A deep dive into adaptations taking over Twin Cities theatres this fall

["BACK TO THE FUTURE THEME" PLAYING] CATHY WURZER: If that sounds familiar, it's because it's the theme music from Back to the Future. The 1985 film is now a blockbuster musical, playing at the Orpheum in Minneapolis through this weekend. And it's one of the many shows kicking off the theater season.

Arts reporter Jacob Aloi joins us to talk about the season ahead. Hey, Jacob.

JACOB ALOI: Hi, Cathy. Yes, Back to the Future, blockbuster musical-- went and reviewed it last week. And it really does feel like the start of the theater season. But Back to the Future is also kind of kicking off this trend I'm noticing for the theater season ahead. And that's adaptations.

CATHY WURZER: Really? I wonder what that's all about.

JACOB ALOI: Yeah. I mean, there's all different kinds of adaptations. I wrote about this in an article recently. There's movie adaptations, like Back to the Future, or the premiere of Purple Rain a little bit later into 2025. And then there's even more niche ones, right? Like Scotland, PA at Theater Latté Da in Minneapolis, which is an adaptation of the movie of the same name, which itself is an adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth.

But you know, you also have book adaptations, Theater Mu in February's opening 50 Boxes of Earth, which is a reimagining of Dracula as a South Asian immigrant. And then we have translations of plays written in other languages. You know, we have the Lehman trilogy at the Guthrie, which officially opens this weekend. And that's, of course, about the Lehman family of, you know, infamous American history, their history here in America. It was originally written in Italian, and then it was translated by British playwright Ben Power.

And there's also a Greek myth with a fresh take this season. It's the return of the touring cast of Hadestown, which is an industrialist take on Orpheus and Eurydice, the Greek myth.

["WAY DOWN HADESTOWN" PLAYING]

HERMES: (SINGING) Follow that dollar for a long way down

Far away from the poorhouse door

You either get to hell or to Hadestown

Ain't no difference anymore!

CATHY WURZER: OK. I'm not sure sometimes what to make of adaptations, Jacob. I mean, sometimes they're great. Sometimes they're meh. You seem to really like adaptations.

JACOB ALOI: Yeah, I love them. I mean, one of my-- I think that they're really kind of their own art form. One of my memories that really cements my love for adaptations was Crazy Rich Asians. I don't know if you've seen that film.

CATHY WURZER: Yes.

JACOB ALOI: 2018, late summer, came out right before I went into college. I saw the film version before I read the book. And the film follows a fairly linear plot, clear main characters. But the book meanders. It's over 400 pages. It has a lot of complicated, sometimes boring, pointless plot lines for me. And so really seeing how the movie adapted and kept kind of the same themes, but changed things around a bit fascinated me about the limitations that adaptations have, but also what they can explore.

One of my favorite adaptations of all time is Cabaret, which the Guthrie will present next summer. And while you know it keeps true to its source material, it also focuses on new themes for a different audience.

["WILLKOMMEN" PLAYING]

EMCEE: (SINGING) Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome!

JACOB ALOI: So Cabaret, it's based on a play, which itself is based on a semi-autobiographical novel called Goodbye to Berlin. And the book is more about queer life in Germany, and what were at the time taboo topics, like abortion, during the rise of Nazism, right on the on the precipice of World War II.

But the musical was written a few decades later by three Jewish men, and really focuses on how fascism rises when people ignore the politics that are around them.

["TOMORROW BELONGS TO ME" PLAYING]

FELIX: (SINGING) But gather together to greet the storm

Tomorrow belongs to me

CATHY WURZER: What about non-adaptations this season?

JACOB ALOI: Yeah, well, there is a new play from New Arab American Theater Works. It opens this weekend. It's called Rosette. It's about a Palestinian woman growing up under occupation. Trademark Theater is opening a murder mystery called The Reunion in Saint Paul.

And History Theater, also in Saint Paul, is producing an autobiographical play about redlining and community building in Minneapolis called Behind the Sun. Although, I know some might argue that stories based on true stories or real-life events are adaptation adjacent.

CATHY WURZER: Now, I wonder, knowing your love for adaptations, but there are those who might look at this lineup and say, nah, too many for me. So what do you think about that?

JACOB ALOI: Now, I'm the first to say that some adaptations can be soulless cash grabs. Like, I fully admit that, totally understand it. But so can original works, right? Vanity projects that are blinded by ambition. That's what I think of when it comes to original works that also kind of suck.

But you know, that's an art problem. That's not an adaptation problem. Oklahoma and South Pacific, you know, Rodgers and Hammerstein's classics, those were both adaptations-- you know, Green Grow the Lilacs and Tales of the South Pacific, respectively.

And I don't know. I guess I'm just more excited to see what adaptations can do. What one's going to be the next Godfather? Which was adapted for the screen from a book, or West Side Story, which was based on Romeo and Juliet. And what will fail in its mission to elevate its material?

CATHY WURZER: You may have just convinced me to maybe open the door more to adaptations than I already have. So I thank you for that.

JACOB ALOI: Well, I appreciate it, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: That is Jacob Aloi, one of our arts reporters.