I caught opening night of Chicken Tinders at Taproot Theatre Company and I’m still thinking about it. This is a new musical with book and lyrics by Scott Zenreich and music and lyrics by John Gregor, about a farm that falls apart when the Rooster dies and everyone thinks it’s the last day on Earth. It sounds silly. It is silly. It’s also genuinely beautiful and the music hit me harder than I expected.

This is exactly the kind of art that matters right now — funny, heartfelt, and saying something real about what we prioritize when everything feels like it’s ending.

Photo Credit Giao Nguyen

The cast is doing the work. Noah Fletcher as Chicken, Janet Krupin as Fox — who is an absolute menace and I loved every second of it — Rebecca Cort, Ania Briggs, Jeremy Steckler, Nathan A. Smith, Justin Tran, Cheyenne Barton, and Gabe Zuniga. Everyone is committed and it shows.

None of it happens without the people doing the hard unglamorous work behind the scenes. Adair Rice served as production manager and then some, and the fact that the whole thing felt so tight and alive is a direct reflection of that. Good production management is invisible when it’s working. Hers was working.

Watch for what these companies do next. If Chicken Tinders is any indication, you don’t want to miss it.