Chanhassen Dinner Theatre is one of the sights to see in Minnesota's Twin Cities.

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. A restaurant on site made the project even more of a gamble. Surely the distance from downtown as well as a restaurant, a business with a high failure rate, combined to doom this dream.

But the theatre opened the curtains for the first time on Oct. 11 1968. ”How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” was an appropriate choice for the first show . A month later “the Fantasticks” began. Now for a pun. The stage was set for what is today the largest professional dinner theatre in America. It can also boast being the largest privately owned restaurant in Minnesota. Take that, nay sayers.

The Playhouse, a small theatre room in Chanhassen, started showing “I Do! I Do!” in February of 1971 . It ran a staggering 21 years. What's more staggering is that it included the original cast for the entire run. That's quite a performance, huh? That long running show made Chanhassen and the Playhouse famous throughout the United States. It drew its final applause in November of 1992, but after a brief hiatus of a few months, returned for almost a year in 1993. It was then replaced by “Stevie Ray's Comedy Troupe” which had a nearly two year run. But “I Do! I Do!” remains the king.

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. That can be found on the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre web site: http://www.chanhassentheatres.com.