'Hamilton' and 'Hadestown' highlight Hennepin Theatre Trust's 2020-21 season

February 3, 2020 at 10:00PM
The "Hamilton" national tour returns to the Twin Cities as part of the Hennepin Theatre Trust's 2020-21 season.
The "Hamilton" national tour returns to the Twin Cities as part of the Hennepin Theatre Trust's 2020-21 season. (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

A second tour of duty for historical blockbuster "Hamilton" and a pair of shows that local investors helped launch are on tap for Hennepin Theatre Trust's 2020-21 season.

"Hamilton" returns to the Orpheum Theatre, two years minus a day after its first, sold-out engagement ended there. Lin-Manuel Miranda's record-breaking musical, based on Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton, begins a seven-week run Oct. 6.

"Hadestown," the reigning Tony Award winner for best musical, will bring its blues-inflected retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice to town for a week. And "Ain't Too Proud," a jukebox musical about the history of Motown group the Temptations, will be here for two weeks. Both shows were partly financed by Stone Arch Theatricals, a local team of producers.

The biggest show in the season may be "Moulin Rouge! The Musical," which opened on Broadway just six months ago. Based on the Nicole Kidman/Ewan McGregor movie, it features parts of 70 pop songs in its various musical mashups, required the remodeling of a Broadway theater for its opening last summer and reportedly cost $28 million to produce.

The smallest show may be another Tony winner, "Oklahoma!," which won for best revival last year. The production strips down the arrangements for a small band and dives deep into Oscar Hammerstein's lyrics to uncover the dark core of a show set on the verge of Oklahoma statehood at a time when women, in particular, had few options.

Three other shows from Broadway's last season complete the new offerings: a "Tootsie" musical that borrows the basic idea of the Dustin Hoffman movie (an actor disguises himself as a woman and learns how to be a man) but not much else; "The Prom," a comedy about Broadway stars who splash down in a tiny town (it's currently being made into a splashy Meryl Streep/Kidman Netflix offering), and the Tony-winning "To Kill a Mockingbird," a new take on Harper Lee's classic novel of racism in an Alabama town.

Rounding out the season are return visits of "Jersey Boys" and, fresh off its disastrous movie adaptation, "Cats."

Subscriptions are on sale now at 1-800-859-7469 or at the State Theatre Box Office, 805 Hennepin Av., Minneapolis, for the complete season. All shows are at the Orpheum Theatre. • "Hamilton," Oct. 6-Nov. 22 • "To Kill a Mockingbird," Dec. 15-20 • "Oklahoma!", Jan 19-24, 2021 • "Ain't Too Proud — The Life and Times of the Temptations," Feb. 16-28, 2021 • "Jersey Boys," March 16-21, 2021 • "Moulin Rouge! The Musical," April 14-May 2, 2021 • "The Prom," May 18-23, 2021 • "Cats," June 8-13, 2021 • "Hadestown," June 22-27, 2021 • "Tootsie," July 27-Aug. 1, 2021

Chris Hewitt • 612-673-4367

about the writer

Chris Hewitt

Critic / Editor

Interim books editor Chris Hewitt previously worked at the Pioneer Press in St. Paul, where he wrote about movies and theater.

See More