"The Hired Man" by Theatre Pro Rata at the Crane Theater

This fall, Theatre Pro Rata is bringing us a new play by local playwright/ actor/ improvisor Heather Meyer that feels like a modern Sam Shepard play, with some Greek tragedy and a little bit of soap opera mixed in. It's gorgeously designed to evoke that Western feel, well directed and acted, and cleverly scripted. It's the kind of play I wish I had time to see again, because all of the clues for the big twist are right there, if you know what you're looking for. The Hired Man continues through October 10 at the Crane Theater in NE Minneapolis, which has recently taken possession of the gorgeous red velvet seats from our dear departed Jungle Theater, for extra comfort and nostalgia.

"Wife of a Salesman" by Girl Friday Productions at Gremlin Theatre

A decade or so ago, Girl Friday Productions' performance model was one show every two years, focusing on large-cast American classics, and it was always worth waiting for. Then the pandemic happened, and a change in Artistic Director, to shake things up a little. But now they're back, three years since their last show, and hopefully will move into a regular cadence moving forward. Because while the model might have changed a little - their current show is the new play Wife of a Salesman with just a four-person cast - it's still worth the wait. Perhaps their new niche is new plays that examine classic plays (their last one was Aaron Posner's Life Sucks, very loosely based on Chekhov's Uncle Vanya). This Wife is a fantastic commentary not just on Arthur Miller's American tragedy Death of a Salesman, but on gender roles and women's rights in the last century, and in this one. The short run concludes next weekend, so get yourself to Gremlin Theatre to avoid missing another rare gem by Girl Friday Productions! If you don't, you may have to wait another 2-3 years for the next one. 

"The Great Gatsby" at Theatre in the Round

To celebrate their 75th season, Theatre in the Round has chosen plays and musicals with a Minnesota connection. First up: an adaptation of Minnesota writer F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel The Great Gatsby by playwright Simon Levy, that premiered at the Guthrie Theater twenty years ago. I re-read the novel this summer, after seeing the Broadway tour of the musical adaptation earlier this year, which didn't feel true to the novel, so I was ready for this more faithful adaptation. The beautiful and tragic story plays out in about two hours (including intermission), and portrays the darkness of capitalism, materialism, classism, and the failure of the American Dream, as well as the glitz and glamour of the roaring '20s. The Great Gatsby continues for one more weekend at the oldest theater in Minneapolis, followed by an exciting slate of Minnesota stories and/or stories by Minnesota artists.

"Come Back" at Lakeshore Players Theatre

Due to a very busy September in #TCTheater, and a long weekend at American Players Theatre, I wasn't able to see Lakeshore Players Theatre's production of the dramedy Come Back until closing weekend, and all the remaining performances are sold out. That's bad news for you, because it's a beautiful play about grief and loss and undying friendship, with a fantastic cast and gorgeous design in Lakeshore's intimate black box space. Written by Milwaukee-based playwright Neil Haven, it premiered a little over ten years ago and has finally made its way to the Twin Cities (after a production at Commonweal in Lanesboro five years ago). It's funny and sad, irreverent and moving.

"Head Over Heels" by Minneapolis Musical Theatre at LUSH

Rare musicals. Well done. Minneapolis Musical Theatre lives by these words, and we benefit from it. They're only doing two shows this season, but both are regional premieres that you're unlikely to see anywhere else. They'll be doing the musical adaptation of Jane Eyre next spring, but first up is the 2018 Broadway musical Head over Heels. I didn't see it on Broadway, but after seeing MMT's production it feels like the kind of thing that is better suited to smaller stages. In particular, it seems perfectly suited to the stage at LUSH Lounge & Theater, where it feels more like a raucous concert than a civilized night at the theater. And that's a good thing in this case. I'm not sure why anyone would think to set a 16th Century work of literature to the music of the 1980s all-female rock band The Go-Go's, but there have been worse ideas in this history of music-theater. The show is pure joy and silliness and fun, with a sweet ending that imagines a world beyond gender conventions, where everyone is free to be who they are and love who they love. And what's not to love about that? Only six performances remain on specific dates and times through October 10, click here to see the schedule and purchase tickets.

"Indecent" by Theater Latte Da at the Ritz Theater

Theater Latte Da is known for their musicals, but about once a season they do a play, with music added. They open their new season with a play that already has music as an important part of it, the 2017 Broadway play Indecent, which received its first post-Broadway production at the Guthrie Theater in 2018. Ingeniously written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel, the play tells the story of a play, the history of the world around it, and the interaction of the two. It's about so many things, among them the depiction of a lesbian romance on stage in the early 20th Century, the role of theater in the world, the rise of Nazism and the Holocaust, and the resulting decline of a language and a culture because of it.* These themes are even more relevant today than when the play premiered, with censorship, anti-Semitism, discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community, and anti-immigrant sentiment on the rise. In just under two hours of uninterrupted music-theater, Indecent so beautifully tells this story and evokes a range of emotions. It's so affecting, and devastating, and inspiring, the kind of thoughtful, thought-provoking, insightful, and entertaining music-theater we have come to expect from Theater Latte Da (continuing through October 18).

"Waiting for Godot" at the Guthrie Theater

Where do we go from here? On.

The Guthrie's first production of Samuel Beckett's classic Waiting for Godot since the year I was born (which was a long time ago), and Artistic Director's Joseph Haj's first time directing it, comes at the perfect time. Written as a reflection on the devastation of WWII, it speaks to the idea of waiting. For what? Anything. For things to get better, for things to get worse, for salvation. As cast member Jimmy Keiffer explained in a post-show discussion, absurdism is the idea that life has no meaning, so what do we do to give it meaning? What seems on the surface a silly and ridiculous little play at some point becomes exquisitely profound, with the "giving birth astride of a grave" of it all. And it's somehow oddly hopeful, despite the existential angst. In the face of destruction or disaster, the only thing we can do is go on. 

American Players Theatre 2026

As my 4th visit to American Players Theatre approached (with my fellow Twin Cities Theater Bloggers - Minnesota Theater Love and Ernest Goes to the Theatre), I anxiously checked the weather multiple times a day. Half of our six scheduled shows were outdoors, and it was supposed to be the rainiest weekend of the summer. But weather can change, and APT doesn't cancel for mere rain; it has to be heavy rain or storms. It ended up working out beautifully, as things sometimes do. Both of our Friday shows went on as scheduled, with just some passing rain, and only the Saturday matinee was cancelled due to storms, which was better than I hoped. That's the risk you take when you do theater outdoors, but the benefits far outweigh the risks of inclement weather. Because when the elements of Nature interact with the play, be they blaring sunshine or steady rain or a sky full of stars, it's magic. I learned this year that watching Shakespeare in the rain is a magical experience; yes it's cold and damp, but everyone is cold and damp together - the actors with their wet hair sticking to their faces and their costumes dotted with rain, the audience draped in ponchos and clutching hot chocolate from concessions. We're all in it together no matter what happens, participating in this experience of collective imagination that we call theater. This is how they did it back in Shakespeare's time, which maybe is why so many of his plays reference Nature directly or indirectly (both rained-on shows had lines about rain, which we all laughed at together). You can still experience the magic this year for the next few weeks, or start making your plans for the best theater vacay in the Midwest in 2027; the season opens in June, with the 2027 lineup of plays to be announced later this fall.

"Merrily We Roll Along" at Lyric Arts

Stephen Sondheim's musical Merrily We Roll Along, with book by George Furth, was a flop when it premiered on Broadway in 1981, and only played 60 total performances (most of them previews). It went through many rounds and decades of revisions, until it landed back on Broadway more than 40 years later and won four Tony Awards, including best revival of a musical in 2024. A few years before that, our own Theater Latte Da had done a gorgeous production, which was my introduction to the piece. I love it (and understand it) more each time I see it, with its unique backwards storytelling style. Now, to open their new season, Lyric Arts is bringing us the first #TCTheater production post-Broadway revival, and I'm happy to declare, "It's a Hit!" You wouldn't know it from the small audience on a rainy Wednesday night, but that's sure to change once word gets out about this fantastic local cast and this great Sondheim score played by a live band, telling a story of friendship and regret, and the way our story is made up of small choices that ultimately add up to life. Find out how this story ends, or begins, at Lyric Arts in Anoka through October 4.

"Ball: A Musical Tribute To My Lost Testicle" at Artistry

Multi-talented #TCTheater artist Max Wojtanowicz's solo musical Ball: A Musical Tribute to My Lost Testicle was my favorite show of the 2016 Minnesota Fringe Festival, because it was so funny and poignant, so raw and emotional, so cleverly and smartly put together. At the time, Max was just about six months removed from a diagnosis of stage 3 testicular cancer, and started writing the show during treatment, with help from director and frequent collaborator Nikki Swoboda, and composers Andrew Cooke, Michael Gruber, and Jason Hansen. He toured the show for a couple of years after that, and even brought it back to the Southern in 2018, before performing at a festival in NYC. And now, ten years cancer free, Max is performing the show for two short weekends at Artistry. It's still just about an hour long, still set in 2016, but with a few tweaks to make it make sense today. If anything, the show has gotten better with time and perspective; Max is still able to tap back into the emotions of the moment, but with perhaps more clarity or insight looking back on it. There are only five performances left, so if you're looking for a great solo show that is personal and universal, and very well written and performed, Ball is it!

"Fancy Dancer" at History Theatre

In 2023, Larissa FastHorse became the first Native woman to have a play produced on Broadway with The Thanksgiving Play. But before that, she was a professional ballerina. The story of how this half Native, half White woman from a small town in South Dakota went on this unlikely trajectory is a fascinating one, which she tells herself in her solo play Fancy Dancer, receiving its second production right here at History Theatre in St. Paul (it was originally commissioned by Children's Theatre Company, and after several rounds of workshopping premiered in Seattle last year). Fancy Dancer feels like one of those great Fringe solo storytelling shows in which an artist tells you their life story in a way that is engaging, relatable, moving, and entertaining. Larissa is an incredible storyteller, whether through dancing, or writing, or performing in this show. While this play is unusual for the History Theater in that it wasn't commissioned and developed here, it absolutely fits the model of telling true stories from history (albeit fairly recent history), primarily in the Midwest. Minnesota has its own tragic history with the Lakota people, and this play is not about that, but it is about the Lakota community and one Lakota woman who overcame hardships to follow her dream of being a professional ballet dancer, which is no easy dream for anyone to accomplish. It's a story that'll make you laugh and cry and feel all the feelings in between! See it at History Theatre in downtown St. Paul now through October 4.

"Bull in a China Shop" by Fortune's Fool Theatre at the Hive Collaborative

Bull in a China Shop, now receiving its #TCTheater premiere with Fortune's Fool Theatre, tells the story of an early 20th Century president of Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, the first women's college in the country. As an alum of College of St. Benedict, the first women's college west of the Mississippi, it's an interesting look at the history of higher education for women. But it's not just about that, it's the true story of two women in a long term committed relationship at a time when that wasn't accepted or talked about. 38 years fly by in less than 90 minutes of short scenes between these two women and other women at the college, depicting a complicated, intense, loving relationship. In what seems to be a new trend with Fortune's Fool, the show is free to attend (donations gladly accepted), and as always there are snacks at the Hive, so there's really no reason not to go see it! Continuing through September 27.