Smoke House Stage

03/10/2026

Here’s a little preview of our upcoming show CROONERS hosts JAKE ENDRES & JAKE JACKSON doing TOM WAITS on Saturday 21 March! This might be the most powerful heartrenching singing I get to do, and Jake Jackson’s guitar is soooo freakin lovely. Saturday 21 March, 6:30pm show in the lovely intimate Dunsmore room.

Tom Waits aficionado – and Smoke House Stage host – Jake Endres returns to Crooners with another inebriational travelogue of songs from our beloved Musical Poet Laureate. This time, he’s joined by the guitar & bass wizardry of Jake Jackson for an intimate yet worlds-spanning set, perfect for the Dunsmore Room. From heart-melting ballads, through booze-soaked blues, to the delightfully bizarre, this retrospective spans Waits’ whole career with songs that reach home with everyone.

This 85-minute show recombines and adds to what these Two Jakes have done at Smoke House Stage over the last couple of years, with songs and tales that celebrate cars, loves lost and found, and the beginning of spring (with its melting of *ice*).

Jake Endres: Vocals, Piano, Various & Sundries

Jake Jackson: Guitars, Bass, Vocals

12/08/2025

IT’S 7 WORLD PREMIERES NIGHT, TONIGHT (& TOMORROW)! Smoke House Stage host Jake Endres presents SEVEN new short pieces of music-theater that he wrote both words and music for, with fabulous theatrical musicians at Nautilus Music-Theater!

Here’s the deal: over 3 weeks in March, Jake set himself this task:
– every third day, write a (very) short story;
– the next day, set that story as a libretto and/or lyrics;
– the next day, set that to music …
—> and then do all of that six more times.

What resulted were seven VERY different pieces, all using different literary & musical styles and/or techniques, and written with a dream cast in mind – all of who will be premiering these works on 8 & 9 December! We’re so blessed to have the brilliant singing-acting talents of Yvonne Freese, Joni Griffith, Eric Morris, and Felix Aguilar Tomlinson, with the musical bedrock of the great George Maurer at the piano, and of course the inspiring guidance of Ben Krywosz of Nautilus Music-Theater! (Joni, Felix, and George being of course Smoke House Stage veterans!)

So please join us, either:

– Monday 8 December at Nautilus, 308 Prince St., St. Paul 55101

– Tuesday 9 December at St. Joan of Arc, 4537 Third Ave. S, 55419

(both shows at 7:30pm; reservation information in the postcard below)

I’d love to have you experience these with us – there’s definitely something for everyone in this wild menagerie of musicals!

[Content warning: adult language and situations occur in one piece. By very bad adults saying very bad things to each other, kind of ‘Succession’-style.]

12/04/2025

THIS COMING MONDAY & TUESDAY! Smoke House Stage host Jake Endres presents SEVEN new short pieces of music-theater that he wrote both words and music for, with fabulous theatrical musicians at Nautilus Music-Theater!

Here’s the deal: over 3 weeks in March, Jake set himself this task:
– every third day, write a (very) short story;
– the next day, set that story as a libretto and/or lyrics;
– the next day, set that to music …
—> and then do all of that six more times.

What he ended up with were seven VERY different pieces, all using different literary & musical styles and/or techniques, and written with a dream cast in mind – all of who will be premiering these works on 8 & 9 December! We’re so blessed to have the brilliant singing-acting talents of Yvonne Freese, Joni Griffith, Eric Morris, and Felix Aguilar Tomlinson, with the musical bedrock of the great George Maurer at the piano, and of course the inspiring guidance of Ben Krywosz of Nautilus Music-Theater!

So please join us, either:

– Monday 8 December at Nautilus, 308 Prince St., St. Paul 55101

– Tuesday 9 December at St. Joan of Arc, 4537 Third Ave. S, 55419

(both shows at 7:30pm; reservation information in the postcard below)

I’d love to have you experience these with us – there’s definitely something for everyone in this wild menagerie of musicals!

[Content warning: adult language and situations occur in one piece. By very bad adults saying very bad things to each other, kind of ‘Succession’-style.]

11/07/2025

Your Smoke House Stage host Jake Endres appears in this beauty of a show for the whole month of November, right across Hwy 94 from our backyard concert series, at Gremlin Theatre in the Vandalia Tower complex. Come see him in the sweet role of Cosme McMoon, the accompanist to the (in?)famous Florence Foster Jenkins, the wealthy New York “soprano” who sold out Carnegie Hall, despite (or because of) the fact she couldn’t really sing. It’s a terrifically funny and tenderly moving show, not least as the title character is played by the great and HILARIOUS Cheryl Willis, and we’re directed by the brilliant and energetic Angela Timberman. Opening night is tonight, and we run Wed-Sun for the rest of the month. We’d be as delighted to see you there as you’d be to see the show!

A Fantasia on the Life of Florence Foster Jenkins By Stephen Temperley Directed by Angela Timberman Featuring Cheryl Willis and Jake Endres November 7 – 30, 2025 “A wildly funny and sur…