The Joke's On Everyone!

Charlotte Squawks 21: Hold My Beer! wraps up its month-long run on June 28 at the Booth Playhouse, giving North Carolinians one last chance to see the city lovingly roast itself before the curtain closes for another year.

For more than two decades, Charlotte Squawks has occupied a unique corner of the local arts scene. Part musical comedy, part civic therapy session, the annual production takes everything Charlotte residents spent the past year talking about and turns it into songs, sketches, and punchlines. Traffic headaches, sports heartbreaks, political headlines, neighborhood debates, and whatever else found its way into local conversations are all fair game.

Presented by Blumenthal Arts, the show has become one of the region's most recognizable summer traditions because it does something surprisingly difficult: it creates comedy that only works here.

The Queen City's Annual Report Card

Every city has its quirks. Charlotte Squawks has built an entire franchise around pointing them out.

Unlike touring productions that arrive with the same script in every market, Squawks starts fresh each year. Writers and performers spend months developing new material based on local events, community conversations, and the occasional headline that practically writes itself.

That local focus is what keeps audiences returning. The jokes land because people recognize the references. They sat in the traffic. They followed the story. They argued about it at work, at dinner, or in line for coffee.

The result feels less like watching a traditional musical and more like attending Charlotte's funniest annual town hall meeting.

Even newcomers quickly catch on. You don't need decades of local knowledge to understand that the city occasionally takes itself a little too seriously and that Charlotte Squawks is more than happy to help keep everyone's ego in check.

A Tradition That Keeps Evolving

In a media landscape crowded with national commentary and endless online opinions, there's something refreshing about a production focused entirely on one community.

That's part of the reason Charlotte Squawks has remained one of the Southeast's longest-running original musical comedy productions. Every year brings new material, new headlines, and new reasons for audiences to laugh at the place they call home.

With the June 28 finale approaching, this year's run is entering its final week. For longtime fans, it's one last chance to see what the writers had to say about the past year. For first-timers, it's an opportunity to experience a Charlotte institution that has spent more than twenty years proving that local comedy still has plenty to say. So be sure to snag tickets before time runs out! 

And in Charlotte's case, plenty to sing about too.

Want to hear more about festivals in North Carolina? Check out https://www.guidetonc.com/festivals!