Broadway Matinee
Hayride Scandal
Baton Rouge
Jan. 18, 2026
Last year when Theatre Baton Rouge closed abruptly in the middle of their 79th season, the community felt the loss, but the newer theater organizations in the city have been trying to pick up the slack with community events and additional shows. Yesterday, Red Magnolia Theatre Company brought the Broadway Matinee event back to Hayride Scandal due to popular demand.
The event is basically karaoke but with songs exclusively from Broadway musicals and a live pianist accompaniment. Dr. Henry Jones, a professor of piano at Southeastern University and a former Broadway accompanist, sight reads all the music for the event. The gathering was about three months ago, and this encore event drew an even bigger crowd. The front room of Hayride Scandal was packed with people.
“With the closure of Theatre Baton Rouge in 2025, we were down a venue for musical theater, particularly musical theater with live music,” said Jennifer Ellis, Administrative Vice President of Red Magnolia Theatre Company. “Most of the theaters that are now performing musicals are doing it with a recording, so we thought how nice it would be to have the opportunity to sing with a real pianist.”
The hope is to do this more regularly. At least quarterly, Ellis said. The singers were a mix of seasoned performers and people who just love musical theater. As a break between songs, they also hosted a game of musical theater trivia.
Some of the performances were amazing. One guy brought down the house with his performance of “Why God Why” from Miss Saigon. He started with the caveat that the song might be too high for him, but that did not seem to be the case. People like him could walk onto stage tomorrow, and no one would bat an eye. Some of the singers yesterday will. The Red Magnolia Theatre Company invited one of the performers for the Sullivan Theater’s current show, Sweeney Todd, to come and sing. Ellis said they’re hoping to promote musical theater in Baton Rouge as a whole, not just the work they’re doing.
But the beauty of the event is the way it opens the stage to people who may never have a principal role in theater or people who wouldn’t be cast as certain characters due to their age or demographics and gives them the opportunity to sing their favorite songs.
Musical theater has the potential to be either an amazing community or a toxic cult. It’s like religion in that way. They have their “holy books” – an entire canon of music, lyrics and dialogue — and when theater people get together, they make oblique references to random musicals and sometimes burst into song. The Broadway Matinee Encore was a supportive and welcoming environment to sing along to mainstream classics like “I Dreamed a Dream” and “Almost like Being in Love," but also to discover new songs from musicals people might not have seen before. It’s a low stakes way to step into the theater scene. Maybe some of the talent we’ll see on stage this year is already waiting in the wings.
