The Right Thing To Do: The Joe Mauer Story
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| Program Cover |
Based on the book by Joe Schmit
Book and Music by Michael Mahler
Review by Ernest Edwards
The Right Thing To Do is making its world premier at the Stages Theatre Company on Main Street in downtown Hopkins. I was at the opening night performance, but Joe Mauer was not in attendance. As a spoiler alert, this one act musical does feature videos of Joe Mauer at the begging and end of the musical.
I have never heard of the book that this musical is based on. I just know Joe Mauer the former MN Twins baseball player and Hall of Fame inductee. The musical does have some catchy songs. The story of the musical does follow Joe Mauer from being a 10 year old to being in High School. His closet friends were Andrea and Mike. Mike is legally blind and uses a cane. One line Mike had in High School was, “how it is he is the only blind student, but no one can see him?” A teenage Joe Mauer changed all of that by adding Mike to his circle of friends. Mike is very good at sport stats. He listens to the games on the radio.
Something that a young Joe Mauer’s dad said, and I hope I get the quote right “try something different, and great things can happen”. At the beginning of the musical, young Joe could throw a baseball with his right hand, and write with his right hand, but was not as good batting with his right hand. Once he started batting left handed, that was a game changer for him. He tried something different and something great happened. Which also includes his friendship with Mike. There are still friends to this day.
A fun moment in the musical, during High School, a group of girls are fawning over Joe’s success on the high school baseball team. Except Maddie, who is not impressed. Then the voice of the narrator says “Maddie eventually becomes Mrs. Joe Mauer, but that’s a story for a different musical.”
Director Sandy Boren-Barrett assembled a fine cast of young people for this production. Some cast to mention are Baron Heinz as Young Joe Mauer, Charlie Gold as Teen Joe Mauer, Sakhile Mazwi as Young Andrea, Akron Manson as Teen Andrea, Reid Soltis as Young Mike, Noah Durand as Teen Mike. The only adult character on stage is JC Lippold as Joe’s Dad.
This one act musical is a feel good story. It’s a fun story about the younger years of a local who became a famous national baseball player and the life lessons and morals he learned along the way. One thing to take with you from this musical is “do the right thing”.
The show plays at Stages Theatre Company through May 10, 2026. Check out www.stagestheatre.org for tickets.
