John Cleese’s much-loved Fawlty Towers – The Play is landing at the Manchester Opera House next year and we cannot wait.
The critically acclaimed theatre adaptation of the iconic sitcom, still revered as one of the greatest UK comedies of all time, first came to fruition back in 2016 and is now set to land here in Manchester city centre for the first time ever.
We’ve been treated to Fawlty Towers The Dining Experience at The Lowry Theatre in Salford before, but this is the first time the smash-hit West End stage production has headed North and judging by the reviews, audiences are about to be belly-laughing all the way to Torquay.
Coming to Manc crowds this time next winter, you can expect this one to be a sell-out.
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Still busy playing a fully booked-up run at London’s Apollo Theatre Shaftesbury Avenue, the twice-extended West End show is packing up its stage for a massive tour across the UK and Ireland.
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Announcing dozens of dates next year and well into the summer of 2026, including shows in Leeds, Liverpool, York, Stoke, Sunderland and many more, the show has earned four and five-star reviews from countless publications.
The Arts Desk have hailed it as a “comedy masterpiece [that] makes a seamless transition to the stage”, with actor Adam Jackson-Smith playing the lead role of Basil Fawlty and the entire cast said to leave viewers cackling with some of the best bits from iconic TV series recreated in the flesh.
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Speaking on the stage adaptation, John Cleese said: “When we came up with the idea of bringing Fawlty Towers to the stage, I never thought it would get the reception that it has.
“On 23 December it will be 50 years to the day since we recorded the pilot at BBC Television Centre and I’m delighted the audiences we’ve had in the West End still think it’s as funny as ever. The announcement of the tour means many more people will now have the chance to laugh themselves helpless.”
John Cleese, now 85.
Set to hit the road 50 years on from the broadcast of the first episode on BBC Two back in September 1975, before going on to win countless awards including two BAFTAS and even being voted the best British programme of all time as part of a British Film Institute poll, it all feels very full circle.
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Brought to life on stage by a creative team consisting of Cleese and fellow writer Connie Booth and directed by Caroline Jay Ranger – best known for her work on Blood Means Nothing (2019), My Week with Maisy (2024), Early Doors: Live (2021) and the Monty Python live show, there’s non-stop talent both on and off the stage.
One of the best part parts about a series that was stretched across just 12 half-hour episodes of TV is that you can just about manage to squeeze in the majority of the most memorable highlights into the approximately 1h50m run-time.
You can see the cast’s recent interview on This MorningHERE and for a short trailer for a better look at what to expect down below:
Fawlty Towers – The Play comes to the Manchester Opera House on Tuesday, 4 November 2025 and will be there until Saturday, 8 November.
General admission is live as we speak, with ticket options starting from £20 and going all the way up to £147.50 for the best premium seats and experience in the house.
An unmissable Whitney Houston tribute event is returning to Greater Manchester
Thomas Melia
A much-adored and cherished Whitney Houston tribute show is returning to Greater Manchester later this year for not one but two different shows, each channelling the charisma and energy of the pop legend.
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the phenomenal theatre production, ‘Queen of the Night’, the show is visiting a multitude of stages and venues all across the UK.
0161 had to receive at least one date on this tour, partly due to being the music capital of the North and also due to the fact that this is a city many fans of the 80s diva will forever hold close to their hearts.
Houston played her final ever concert performance of her career here in this very city back in 2010, taking up residence in AO Arena for two nights of world-renowned ballads and mesmerising live vocals.
This tribute show is set to include some of the diva’s biggest and much-loved hits like ‘I Will Always Love You’, ‘How Will I Know’ and ‘The Greatest Love of All’, the audience is sure to be singing along.
Adenike Adewale is taking on the role of the American R’n’B Pop singer and is no stranger to the stage or TV, featuring on The Voice in 2021 where she sang a Whitney classic, making it to the semi-finals.
Fast forward to 1 June and the tour returns to Greater Manchester and legendary city centre space, Bridgewater Hall: an incredible room more than fit for renditions of the powerhouse vocalist.
A pair of stunning venues, two stunning shows and one incomparable voice.
It’s not only our lovely region the Queen of the Night experience will be visiting; our friends over at The Hoot have plenty of nearby opportunities to sing along too, with Yorkshire dates in Hull, Halifax, Harrogate and Bradford to name a few.
I’m definitely saving all my love for when this show visits us later this year in March, and after I buy out the front row for all my friends I’ll certainly relate to the smash 1993 single ‘I Have Nothing’.
Tickets are on sale already now – you can grab yours HERE.
Swan Lake at Opera House, Manchester – the Swan Queen steals the show
Daisy Jackson
Swan Lake is an icon of the ballet world, for good reason – and now this hauntingly beautiful ballet is back in Manchester for one weekend only.
Set to Tchaikovsky’s equally iconic score, Swan Lake tells the love story of Prince Siegfried and Swan Queen Odette, with plenty of magic and sorcery along the way.
There’s a lot of depth and intrigue to this tale, even if it a good half of it is essentially a load of people peacocking around a ballroom trying to prove they’re the most compatible for one another.
Throughout the two hour performance by the Mergaliyev Classical Ballet you’ll be witness to deception, enchantment, love, and plenty more, as evil sorcerer Von Rothbart meddles in Siegfied and Odette’s love and tricks him into falling in love with his daughter, Odile, instead.
The mirroring roles of Odette and Odile are both played by Nilay Tahiroglu, who is possibly the most captivating dancer to have ever graced the stage at the Opera House.
It’s remarkable how she can make the human body so closely resemble a swan – the way the shape of hands can mimic a swan’s long neck, or the avian way her arms rotate in their sockets and gracefully unfurl like wings, or how she literally looks like she’s on water when she glides across the stage balanced en pointe.
When Tahiroglu transforms into Odile she’s still the same captivating dancer but now she’s bolder, braver. There’s a sharpness to her grace that wasn’t there before.
While Odette’s eyes are almost always cast downwards and soft, Odile stares straight at the audience with a glittering secret in her eyes.
She’s the most beautiful, other-worldly dancer I’ve ever seen.
Cristo Civancos Prunes is excellent as Prince Siegfried, a man so classically handsome and sure-footed you could put him on the cover of a romantic novel at the airport and it’d sell a million copies.
And Marek Bobosik shines as the cunning Von Rothbert too, even if his character is let down by an underwhelming costume that’s more ‘onesie at a Halloween party’ than ‘lead villain in a world-class ballet’.
The Dance of the Cygnets fell flat on opening night of Swan Lake in ManchesterVon Ruthbert’s costume
It’s not a perfect performance – during Dance of the Cygnets, possibly the world’s most iconic dance sequence, the four cygnets stumble and lose time. Our glittering principal also loses her footing once, prompting a sharp intake of breath from the audience, but regains it quickly.
And the first act, before we even meet Odette and are instead watching the wealthy types parade in front of one another in a ballroom, drags on – in fact, there are a lot of empty seats after the first of two intermissions, with many calling it a night early.
Compared to the English National Ballet, which brought Swan Lake to Manchester in 2022, this production could do with a little more polish and pizzazz.
But it’s still a truly magical sight to behold – even if you just come for Odette.
Get your tickets for Swan Lake at the Opera House Manchester HERE.
Danny Jones -
3rd December 2024 
