Artistry's production of "She Loves Me" is the latest in a flurry of stagings of the beloved musical.
The most-produced plays of the 2018-19 season in this country were "A Doll's House, Part 2" and "Sweat," but you wouldn't know that here. In the Twin Cities, it's two classic musicals that show up most often on stage.
Neither "Doll's House, Part 2" nor "Sweat" has been produced at all in the Twin Cities, for a variety of reasons. But if it's "She Loves Me" or "Into the Woods" you wanted to see, you're getting a bunch of chances, the most recent being the January 26 opening of Artistry's production of "She Loves Me" and the next being Ten Thousand Things' "Into the Woods," which starts next month. Both are at least the third major productions of those shows in a year.
What gives?
The newfound popularity of Stephen Sondheim's fairy tale-based "Into the Woods," which is more than three decades old, has a lot to due with the hit movie version, starring Meryl Streep and Emily Blunt, released in 2014. That movie vaulted the musical back onto American Theatre's list of the most-produced plays of the 2014-15 season and it's been revived frequently since then, including Lakeshore Players' take last May and Shoot the Glass' version last June. Farther back, Theater Latte Da memorably staged it in 2015.
"She Loves Me," which dates to the 1960s, began popping up a lot after a 2017 Broadway revival, highlighted by Jayne Krakowski's hilarious delivery of "A Trip to the Library."
Gracie Anderson will tackle the number at Artistry, where the show runs through Feb. 17. Prior to that, "She Loves Me" appeared at Daleko Arts in New Prague last May and at Lyric Arts last March. In fact, Lyric Arts and Artistry may have to get used to "sharing" shows, since both also programmed "Legally Blonde," Artistry last summer and Lyric Arts this summer.
