been played on hundreds of stations around the country and throughout the world. His other jazz projects include Fusebox (original jazz fusion trio) and Trios Trio (classic jazz). When not playing jazz, he performs jam fusion in Quantum Mechanics, funk in Funkin’ Right, classic rock in Whiskey Burn, indie-rock in HiFi, and punk in Saint Small. He also is a lawyer and law professor selected by William Mitchell College of Law as one of “100 Who Made a Difference” over the 100-year history of the school.
Josh May is an up and coming trumpet player based in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. He attended Bemidji State University for a B.A. In Instrumental Performance and Jazz Studies; then traveled to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to earn his Masters in Jazz Studies from Louisiana State University. Throughout his career, he's performed around the globe; in Europe, Asia, and the North Americas. Having played with many varying acts, from jazz, funk, and rock, to the symphony orchestra, Josh prides himself in being a "musical chameleon," by blending with any scenario in which he finds himself.
Richard Terrill, sax player and retired Minnesota State University Mankato English Professor, received the Minnesota Book Award for Poetry for his poetry compilation Coming Late to Rachmaninoff(University of Tampa Press, 2003). Richard has been performing with Larry McDonough since December 2001. He also has performed with guitarist Jim McGuire and with Chaz Draper’s Uptown Jazz Quartet. As a college student, Richard was a member of the award-winning University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Jazz Ensemble and performed with later-to-be Pat Metheny keyboardist Lyle Mays in the Lyle Mays Quartet, winner of small group honors at the Midwest College Jazz Festival. He has also worked with pianist Geoff Keezer. His current book of poetry is What Falls Away Is Always.
Graydon Peterson is a bassist and composer living in Minneapolis. He regularly performs with a variety of vocalists and small ensembles, including Arne Fogel, Wayne Anthony, Firebell, Snowblind, Charanga Tropical, Twin Cities Latin Jazz Orchestra, Tropical Zone Orchestra, D’Lakes, Babatunde Leah’s “Rhythm’s Mama,” and ThoughtCast. Peterson has accompanied world-renowned jazz drummer Francisco Mela for a series of concerts in Havana, Cuba. He has also performed with Delfeayo Marsalis, Gary Bartz, Randy Brecker, Ben Wendel, Jorge Pacheco, and Mayito Rivera. Peterson is also the founder of a successful jam session held every week at Whitey’s Old Town Saloon in northeast Minneapolis. A consummate accompanist, writer, and arranger, he has become one of the backbones of the jazz scene in the Twin Cities. In addition to his skill and accomplishments in music, Graydon is a fourth-degree black belt in Kung Fu and teaches regularly at the School of Shaolin Kung.
Drummer Dean White grew up in Superior, Wisconsin, and played in various working bands while attending the University of Wisconsin, Superior. After graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in percussion performance, he moved to Hollywood, California, to attend Musicians Institute College of Contemporary Music. Half-way through the first year, Dean was offered a main showroom gig at the Imperial Palace in Las Vegas. He was the first drummer in the Legends In Concert Show that still performs in various incarnations across the country today. He left Las Vegas to join Tony Axtell and Toshi Hinata in Tokyo to write and play original music. Since settling back in the Twin Cities, Dean has performed with many groups, including Good, the Bad and the Funky; the Autobody Experience; Century Big Band; Nova Jazz; Big Time Jazz Orchestra; the Shorn Hortz jazz quintet; Power of 10; Jack Knife and the Sharps; Tubby Esquire; Hennessy Brothers jazz; and many others. He has also studied privately with Gordy Knudtson and his Open/Close hand technique. Dean feels blessed to be part of the rich music scene in the Twin Cities.