Pioneer Press theater critic Dominic Papatola authored a feature article on the Minneapolis Musical Theatre in conjunction with its area premiere of the musical "Zanna, Don't!" and its upcoming 2009-2010 season.  CLICK HERE to be redirected to his article, or read the full text below.

Papatola: Minneapolis Musical Theatre finds happiness with gay theater selections

By Dominic P. Papatola
dpapatola@pioneerpress.com

Updated: 05/29/2009 01:56:31 PM CDT

When Minneapolis Musical Theatre opens its season-ending production of 'Zanna, Don't!' next weekend, it will introduce audiences to an alternate universe where being gay is the norm, where chess players are the studs at Heartsville High School and where one of the pressing arguments of the day is whether straight people should be allowed to serve in the military.

It's a show that might not have been thinkable in the company's early days, and not just because the play didn't yet exist.

'I don't pretend to say that all's completely right with the world and everybody's treated equally,' said Kevin Hansen, one of MMT's co-founders. 'That's not the case. But the platform that we have to talk about these issues is a much bigger platform today. People are much more interested in the variety of perspectives that are out there.'

Minneapolis Musical Theatre is not a gay theater company, per se. But with a production history that includes the in-your-face gay musical revue "When Pigs Fly" and the gentler plea-for-tolerance "La Cage aux Folles," it's never been a company to hide its lavender streak, either. And since gay-oriented theater companies like Gaydar Productions and Outward Spiral Theatre Company have faded from the local landscape, MMT is probably the closest thing the Twin Cities has to a regularly producing gay theater company.

The company, for instance, is positioning "Zanna" at the beginning of the GLBT community's Pride Month; opening weekend coincides with the opening of Minneapolis Mosaic, the city of Minneapolis' celebration of diversity in the arts.

Unlike some of its faded peers, MMT has always cast a broad net for its audience. In a survey a few seasons ago, two-thirds of their audiences identified themselves as straight, and Hansen said the company has traditionally drawn a diverse audience "who knows what to expect from us. We have a lot of repeat business, a lot of people who will come to a show even if they don't know exactly what it's going to be."

It's been that way since 1992, when the Hansen and Steven Meerdink first laid the groundwork for the theater with a touring production of a revue called "Broadway Today." But in 1999, when the company undertook "Pageant" — a drag-show dressed up as a musical — it gave Hansen and his collaborators some pause.

"I can remember never being as scared to go out on the stage as the first night we did 'Pageant,' " he said. "There's a difference between laughing with someone and laughing at them, and we definitely needed to have people laughing with us."

They did, and "Pageant" became one of the shows that help lift Minneapolis Musical Theatre above the crowd of itinerant, happy-accident companies that produce one or two shows a year.

The company began producing full-fledged seasons in 2000, leaning toward regional premieres, rarely staged classics of musical theater with an annual foray into a show with a "message." And while the company couldn't have predicted that the issue of gay marriage would have flared up in quite the way it has in recent months, "Zanna" seems like a prescient choice.

"It's very cute but very topical," Hansen said. "It uses laughter and a little satire to shine a light on a topic in a way that's easy to relate to."

Attitudes about plays with gay themes have become more liberated since MMT set up shop. In Minneapolis, the mighty Guthrie has a play with the word "homosexual" in the title. Across the river, St. Paul's Actors' Theater of Minnesota is tweaking the popular audience-participation classic "Tony n' Tina's Wedding" for a limited run of "Tony n' Timothy's Wedding."

Though that kind of broader acceptance has been a double-edged sword for some gay theaters — creating more competition for titles that might once have been theirs for the taking — Minneapolis Musical Theatre heads into its 10th season with a full slate. Its 2009-10 season includes the regional premiere of "The Great American Trailer Park Musical," a classic bit of Americana in "Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and the classic-but-rarely-staged Jerry Herman musical "Mame."

In a bit of a twist, Hansen — who played the drag role of Zaza in MMT's 2006 staging of "La Cage aux Folles" will don a dress again to play the title role in "Mame." The casting, he said, helps with one of the challenges of staging a 1966 musical for a new generation.

"As written, that character isn't so wild and crazy and larger-than-life anymore," he said. "This allows us to stay true to the idea of the show; the idea of this eccentric character coming to life. But we're not going to do it with a wink and a nod. We're going to play it straight ... so to speak."

What: Minneapolis Musical Theatre's production of "Zanna, Don't"

When: Opens Friday, runs through June 28

Where: Illusion Theater; 528 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis

Tickets: $28-$25

Information: 612-339-4944 or illusiontheater.org