Last Sunday, I went to the Ritz Theater to talk to composer Chan Poling about his new musical, Venus, which tells the story of a middle-aged woman who gets transformed into a sexy pop-star/supermodel. You can tell it's Sunday because of my hair and because I mentioned that it's SUNDAY—HEY, IT'S SUNDAY, I'M WORKING ON A SUNDAY—about eleven times during the shoot. (Thank you to Kyong Ham, our cameraman and editor, for cutting most of them out.)

Anyway, it was the last week before opening night, and they were going through the music with the full band. And you could tell Chan was a little nervous. I mean, the dude seems super laid-back—he had driven up from his miniature horse farm in Prior Lake that morning—and he's accomplished so much already musically, first with the Suburbs and now with the New Standards. But this is his first musical, and according to his director, Myron Johnson, he's been working on it for at least a decade.

According to Chan, Venus is a feminized Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde story. From Chan's description and a couple of the songs I heard during rehearsal, it feels very rock opera—if I was pitching it to Max Bialystock, I would go with "Tommy meets Wicked...in Minneapolis!" or something.

Oh, I also interviewed Myron, the director of Venus and the longtime choreographer for Ballet of the Dolls. I've talked to him before, but I've never had his full attention. Wow. What. A. Trip.


Venus runs May 7-24 at the Ritz Theater in Minneapolis, venusmusical.com