Catholic Young Adults: The Musical returns to the stage June 2024!

To celebrate the fifth anniversary of its debut, Missed the Boat Theatre will be remounting our original hit musical, Catholic Young Adults: The Musical, June 20-29, 2024, at Helene Houle Auditorium at Saint Agnes School in St. Paul, MN, directed by Christina Malloy.

This is the show that started it all for Missed the Boat Theatre in 2019, igniting many deep friendships and bringing audiences out in droves. When Mary Shaffer or Fr. Kyle Kowalczyk decided to “DIY” produce the hilarious script Fr. Kyle had written to lovingly poke fun at and celebrate urban American Catholic young adult culture, they never dreamed that the debut of Catholic Young Adults: The Musical would be such an artistic, spiritual, and box office success - far surpassing their wildest day dreams. We are so excited to bring it back five years later for a new generation of theatergoers and community members!

Missed the Boat first planned to remount CYA: The Musical in the summer of 2020. You can guess what happened to that plan. The COVID shutdown gave us time to ponder our company’s long-term vision, and we decided to break away from the temptation to be defined by a single show. In November of 2021, we produced a revamped version of Fr. Kyle’s Prohibition-era musical Moonshine Abbey, and in November 2022 expanded into the realm of straight plays with Jessica Swale’s adaptation of Austen’s Sense and Sensibility.

After our delightful Benefit Cabaret hosted at Open Window Theatre in June 2023, Saint Agnes School shared an exciting development of their own fall theatre programming that left us without a venue for a fall mainstage production. After proposing and researching numerous venues and timelines, our search for “a new home” eventually brought us right back to our beloved Helene Houle Auditorium, this time in early summer! Thank you, Saint Agnes School and all who supported us along this journey!

Here are some answers to questions we’ve been getting as we share our wonderful news:

Will the remount feature the original cast?

While you can undoubtedly expect to see several beloved faces from the original CYA cast return to the stage in 2024, significant life changes (getting married, joining convents, having babies) have taken our young adult actors in many different directions in the last five years! We will be holding open auditions in late February, and we are actively seeking new actors to join our company. If you or anyone you know is interested, sign up for our auditions mailing list at missedtheboattheatre.com/get-involved.

Can I watch the original video or listen to the music anywhere?

While we only show the live video recording on special occasions, you can listen to the original live album to your heart’s content on Spotify or Apple Music, and watch several favorite video clips including “The Date Scene” and “Catholic Lady” on our YouTube channel.

How can I get involved as a non-actor?

Let us count the ways! In addition to musicians and run crew, we are looking for help with production roles such as stage management, set design and building, lights, sound, costumes, props, box office, house management, and more. Even if you don’t have experience but want to learn more about any of these roles, we’d love to hear from you! Just use the contact form at missedtheboattheatre.com/get-involved.

Get Involved

How can my organization sponsor the production?

We are seeking sponsors who will receive various levels of recognition in our print and digital media for the show, including the printed program which will be seen by 3,000+ enthusiastic audience members. More information about sponsorships will be released in the next several months, but in the meantime feel free to contact Artistic Director Mary Shaffer directly at mary@missedtheboattheatre.com.

Special Thanks!

This production of Catholic Young Adults: The Musical is supported by a grant from the Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota (CCF). This grant was made possible by the generosity of many donors, past and present.