“Scotland, PA”: Unsatisfied with the 2019 premiere of this darkly comic musical based on “Macbeth” and Billy Morrissette’s 2001 film, Broadway directors Lonny Price and Matt Cowart bring the team, including composer and lyricist Adam Gwon and book writer Michael Mitnick, to Minneapolis’ Theater Latté Da to develop it further. The cast includes Will Dusek, Katherine Fried and Emily Gunyou Halaas. (Sept. 18-Oct. 20, Ritz Theater, Mpls.)
Best 10 theater musicals and dramas in the Twin Cities for fall 2024
From musicals like “Some Like It Hot” and “Scotland, PA” to solo shows by Patrick Page and Roger Guenveur Smith, Minnesota theaters have a lot on offer.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
September 13, 2024 at 11:20AM
“A Walless Church: The Black Woman’s Guide to Creating God”: Very few auditoriums rival Pillsbury House Theatre for intimacy and immediacy, and this show promises an immersive baptism. Playwright AriDy Nox introduces us to a trio of godlings on their search for transformation and healing. Artistic director Signe Harriday directs. (Sept. 19-Oct. 13, Pillsbury House Theatre, Mpls.)
“Behind the Sun”: Stanley Kipper, drummer for the New Primitives reggae band, teams with playwright Laura Drake to tell this story of perseverance and wits. Set in 1956 Minneapolis, Stanley’s dad, Obie, quickens his American dream of buying a house, but there are barriers that include redlining. Obie enlists friends in a scheme that could land them all in jail. Richard D. Thompson directs this world premiere. (Sept. 21-Oct. 13, History Theatre, St. Paul)
“Rent”: Infused with vigor and a zest for life after a near-death experience, Bloomington playhouse Artistry has been reinvigorating classic American book musicals while introducing a raft of talented performers. Jonathan Larson’s contemporary classic, gets the Artistry treatment by director and choreographer Kelli Foster Warder. (Oct 3-27, Artistry, Bloomington)
“Helen”: What if the Trojan War was caused not by a cheating Helen — whose face launched a thousand ships — but by a phantom double? For her last show as artistic director of Ten Thousand Things Theater, Marcela Lorca explores the nature of truth in John Barton and Kenneth Cavander’s comic reimagining of Euripides’ classic. J.D. Steele crafts the music and George Keller plays Helen opposite Ryan Colbert’s Menelaus. (Oct. 3-Nov. 10, Ten Thousand Things, Mpls.)
“Drawing Lessons”: Playwright Michi Barall’s graphic novel-influenced show marries technology with live action. Storyboards come to life in this world premiere in which a pre-adolescent protagonist deals with issues of friendship, school and her Korean heritage. Co-commissioned by New York’s Ma-Yi Theater Company, the show is the first fruit of a five-theater consortium funded by the Mellon Foundation. (Oct. 8-Nov. 10, Children’s Theatre Company, Mpls.)
“Holmes/Poirot”: Before its fiscal woes, Park Square Theatre could be counted on for big mysteries. Now in its rebirth, the company is back in the game with this new mystery that yokes the two most famous detectives in a caper co-written by playwright Jeffrey Hatcher and actor Steve Hendrickson. David Ira Goldstein directs. (Oct. 9-Nov. 3, Park Square, St. Paul)
“All the Devils Are Here”: Patrick Page sinks his teeth into Shakespeare’s villains in this solo show that was a 2023 off-Broadway smash. Known for roles such as Hades in “Hadestown,” the Green Goblin in “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” and Scar in “The Lion King,” Page launches a national tour in Minneapolis with original director Simon Godwin. (Oct. 12-Nov. 17, Guthrie Theater, Mpls.)
“Some Like it Hot”: Few shows offer such unabashed fun this season as the Broadway tour of Matthew Lopez and Amber Ruffin’s loose stage adaptation of the 1959 film that starred Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis. This ebullient production by director and choreographer Casey Nicholaw sizzles. (Oct. 15-20, Orpheum Theatre, Mpls.)
“In Honor of Jean-Michel Basquiat”: Actor, director and playwright Roger Guenveur Smith has embodied lyrical and disembodied figures such as Rodney King and Huey P. Newton in solo shows. He returns with this intimate tribute to his late friend Jean-Michel Basquiat, the iconic painter and Andy Warhol acolyte with whom Smith collaborated. (Oct. 17-27, Penumbra Theatre, St. Paul)
The company has been unable to “keep pace with the cost of living,” and it’s the second Twin Cities dance company this year to announce it will shut down.
