Featuring time-hopping social satire, chaotic cocktail parties, global smash-hit tours and more, Manchester’s spring theatre schedule promises to delight audiences of all ages and dramatic appetites with another all-embracing slate of dazzling live performances.
Here are some of the best shows coming to the city this season.
Fresh from the whirlwind success of its sell-out adaptation of A Christmas Carol, Manchester School of Theatre at Manchester Metropolitan University has unveiled an eclectic springtime triple-bill at Grosvenor East Theatre.
The new season commences on Thu 6 Mar, with Emily Raymond’s waggish and whip-smart adaptation of Shakespeare’s timeless romantic caper, As You Like It.
On the run from her evil uncle, Rosalind seeks shelter in the deep wilderness of Arden, where she inadvertently falls in love – while disguised as a boy.
From Wed 2 – Sat 5 Apr, Caryl Churchill’s psychedelically unsettling contemporary drama Love and Information explores technology, communication and our capacity for meaningful connection amidst the profound oddities of the modern world, with 52 scenes and over 100 characters directed by Nickie Miles-Wildin.
From Thu 1 – Sat 3 May, Manchester School of Theatre’s spring season concludes with Ibsen’s masterpiece Hedda Gabler, a gripping, unapologetic and seminally brutal exploration of female rage, reimagined for the 21st century by Patrick Marber and directed by Seán Aydon.
Just married but already bored, Hedda yearns for freedom in the purest sense. Hedda Gabler is the story of a woman so unhappy, she’ll set the world on fire just to see it burn.
Click below to book tickets to all three shows.
Written by Tim Foley and directed by Elle While (The Globe’s Hamlet, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time), Driftwood brings a beguiling, mystical and deeply affecting story of brotherhood, love and belonging to Lowry this March.
Two brothers, Mark and Tiny, wander along a beach in the North East while attempting to figure out what to do about their dying father – but the restless, enigmatic sea has other ideas.
Their hometown crumbling and their patriarch growing weaker, they search for a solution while reckoning with family rifts, shared problems and political differences against a backdrop of encroaching mortality, as a strange figure made of driftwood stalks the beach at night.
From Tue 25 – Sat 29 Mar, Bill Kenwright’s brand-new musical production of the definitive 90s teen drama comes to Manchester with a pulsating story of betrayal, temptation and romance, set to the decade’s biggest pop hits including tracks by Britney, Boyz II Men, TLC, Natalie Imbruglia, *NSYNC and many more.
When step-siblings Sebastian and Kathryn make a cold-hearted wager on whether the former can seduce their headmaster’s bookish, staunchly celibate daughter, Annette, they ensnare themselves and the other students in a web of irreversible deceit, as unexpected love blossoms and the consequences threaten to tear the school apart.
Described as ‘unique, challenging and oh-so-necessary’ by The Guardian and ‘unpredictably bonkers’ in Broadway World’s five-star review, Tambo & Bones brings an innovative slice of gleefully irreverent metatheatrical satire to HOME this April.
Trapped in a minstrel show with a weakening grip on reality, Tambo and Bones hatch an escape plan which takes them from comedy double-act to hip-hop icons and eventually activists in a future America, subverting stereotypes and examining racial conflict while traversing a troubled nation across 500 years.
Taking over the Royal Exchange as its spring season showpiece, Mike Leigh’s cult tragicomic riot Abigail’s Party brings theatre’s most chaotic cocktail party to Manchester from Fri 4 Apr – Sat 17 May.
Directed by award-winner Natalie Abrahami and starring Coronation Street’s Kym Marsh, the bold new production utilises the Royal Exchange’s in-the-round staging to usher audiences into Beverly Moss’s ill-fated 70s suburban soiree.
The latest tracks are on the record player and the drinks are flowing. As the night progresses, the gathering becomes thick with sexual tension, and Beverly’s exclusive shindig quickly falls into disarray.
Based on the raucous hit movie in which Heath Ledger and Paul Bettany joust with jealous, scheming nobility, the world premiere stage production of A Knight’s Tale canters into Manchester Opera House from Fri 11 Apr – Sat 10 May, with new writing from the producers of Disney’s Newsies, Girl From the North Country, 2:22 A Ghost Story and 101 Dalmatians.
Audiences can expect an action-packed tale of chivalry, combat, heroes and villains, set to a soundtrack of rollicking hit songs.
Presented by the incredible Peripeteia Theatre Company, Love is a brand-new play from Bren Gosling following the story of Mac, a single parent whose cosy northern-town life is upturned by a visit from an old flame who has been absent for two decades, and the revelation of a lost, gay son.
How does Mac deal with the news, and more importantly, how does he tell his two daughters.
- Words:
- Wolf McFarlane
- Published on:
- Tue 25 Feb 2025
The legendary London Palladium adaptation of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat takes over Manchester’s Opera House from Wed 26 Feb to Sun 9 Mar, starring X-Factor winner-turned-stage virtuoso Joe McElderry in the titular role.
The multi-award-winning global sensation has embarked on countless sold-out runs in the West End and on Broadway, international tours in over 80 countries worldwide and has become one of the world’s most beloved family musicals.
This thrilling production features all the iconic, irresistible songs from the original, including Any Dream Will Do, Close Every Door, There’s One More Angel In Heaven and Go, Go, Go Joseph.