The best: Theatre shows to book now in Manchester

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.

This Greater Manchester Fringe Award-nominated comedy play offers an eye-watering look into the world of modern dating.

​Situationships is a comedy play that follows two women with very different ideas about dating; one, a hopeless romantic, the other a serial dating man eater, as they meet up for cocktails to discuss the men in their lives, only for chaos to unfold, secrets to spilled and relationships ruined. Due to popular demand, these performances will feature a brand new second act, with even more dating horror stories.

Pint of Theatre is back at The Kings Arms later this month, during which 10 different acts are invited to showcase 10 different pieces of live performance.

“Pint of theatre is the perfect place to grab a pint, have a laugh, have a cry and have another pint.”

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.

‘The sunniest of all musicals’ makes its return to Manchester this spring. The irresistibly feel-good show has thrilled audiences around the world, and tickets are already flying out for its upcoming run at the Palace Theatre.

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.

The first in a series of new productions, English National Opera (ENO) and Factory International present the UK premiere of Du Yun’s Pulitzer Prize-winning contemporary opera Angel’s Bone with a libretto by Royce Vavrek – a major new production directed by the visionary theatre maker Kip Williams, in collaboration with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.