From soaring smash hits on international tours to subverted Shakespeare masterworks, Manchester’s 2025 theatre programme delivers another diverse slate of acclaimed productions to suit thespian connoisseurs and first-time audiences alike.
Renowned family theatre specialists Stuff and Nonsense return to HOME with a uniquely joyful retelling of the classic tale, The Three Little Pigs, rendered in riotously entertaining fashion through innovative puppetry and boundless imagination.
Having delighted over a quarter of a million theatre-goers in this decade alone, Stuff and Nonsense promise to captivate and inspire with another high-octane spectacular for the whole family.
Arriving in Salford fresh from a sold-out run in the West End, The Royal Shakespeare Company’s coruscating production of The Merchant of Venice masterfully captures the ageless story of ambition, power and political turmoil through the fresh vision of acclaimed director, Brigid Lamour.
As fascism marbles across Europe and Oswald Mosley’s BUF thugs threaten a paramilitary march through the Jewish East End of London, industrious businesswoman and defiant single mother Shylock vows to protect her daughter’s future. When charismatic merchant Antonio comes to her pawnbroking business for a loan, a high-stakes deal is struck. Will Shylock take her revenge, and who will pay the ultimate price?
Starring Tracy-Ann Oberman (EastEnders, Doctor Who) as Shakespeare’s subverted icon, the show offers a timely and thought-provoking reminder of a key moment in British history.
Starring X-Factor winner Joe McElderry in the titular role, the smash-hit London Palladium adaptation of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s legendary Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat takes over Manchester’s Opera House from Wed 26 Feb to Sun 9 Mar.
The multi award-winning global sensation has embarked on multiple 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 irresistible musical theatre classics, including Any Dream Will Do, Close Every Door, There’s One More Angel In Heaven and Go, Go, Go Joseph.
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 callous bet on whether the former can seduce their headmaster’s innocent daughter, Annette, they tangle themselves and the other students in a web of irreversible deceit, as unexpected love blossoms and the consequences threaten to tear the school apart.
Running as the centrepiece of the Royal Exchange’s spring season, Mike Leigh’s cult tragicomic masterpiece 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 uniquely intimate in-the-round staging to invite audiences into Beverly Moss’ ill-fated soiree in the heart of nondescript 1970s suburbia.
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.
Hailed as ‘dance theatre at its most compelling’ in The Arts’ Desk glowing five-star review, Matthew Bourne’s award-winning The Midnight Bell comes to Salford for the first time in July 2025.
Inspired by English literary titan Patrick Hamilton, Bourne’s wondrous period masterpiece transports audiences to the streets of 1930s London, where a diverse cohort of workers, vagabonds and local denizens pour out of boarding houses to bask in their dreams and exorcise their regrets inside the titular Soho tavern.
Devised as a paean to the classic London pub, The Midnight Bell follows a lonely hearts club who gather to share their diverse yet transcendent stories of heartbreak, longing, betrayal and salvation in a ‘gloriously atmospheric’ dance production.
Hailed as an ‘agile, vivid piece of storytelling’ by The Scotsman and ‘joyous’ in The Guardian, James Rowland’s Piece of Work presents a mesmerising mixture of comedy, dynamic narrative and a dash of Shakespeare’s Hamlet to render a hilarious, heartbreaking road trip through the acclaimed writer’s life.
Returning home following his first time away, James received a letter that turned his life upside down, and ignited a new tour which became a search for the sender, an understanding of home and even the chance to save a life.
Based on Brian Helgeland’s raucous medieval romp which saw Heath Ledger and Paul Bettany take on malicious monarchs in the jousting arena, the world premiere stage production of A Knight’s Tale charges 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.
Bigger, bolder and more electrifying than ever, the all-new reimagination of Cirque: The Greatest Show brings a jaw-dropping fusion of musical theatre and circus performance to Aviva Studios this October.
Promising to transport audiences on a journey ‘bursting with colour, energy and excitement’, the breathtaking stage spectacular blends big top acrobatics with bombastic songs led by acclaimed vocalists in an unmissable family-friendly extravaganza.
- Words:
- Wolf McFarlane
- Published on:
- Fri 17 Jan 2025
Taking over The Edge for one night only on Valentine’s Day, the award-winning spoken word artist and Fringe favourite Luke Wright presents a brand new selection of triumphantly optimistic poems that celebrates the quiet wonder of rhyme, ageing and everyday absurdity.
Billed as ‘A winning combination of honesty, humour, ire and wonder’ (The Stage), Wright’s open-hearted verse and trademark lyricism gleefully illuminates the unique yet unsung happiness of middle age in a show brimming with biting wit and tender contemplation, as the renegade raconteur takes aim at everything from consumerism and cancer to abseiling vicars and the transcendent brilliance of language.