The best: Theatre shows to book now in Manchester

A sparkling production of the nation’s favourite yuletide novel invites audiences through the wardrobe and into the heart of the enchanting kingdom that has captivated generations. A spellbinding show that offers the perfect festive family day out.

Narrated by Richard Armitage, audiences are invited to experience the thrill of launch, the challenges of life in space and cutting-edge NASA tech in this spectacular dome show at the iconic UNESCO heritage site, Jodrell Bank, throughout January.

Arguably the most famous musical ever made, Director Raz Shaw returns to the Exchange, following his smash hit production of The Producers with Singin’ In The Rain. Seamlessly blending song and dance audiences will find themselves in the heart of the action of this much-loved musical on the Exchange’s iconic in-the-round stage.

Starring international leading lady Sidonie Smith as Rachel Marron, Olivier Award nominee Adam Garcia as Frank Farmer, Sasha Monique as Nicki Marron and Coronation Street and Hollyoaks star Matt Milburn as Sy Spector, the award-winnng The Bodyguard returns, taking over the Palace Theatre for the second half of January.

Aaron Sorkin’s riveting, award-winning stage adaptation of the seminal American novel about racial injustice and childhood innocence comes to Lowry in the new year. Set in 1934 Alabama, To Kill a Mockingbird was inspired by novelist Harper Lee’s own childhood and has sold more than 45 million copies worldwide. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature and was long at the top of the banned book lists.

The Execution of Private Slovik is a tense and unflinching play about the human cost of obedience. Inspired by true events, it invites audiences to ask when the line between right and wrong blurs, who carries the weight of justice, and who lives with the consequences.

Inspired by the landscape and culture of West Kerry in Ireland, MÁM will see 12 incredible dancers transform Lowry’s stage into a whirlwind of myth and magic, set to a collaborative soundtrack created by virtuoso Irish traditional concertina player Cormac Begley and European classical contemporary collective s t a r g a z e, performed live on stage.

The original psychological thriller, Macbeth, is brought to life in this exciting new production about greed, fascism, war & the price of pride at the award-winning King’s Arms.

Already one of the standout productions in Manchester’s 2026 theatre calendar, Jim Cartwright’s award-winning Road, featuring Lucy Beaumont, Shobna Gulati, Lesley Joseph, Johnny Vegas, and with special guest Sir Tom Courtenay on film, comes to the Royal Exchange in February.

This revival marks the 40th anniversary of the play, and as part of the experience,  audiences explore the Royal Exchange before taking their seats in the theatre.

Winner of the 2024 Olivier Award for Best New Musical and nominated for the Tony Award for Best Musical on Broadway, the West End smash-hit Operation Mincemeat delivers a dynamic and razor-sharp recount of the impossible mission that secured victory in the Second World War.

From the writer of Absolute Certainty?, and director of Canal Street Lonely Hearts Club, Kind of Love is set in the late 90s, Labour are in power and the ‘gay age of consent’ is causing chaos in parliament. Meanwhile, Steffan, who comes out to his straight best mate on a lads’ holiday in Ibiza, starts off a chain of events that will change the lives of four teenage friends forever.

Winner of Best New Musical at the WhatsOnStage Awards, MEAN GIRLS is the hilarious musical comedy from a seriously impressive, award-winning creative team that includes writer Tina Fey (30 Rock), composer Jeff Richmond (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), lyricist Nell Benjamin (Legally Blonde) and director and choreographer Casey Nicholaw (The Book of Mormon).

Storyteller Kae revisits a psychiatric hospital in 1880s Paris, in which female patients performed ‘hysteria’ for the public as doctors went to extraordinary lengths to prove their theories about the four stages of madness.They trace the echoes to the present, feeling them linger in their own body, and perhaps get a little too caught in the story.

Blurring the boundaries between classical music and other artforms, Manchester Collective join forces with dance-theatre company Thick & Tight to present a searing live performance that draws on queer culture. Daniel Hay-Gordon and El Perry’s radical work flits between ballet and cabaret, the absurd and the disarmingly moving. At the heart of the show is Kaija Saariaho’s Sept Papillons – a set of seven miniatures for solo cello performed by Laura van der Heijden, one of the leading cellists of her generation.