Minnesota’s most popular musical is back in the clouds over Hennepin Avenue. Wicked is playing the historic Orpheum Theatre in downtown Minneapolis now through Sunday, August 9, 2026 — weeks of green skin, soaring ballads, and one very famous bubble. If you’re coming in from out of town, or turning date night into a whole weekend, pair the show with a night someplace just as theatrical: 300 Clifton, the historic Eugene J. Carpenter Mansion bed & breakfast in Loring Park, about a fifteen-minute stroll from the theater.
Wicked at the Orpheum, Now Through August 9
Wicked closes out the Bank of America Broadway on Hennepin season at the Orpheum Theatre (910 Hennepin Ave), running through Sunday, August 9. Performances are Tuesday through Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays at 2 and 7:30 p.m., and Sundays at 1 and 6:30 p.m. — so a Saturday matinee with a long dinner after, or a Sunday evening show followed by a Monday morning sleep-in, both work beautifully. (Schedules can change, so confirm your date when you book.) Tickets are at HennepinArts.org.
If you’ve somehow missed the phenomenon: Wicked is currently the fourth-longest-running show in Broadway history, winner of more than 100 international awards including a Grammy and three Tonys, and it has been seen by over 72 million people worldwide. “Defying Gravity,” “Popular,” “For Good” — you’ll be humming all three on the walk home. Learn more at WickedTheMusical.com.
A Night Inside a 1921 Vaudeville Palace
The venue is half the show. The Orpheum opened in 1921 as one of the largest vaudeville houses in the country — the Marx Brothers headlined opening week — and today its 2,579 seats sit beneath a 15-foot, 2,000-pound chandelier. Here’s a bit of trivia for intermission: Bob Dylan and his brother owned the theater until 1988, and during the 1993 restoration, workers uncovered six Pompeiian friezes hidden behind velour curtains and false walls. Old Minneapolis buildings keep secrets. We know a little something about that.
Sleep in a Mansion, Not a Hotel Block
Eugene J. Carpenter was one of early Minneapolis’s great patrons of the arts, and his Loring Park mansion — listed on the National Register of Historic Places and considered the finest Georgian architecture in Minnesota — still knows how to host an audience. Hand-painted murals, carved fireplaces, English gardens: it’s the rare place where the set design rivals the Orpheum’s.
Every guest room plays a different character — the romantic Crystal Mansion and Grand Edwardian, the stately Georgian, or something more storybook like the Blacksmith’s Forge and the Hayloft. Choose your role for the evening.
After the Curtain: A Speakeasy and a Hot Tub Under the Stars
Before the show, wander Loring Park — open until midnight, with the Berger “Dandelion” Fountain and a footbridge over to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. Afterward, skip the parking-ramp exodus and stroll home to a nightcap in Gertrude’s Cistern, the speakeasy and haunted video lounge tucked beneath the mansion, heated reclining seats and all. Or end the night the way we would: in the four-season garden hot tub, under the stars, arguing about whether Elphaba was right all along.
Making a full Minneapolis weekend of it? See the city from a vintage streetcar with Minneapolis Trolley Tours (their things-to-do guides are a great planning shortcut), or book a tour at the Pillsbury Club, our sister haunted mansion — which happens to have a private theater of its own. Staying in town longer? Oakland’s on 9th offers furnished downtown studios by the week or month.
More Big Nights on Hennepin (Plan Ahead)
The Orpheum barely pauses for breath after Wicked departs: Josh Johnson’s Comedy Band Camp lands August 14–16, Ray LaMontagne plays August 30, and Mamma Mia! kicks off the 2026–2027 Broadway on Hennepin season September 15–20. And if theater is your love language, our guides to a Guthrie Theater getaway and the Minnesota Fringe Festival (August 6–16) can fill an entire summer of stage-struck weekends.
Wicked’s Minneapolis run ends August 9, and weekend rooms go the way of front-row seats. Check availability at 300clifton.com, peek at our specials & packages, and come make an evening of it — no flying monkeys, though we can’t make any promises about ghosts.
Keep reading: making an art weekend of it? See what’s on at the Walker Art Center this August in our Walker Art Center getaway guide — the museum is a stroll across Loring Park from the mansion.