"American Idiot," "Million Dollar Quartet," "The Lion King," "Les Misérables" and "Mamma Mia!"
The new musicals and revivals in the 2011-2012 Broadway Across America lineup, announced Thursday, are aimed at baby boomers, millennials and generations in between.
They will be staged in Minneapolis at the Orpheum and State theaters.
"Idiot" is built around a Green Day concept album centered on a character also known as Jesus of Suburbia. The rock musical, which won two Tony Awards for design, has just announced an April 24 closing date in New York. Ticket sales for the show dropped off dramatically after Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong left the Broadway production. He is slated to return to "Idiot" for the last three weeks of its New York run. There is no word yet on casting for the Minneapolis engagement (Feb. 21-26, 2012).
"Quartet," another new title in the slate, is about a legendary 1956 jam session with Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins (March 27 to April 1, 2012).
The Broadway tour roster also includes the revivals of "La Cage Aux Folles," which won three Tonys (Oct. 18-23, 2011); the 25th-anniversary production of "Les Miz" (Dec. 6-18, 2011); and the return of "Lion King" (Jan. 11-Feb. 12, 2012), which premiered at the Orpheum way back in 1997. That musical's visionary director, Julie Taymor, has been much in the news lately after she was let go from the problem-plagued Broadway production of "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark."
The season also marks the return of the Abba musical "Mamma Mia!" (April 24-29, 2012) and the first theatrical tour of multimedia kitsch mavens the Blue Man Group (June 15-24, 2012).
Ticket packages, from $155 to $484, are on sale. Single tickets will go on sale at a later date. 1-800-859-7469 or www. HennepinTheatreTrust.org.
Rohan Preston • 612-673-4390
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