Chanhassen Dinner Theatre
A popular entertainment and tourist destination in the Twin Cities, Minnesota is the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre. More than 8 million patrons have seen over 193 shows there since 1968. Given the quality of shows, those numbers aren’t surprising.
A married couple, Herbert and Carolyn Bloomberg, looked at a corn field and imagined a 90,000 square foot theatre facility. The Old Log Theater had contracted them to build it’s new facility. Their own complex soon followed, built about 30 minutes from downtown. To add to the risk their vision included a restaurant. People laughed at the silly notion of a theatre complex too far from the city built on top of a restaurant, a hard enough endeavor in itself.
Then in October of 1968 the theatre started business. Fittingly, ‘How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying’ was the inaugural production . Then ‘the Fantasticks’ came to town. Now for a pun. The curtains were now open on what would become the largest professional dinner theater in the United States. It can also boast being the largest privately owned restaurant in Minnesota. Take that, nay sayers.
On February 18, 1971 a production of ‘I Do! I Do!’ opened in the Playhouse, a smaller theatre space in the Chanhassen facility . It ran a staggering 21 years. Even more amazing was that the same cast stayed with the show the whole time. How’s that for job security? Chanhassen became known all over America for that show. It ended in November of 1992, but after ‘I Do Love the Holidays’ took over for a few months, ‘I Do! I Do!’ returned for a short run from late January to early December of 1993. For two years following that ‘Stevie Ray’s Comedy Troupe’ entertained audiences. That pretty good too
Both ‘Stevie Ray’s Comedy Troupe’ and ‘I Do! I Do!’ later returned to Chanhassen, but in a different room. The Courtyard, now called the Club, hosted each of the plays in 1995. Today the Club is put to use for weddings and business gatherings. Camelot, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music and many other plays have appeared at Chanhassen . There are too many to list here. Go to the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre web site, http://www.chanhassentheatres.com, for the complete list.
