4 recent Tony winners plus Prince musical ‘Purple Rain’ on tap for Minneapolis’ new Broadway season

Minneapolis will be sending a show to Broadway and getting some popular new titles for the 2024-25 season.

The pre-Broadway world premiere of “Purple Rain,” the stage adaptation of Prince’s now classic 1984 film, will open in spring 2025 at the State Theatre. That show, whose dates have not been set, will add to the luster of a season that includes four recent Tony winners and three productions that are still running in Times Square — “Back to the Future: The Musical,” “& Juliet” and “Kimberly Akimbo,” winner of last year’s best musical Tony.

All told, the 11 shows in Hennepin Theatre Trust’s upcoming lineup for Minneapolis have won a cumulative 40 Tonys, and include the return of fan favorites such as “Les Misérables” and “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.”

“There’s something inviting and exciting for the entire family to come on down to Hennepin Avenue,” said Todd Duesing, president and CEO of the trust. “It’s a testament to our community that we are first in line for many of these shows.”

Things kick off with “Back to the Future,” Bob Gale’s and Robert Zemeckis’ stage adaptation of the 1985 film that starred Michael J. Fox as time traveler Marty McFly. Unusually, the show, which opened last August, is still running on Broadway. The film’s cast included retired Macalester College professor Harry Waters Jr. (Sept. 10-22).

The tap-dancing extravaganza “Some Like It Hot,” which won four Tonys in 2023 including one by J. Harrison Ghee — the first nonbinary artist to win the award — hoofs its way into town for a week. No casting has been announced (Oct. 15-20).

The holidays will see the return of two familiar titles — the beloved musical “Les Misérables” (Nov. 19-Dec. 1) and the caustic religious send-up “The Book of Mormon” just before Christmas (Dec. 17-22).

Anaïs Mitchell’s Tony-winning musical “Hadestown,” which has played the Orpheum in 2022, returns for an encore engagement (Feb.11-16, 2025).

The season’s sole nonmusical is “Life of Pi,” playwright Lolita Chakrabarti’s adaptation of Yann Martel’s novel. It won three Tonys in the design categories and is about a 16-year-old who survives on a boat with both predator and prey animal companions after a shipwreck (March 4-9, 2025).

Although definite dates have not been announced, “Purple Rain” follows “Pi” and comes before “& Juliet,” bookwriter David West Read’s reimagining of the end of “Romeo and Juliet.” One of the more daring titles in the season, the show features extant tunes of Swedish hitmaker Max Martin (May 13-18, 2025).

“Kimberly Akimbo” is the opposite of Benjamin Button. In this musical by Jeanine Tesori (“Caroline, or Change” and “Thoroughly Modern Millie”) and Pulitzer-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire (“Rabbit Hole”), a girl ages so rapidly, she looks like a geriatric teen (July 8-13, 2025).

The trust’s roster also includes the 30th-anniversary production of “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast” (Aug. 5-17, 2025).