If you want to get "Hamilton," you might need to have a little fun with Andrew Lloyd Webber.
The legendary British musical theater composer has three shows in the just-announced 2017-18 lineup of touring Broadway shows, put on by the Hennepin Theatre Trust. Subscribers for the full 2017-18 season will get first dibs on tickets to the 2018-19 presentation of "Hamilton," Lin-Manuel Miranda's revolutionary musical.
The 2017-18 Broadway roster has shows that are draws in their own right — 10 productions, in fact, that run for a total of 15 weeks. The roster kicks off at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis with Tony-winning director and choreographer Casey Nicholaw's new staging of "Aladdin," the Howard Ashman-Tim Rice musical that invites audiences into a whole new world (Sept. 15-Oct. 8).
"Finding Neverland," Tony-winning director Diane Paulus' stage adaptation of the film about the story behind Peter Pan, follows (Oct. 31-Nov. 5). Paulus also directs "Waitress," Sara Bareilles' hit musical about a single mother who makes great pies and hard choices (Nov. 21-26).
The season also includes a return of "The Phantom of the Opera," Lloyd Webber's blockbuster musical (Dec. 13-31) and, for the first time in the Twin Cities, the "Phantom" sequel, "Love Never Dies." Lloyd Webber set "Love" in Coney Island 10 years after the Phantom has escaped the Paris Opera House and is living amid the freaks of the amusement park (June 26-July 1, 2018).
The 2017-18 lineup includes a play, Stephen Karam's "The Humans," which won the 2016 Tony for best play. The one-act play stirs up a family's insecurities (Feb. 13-18, 2018). And the third Lloyd Webber show on tap for next year is "School of Rock," his stage adaptation of the movie about a musician and substitute teacher who turns his charges into a guitar-crunching rockers. The show features a cast of young people who also play instruments (March 6-11, 2018).
"Something Rotten," the musical comedy by a British team that re-imagines the dawn of musical comedy in the 1590s, lands a spot in the season (April 3-8, 2018), followed by two popular shows that are returning for encore engagements in the Twin Cities: "Jersey Boys," the show about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons (April 24-29, 2018) and "Chicago," the killer musical about murderess Roxie Hart (June 5-10, 2018).
Ticket packages, which range from $289 to $918, are available by calling 1-800-859-7469 or visiting hennepintheatretrust.org.
Rohan Preston • 612-673-4390
@rohanpreston
An NPR editor who wrote a critical essay on the company has resigned after being suspended
