Everyone books the Orpheum. But a few doors down Hennepin Avenue, the State Theatre and the Pantages are quietly running the most interesting late-summer calendar in Minneapolis — stand-up, ranchera, drag, true-crime podcasts, and a Fraggle. Here is what is coming, and why the smartest place to sleep afterward is a Georgian mansion in Loring Park.
Two theatres worth knowing
The State Theatre at 805 Hennepin opened in 1921 and was then considered the most technologically advanced and elaborate theatre in the United States — a Minneapolis newspaper columnist called it “a gilded pleasure palace.” It seats 2,181.
The Pantages at 710 Hennepin is the intimate one: 1,014 seats, opened in 1916 as a vaudeville house in Greek immigrant and impresario Alexander Pantages’ national circuit, designed by the Minneapolis firm of Kees and Colburn in an Art Moderne/Beaux Arts style.
Both sit under a mile from 300 Clifton — roughly a fifteen-to-twenty-minute walk through Loring Park, or about five minutes by car.
August at the State and the Pantages
The Marvelous Miss Gender starring BOSCO — Wednesday, August 12, 8 PM, Pantages. The RuPaul’s Drag Race season 14 and All Stars 10 alum headlines her first solo tour. Ages 18+, with a 20-minute intermission.
Mat Kearney: Nothing Left to Lose, Everything to Gain Tour, with Jake Scott — Friday, August 14, 8 PM, State Theatre. Presented by First Avenue. Seven studio albums, four Hot 100 entries, and a touring history that runs from John Mayer to NEEDTOBREATHE.
Yolanda Del Río: La Gran Señora de México — Saturday, August 22, 8 PM, Pantages. The ranchera icon behind “La Hija de Nadie” brings her tour to Hennepin Avenue.
September is the comedy month
Candace’s Live Tour: An Evening with Candace Cameron Bure with Dr. Tabatha — Saturday, September 12, 7 PM, State.
Ilana Glazer Live! — Wednesday, September 16, 7 PM, doors at 6, State. The Broad City co-creator; ages 15+.
John Crist Live! — Friday, September 18, 7 PM, State.
Small Town Murder — Saturday, September 19, 8 PM, State. James Pietragallo and Jimmie Whisman take the true-crime-comedy podcast on the road.
Jim Henson’s Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock LIVE — Sunday, September 20, 3 PM, State. Ages 4 and up, and the one matinee on this list.
The Basement Yard Live — September 23–24, State. Bassem Youssef: The Belly of the Beast Tour — Friday, September 25, Pantages.
Then Saturday, September 26 hands you a real choice: Laura Ramoso: The Calm Down Tour at the Pantages or Tom Papa at the State. Same night, four blocks apart.
Dates and times above are from the Hennepin Arts calendar; confirm on the official event page before you buy. Broadway fans, the Orpheum has its own big month — see our guides to Mamma Mia! (September 15–20) and Ray LaMontagne on August 30.
The mansion at the other end of the walk
300 Clifton is the Eugene J. Carpenter Mansion, listed on the National Register of Historic Places and widely called the finest Georgian architecture in Minnesota. Carpenter was a Minneapolis arts patron in exactly the era when the Pantages and the State were rising on Hennepin — the mansion and the marquees belong to the same chapter of this city.
Each guest room is its own room rather than a hotel floor plan repeated down a corridor: the Crystal Mansion, the Georgian, the Grand Edwardian, the Coachman’s, the Blacksmith’s Forge, the Hayloft, and the Estate rooms. Hand-painted murals, carved fireplaces, English gardens.
What to do after the curtain
This is the part a downtown hotel cannot match. Come back from a late curtain and the four-season garden hot tub is waiting under the stars — genuinely four-season, which will matter more in October than it does in August.
Or head downstairs to Gertrude’s Cistern, the speakeasy and haunted video lounge with heated reclining seats. It is the right ending to a night of stand-up: nobody is asking you to be quiet, and nobody is asking you to go anywhere.
Book direct and every night of your stay comes with a $20 dining voucher for the Pillsbury Club, good toward any food or beverage on the dining room menu, plus a $20 Minneapolis Trolley voucher for the stay. The Pillsbury Club — the haunted Charles S. Pillsbury Mansion — makes a very good pre-show dinner when your curtain is at 8. The trolley is the easiest way to see the rest of the city on a show-free afternoon; its things-to-do guides are a good place to start planning the daylight hours.
Coming for a longer run of shows, or traveling for work? Oakland’s on 9th has furnished month-to-month studios downtown.
Book the room before the show sells out
August and September fill fast in Minneapolis — the State Fair, Vikings football, and half of Hennepin Avenue’s calendar all land inside the same six weeks. If you already have tickets, get the room now. And if you are visiting in the run-up to Halloween, the haunted side of the mansion is the reason a lot of guests come back.
Reserve your room at 300 Clifton — or call and ask which room has the best reading chair for the afternoon before your show.