Best Theater Shows in Minneapolis-St. Paul This Fall

Nina Simone: Four Women
Pillsbury House + Theatre
Sept. 5 – 27

Christina Ham's play imagines a conversation between Nina Simone and three Black women in the aftermath of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963. Featuring a superstar cast (Erin Willis, Thomasina Petrus, Aimee K. Bryant, and Traci Shannon), this music-filled work provides a frame around one of Simone’s most famous songs.

Mothership
Penumbra
Sept. 10 – Oct. 4

Playwright Kristen Adele Calhoun, whose “Black Cypress Bayou” recently played LA’s Geffen, premieres her newest work at Penumbra. An Afro-futurist parable, “Mothership” follows four humans as they flee Earth aboard a sentient spaceship.

Waiting for Godot
Guthrie Theater
Sept. 12 – Oct. 11

Do we really need to tell you to go see this major production of Beckett’s absurdist classic starring David Strathairn? Well, you should go see it.

Fancy Dancer 
History Theatre
Sept. 12 – Oct. 4

Playwright and choreographer Larissa FastHorse, a member of the Sicangu Lakota Nation, is the author of Broadway’s “The Thanksgiving Play,” has an overall television deal with Freeform, and is the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors at Playwright’s Horizons. In other words: she’s a really, really big deal.

So, the chance to see her perform her own work in the History Theatre’s Fancy Dancer is a rare one. This autobiographical play was inspired by FastHorse’s first career as a ballet dancer and her childhood in rural South Dakota. Originally produced by Seattle Rep, it’s appropriate for all ages.

Indecent 
Theatre Latté Da
Sept. 16 – Oct. 18

Paula Vogel’s pro-artist polemic recounting the obscenity trial brought against Yiddish play "God of Vengeance" gets its first Twin Cities staging in eight years. If the premise sounds dense, don’t let it deter you: Vogel writes with grounded, pro-audience clarity, and the Yiddishkeit score invites rich pathos into the story, which runs up, and then into, the Holocaust.

On the Razzle
Park Square Theatre 
Sept. 30 – Oct. 25

This lesser-produced Tom Stoppard play (the late Stoppard is best known for writing the "Shakespeare in Love" screenplay and was a recent TONY winner for "Leopoldstadt") is a joyful farce inspired by the same original work that "Hello, Dolly!" is based on.

As You Like It
Ten Thousand Things 
Sept. 30 – Nov. 8

A starry cast, including Darius Dotch, Nubia Monks, and Dustin Bronson, head to the forest of Arden for Ten Thousand’s take on Shakespeare’s First Folio classic.

Into the Burrow: A Peter Rabbit Tale
Mixed Blood 
Oct. 1 – 18

The mission-driven Mixed Blood doesn’t often stage theater for young audiences, but this delightful transfer from Atlanta’s Alliance Theater (director Mark Valdez is the leader of Mixed Blood) promises great fun for all ages. And, as always with Mixed Blood, tickets are available to all, regardless of ability to pay.

You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown
Artistry
Oct. 1 – Oct. 25

Artistry’s production of Andrew Lippa’s delightful "Peanuts" musical is notable for featuring a cast of Twin Cities luminaries all over the age of 50. Bradley Greenwald, Michelle Barber, Tod Peterson and more are sure to bring uncommon wit, wisdom, and a high caliber of craft to a show often put on by high schools. If you're ever going to see "Charlie Brown," this is the production to see.

LIZZIE: The Rock Musical
Open Eye Theatre
Oct. 1 – Nov. 1

Lizzie Borden, the Victorian-era heiress legendarily accused of murdering her father and stepmother, gets the rock-and-roll treatment in this queer-forward, punk-powered re-telling of a notoriously spooky story. Remount of the popular 2025 production.

Kunene and the King
Guthrie Theater
Oct. 10 – Nov. 8

A Black caregiver finds himself working in the home of an elderly white actor in this post-Apartheid South African play from John Kani, who you may recognize as T’Chaka in Marvel’s “Black Panther”. Kani also stars in the Guthrie production alongside stage actor Edward Gero.

Kunene and the King was originally produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company and Fugard Theater, and the chance to see it locally, starring Kani, is not to be missed.

Twelve Kinds of Ice
Children's Theatre Company
Oct. 13 – Nov. 22

A world-premiere musical from NYC-based Fiasco Theater company member Ben Steinfeld, centering around one girl’s experience on the ice. Details on the plot may be scarce, but writer Steinfeld is a Broadway veteran whose work has been praised by The New York Times as having a "youthful, effervescent sweetness.”

Eagle-eyed theater fans may note that the other co-founders of Fiasco, Jessie Austrian and Noah Brody, were the writers and directors of Latté Da’s spring hit, "My Antonia." Perhaps Fiasco is considering a second home in Minneapolis?

Kung Fu Zombies vs Southeast Asian Girl Scouts 
Theater Mu
Oct. 29 – Nov. 15

A world premiere completing Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay’s Kung Fu Zombie Trilogy, in which three Southeast Asian girl scouts scramble to keep their community together during a zombie apocalypse. The opening night Halloween performance is a costume contest. Yes, that's a dare.

Memento Vivere: Remember to Live
The Moving Company
Oct. 22 – Nov. 22

Details are sparse on this new production from the enigmatic Moving Company (the Phoenix that rose from the ashes of Theatre de La Jeune Lune). We have one Instagram post and a venue (The Southern Theatre). But anything The Moving Company produces is worth seeing.

The Seagull
The Modern Rep
Oct. 23 – Nov. 7

Local legend Christina Baldwin plays Irina in this pared-back staging from Grant Sorenson’s ambitious new company, The Modern Rep.

One-Shot
Six Points
Oct. 23 – Nov. 8

A young gay couple in late '90s Virginia who dream of making movies together are the victims of a hate crime in this world-premiere Bildungsroman from Playwrights’ Center Core Writer Andrew Rosendorf.

Maybe Happy Ending
Hennepin Arts
Nov. 17 – 22

The Broadway tour of the TONY-winning musical about two South Korean “Helper Bots” falling in love hits Minneapolis the week before Thanksgiving.