The Hennepin Theater Trust has unveiled its 2024-2025 Bank of America Broadway on Hennepin season which will feature 11 Broadway productions coming to downtown Minneapolis.
The lineup includes seven Minnesota premier and four returning favorites highlighted by the recently announced pre-Broadway world premiere of Purple Rain at the historic State Theater in 2025.
Hennepin Theater Trust President and Ceo Todd Duesing has more on what's coming.
"Back to the Future of the musical in September, based on the film, but just a really exciting take on it with a lot of great theatrical technical activity happening with it just makes it fun and exciting," Duesing says. "Followed by Some Like It Hot, the acclaimed musical that was on Broadway. Tony Award winner Parade, we'll be actually launching Parade here from Minneapolis, much like we did Girl From the North Country. So that show will be built for the road here in Minneapolis in January of 2025."
Duesing continues with even more.
"Life Of Pi is going to come to us in March of '25 and Life Of Pi will be similar to some of the other shows that we've had that had animal puppets, or interactive puppets on stage that make up the animals and it's based on the Life Of Pi movie. And that should be really exciting."
A new Broadway musical that is a real big hit in New York is & Juliet.
"We'll have that in May of next year," Duesing says. "It's the story of Romeo and Juliet but with Juliete's take on it and it's exciting and very much a young female empowerment show. But it has music for all generations, including some current pop music and some great pop music from the typical parents' age right now. Looking back on the nineties. Fun and exciting stuff there. Also, the Tony Award winner, Kimberly Akimbo will be coming to town, which is a lovely story and great for all ages."
Duesing says the season concludes with the 30th anniversary production of Disney's Beauty and The Beast.
"The Disney production redone and reimagined in a new form. And with that, you know, subscribers and anyone who is interested in getting tickets to our shows, you also have the option to opt-in to performances of , the renowned hit Les Misrables, the humorously funny story from the South Park creators, The Book of Mormon, and we had such a big demand for Hadestown when we had it just a couple of years ago, so we're bringing it back already to make sure we can get that desire to see that show filled by everyone that wanted to see it."
And then finally there is the biggest news of all.
"The pre-Broadway world premiere of Purple Rain The Musical that'll be created, launched everything right here in Minneapolis in the spring of 2025 at the historic State Theater," Duesing explains.
He says people from all over the world are already showing interest in Purple Rain.
"So it's great for the trust and our operations, but we want to do this as acclaim to Prince. He is from Minneapolis. Prince is Minneapolis. It's ours, the launch and they don't get to have it in New York. So we do have it first. We're really proud of that and I think it's just going to make an incredible impact on downtown Minneapolis with visitors and the start of the show and the launch of the show really, financially, putting a positive hit on downtown."
Purple Rain will appear at the State Theatre. All remaining shows appear at the Orpheum Theatre.
Back to the Future: The Musical, Sept. 10-22, 2024 (two weeks)
Some Like It Hot, Oct. 15-20, 2024
Parade, Jan. 21-26, 2025 (North American Tour premiere)
Life of Pi, March 4-9, 2025
Purple Rain, spring 2025 (pre-Broadway world premiere, State Theatre)
& Juliet, May 13-18, 2025
Kimberly Akimbo, July 8-13, 2025
Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Aug. 5-17, 2025 (two weeks)
Les Misérables, Nov. 19 – Dec. 1, 2024 (two weeks)
The Book of Mormon, Dec. 17–22, 2024
Hadestown, Feb, 11-16, 2025