On one hand, it felt like an average night at Minneapolis’ venerable rock club from over its past 40 years. The DJ spun a lot of Prince songs. Bartender Pete Rasmussen was working his upstairs post.

Four days before the musical adaptation of “Purple Rain” goes into previews for a world premiere at Minneapolis’ State Theatre, the cast and crew of the show took a VIP tour of Prince’s Paisley Park, ...

And “Purple Rain” cast member Grace Yoo sang the national anthem at a Vikings game (not that it helped the players on the field much). With the Hennepin County Library system even issuing a Prince ...