Hennepin Theatre Trust and Theater Latte Da Launch BROADWAY RE-IMAGINED Series With AIDA, January 2013

Hennepin Theatre Trust and Theater Latté Da announced today the launch of Broadway Re-Imagined, a new collaborative partnership taking a fresh look at Broadway and other musical theatre productions. The series kicks off in January 2013 with a co-production of Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida, imaginatively directed by Latté Da's acclaimed artistic director Peter Rothstein, at the historic Pantages Theatre, 710 Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis.

Single tickets for Aida will go on sale through Hennepin Theatre Trust and Theater Latté Da at 10 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 12, 2012. Performances will run Thursday–Sunday, January 3–27, 2013. Aida has also been on sale as part of Theater Latté Da's season subscriptions and as part of the Trust's Flex Ticket Packages. Additional information is available at latteda.org and at HennepinTheatreTrust.org.

Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida is based on a timeless love story drawn from the Giuseppi Verdi opera. It was made into a modern, Tony winning Broadway musical by Walt Disney Theatrical productions with music by Elton John, lyrics by Tim Rice and book by Linda Woolverton, Robert Falls and David Henry Hwang.

As part of this new collaboration, the two organizations anticipate co-producing at least one show annually. The impetus for Broadway Re-Imagined builds from Theater Latté Da and Hennepin Theatre Trust's successful work together since 2008 on All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914, co-presented with Cantus and running this year December 19–22 at the historic Pantages Theatre. Broadway Re-Imagined also expands the Trust's continuum of work with such Minnesota talent as Wendy Knox and Frank Theatre, and the local productions of 2 Sugars, Room for Cream, Girls Only: The Secret Comedy of Women and Standing on Ceremony, all featuring Twin Cities casting and presented at the Trust's New Century Theatre.

Tom Hoch, President/CEO of Hennepin Theatre Trust, said, "Launching Broadway Re-Imagined with Theater Latté Da and Peter Rothstein, taps the best of both organizations. The new series melds the Trust's experience with Broadway tours and strategic marketing plans to further open our Hennepin Avenue theatres to Theater Latté Da's passion and talent for reinventing the classic musical theater canon."

"This new collaboration is perfectly in line with Theater Latté Da's dedication to expanding the genre of innovative musical theater," said Artistic Director Peter Rothstein. "We prize the entire development and creative process and our continued work with the Trust and access to the historic Pantages Theatre establishes a well-known platform for us to explore and advance the art form and reach a broader range of contemporary audiences."

Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida the musical originated from a children's storybook version of Verdi's opera written by the soprano Leontyne Price. The tale unfolds in the Egyptian wing of a modern museum, when a man and a woman catch each other's eyes and are magically transported to ancient Egypt. Thus begins a dramatic love story between Radames, the captain of the Egyptian army, and Aida, the captured Nubian princess.

The source material was developed by Disney into the stage version which premiered on Broadway during March 2000, running for 1,852 performances until September 2004. It became the 34th longest running Broadway musical, with two U.S. national tours from 2002–2003 and from 2006-2007. Aida won four Tony Awards in 2000, including Best Musical Score and Best Performance by a Leading Actress. The cast recording also won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album and "Written in the Stars" (recorded and sung by Elton John and LeAnn Rimes) reached No.2 in the Billboard U.S. charts and No.1 in the Canadian contemporary charts. Aida was also named by Time Magazine in 2000 as one of the top ten theatre productions of the year.

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