English theatre shines in Montréal
Theatre goers will enjoy blockbuster dramas, rip-roaring comedies and smash hit musicals produced by some of Canada and Montréal’s most exciting professional and independent English-language theatre companies this Spring 2025.
Musicals, comedy and drama!
Montréal’s two big English-language theatres – the venerable Centaur Theatre Company in Old Montréal, and the Sylvan Adams Theatre at the Segal Centre for the Performing Arts in the west end – offer varied programming.
Centaur Theatre
Closing the Centaur season is the return of Michel Tremblay’s For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again, starring Canadian national treasure Ellen David and Emmanuel Schwartz. Directed by Alice Ronfard, this heartfelt tribute to Tremblay’s mother is the first production to be staged in Centaur’s newly renovated proscenium theatre, featuring state-of-the-art fly-tower technology. Runs May 13 to June 1.
Segal Centre for Performing Arts
The Segal presents Our Little Secret: The 23andMe® Musical, the hilarious, moving and completely true story of Noam Tomaschoff’s discovery that he wasn’t an only child… he actually had more than 35 siblings around the world. Catch the International Fringe sensation in its Main Stage Premiere. Runs April 27 to May 18.
The Segal then presents the slapstick comedy Clue: On Stage, based on the cult classic 1985 film and inspired by the iconic Hasbro board game. Step into a world of mystery as murder and blackmail unfold over a sinister dinner party at Boddy Manor. This slapstick whodunit keeps you guessing: Was it Miss Scarlet in the library with the rope? Or Colonel Mustard in the kitchen with the knife? Runs June 8 to 29.
The Segal also presents the world premiere of Max and Aaron Write a Musical, a new musical queer rom-com by Montrealer Trevor Barrette in which two childhood friends and creative collaborators race against the clock to finish their latest project: a coming-of-age musical loosely based on their lives. A sexy cautionary tale about writing what you know. Runs June 15 to 22 in the Segal Studio.
Montréal, arts interculturels
Located in the Plateau-Mont-Royal, the innovative Montréal, arts interculturels cultural organization – better known as “The MAI” – presents an eclectic slate of multi-disciplinary productions (visual arts, dance and theatre) each season.
The MAI’s current 26th season includes:
Drip or Drown is a re-imagined Hip-Hop concert where Jai Nitai Lotus presents an unconventional blend of performance art, spoken word, dance, visual projections and music, with contributions by his mentees. Runs May 30-31.
And Face Rider is “a queer indie sleaze swamp dump” that combines dance, fashion, music and performance to celebrate “gender deviance, glittery resurrection, and live-laugh-loving the mess of togetherness.” Runs June 18 to 21.
Festival TransAmériques
A festival of contemporary dance and theatre, the star-studded 19th edition of the Festival TransAmériques will present some 25 shows from May 22 to June 5.
Highlights include Taverna Miresia – Mario Bella Anastasia, an unsettling, dreamlike wordless play directed by the rising star of Greek theatre, Mario Banushi, at Théâtre Jean-Duceppe (May 29 to 31); and Argentina’s Tiziano Cruz returns with Wayqeycuna, the final instalment of his trilogy that weaves together family history and a critique of neoliberal power structures, at the Théâtre Rouge du Conservatoire (May 31 to June 3).
Click here for full festival programming.
Montréal Fringe Festival
After a record-breaking 2024 edition, the bilingual St-Ambroise Montréal Fringe Festival returns May 26 to June 15 when 500 artists from some 90 producing companies present more than 700 indoor performances at this year’s 35th edition. The OFF Fringe runs from May 28 to June 15.
Outdoor programming at the hugely popular Fringe Park – located at Parc des Ameriques, corner Rachel and St-Laurent – will feature live bands, as well as the festival’s marquee event, drag icon Mado Lamotte’s annual Drag Race on June 14, featuring Cabaret Mado drag stars versus a bevy of Fringe fest beauties in a knock-down Battle Royale of skill-testing obstacles!
The Fringe launched Mado’s Drag Race 25 years ago in 2000, but thanks to COVID and inclement weather, this year’s edition is actually No. 22. After Canada’s Drag Race season 5 contestant Uma Gahd hosted in 2023, Québec pop icon Mado may be back for one more show. Says Mado, “I found it exhausting because after Drag Race I’d go to work at Cabaret Mado. I’m not a young girl anymore. But I may come back to host one last show for the 25th anniversary edition.”
Other theatre
From May 5 to 9, La Chapelle Scènes Contemporaines presents the bilingual French-English La sommation des acouphènes_A Quiet Life Under The Ground which explores the potential of musical theatre and investigative storytelling techniques to create a spectral camp space.
German superstar Ute Lemper stars as Marlene Dietrich in the internationally-acclaimed musical Rendez-vous avec Marlene May 20 at Théatre Outremont.
Directed by Montréal theatre legend Vittorio Rossi, Knuckles: The Chris Nilan Story is a dinner and live show with legendary Canadiens de Montréal enforcer Chris Nilan sharing his raw journey through iconic moments on the ice, battles with mental health and addiction, and the resilience that defines a true warrior. At the Maison Principale, May 28 and 30, and June 3 and 5.
Canada’s oldest Black theatre company, Black Theatre Workshop presents the second edition of their Club Zed Playwrights’ Festival which assists the professional development of emerging playwrights. Runs May 14 to 17 at the MAI.
As part of their 2025 professional season, the Hudson Village Theatre presents comic playwright Norm Foster’s Halfway There, about colourful characters in a small-town Nova Scotia diner, directed by Don Anderson (May 14 to 25).
The Lakeshore Players present Agatha Christie’s Murder on The Orient Express from May 15 to 25 at the Lakeside Academy in Lachine.
Contact Theatre remount the iconic musical Cabaret at the Monument National from May 16 to 24.
The Theatre Ouest End presents Mickey & Joe (Good. Bad. Ugly. Dirty), a contemporary spaghetti western by playwright Michaela Di Cesare and directed by Daniele Bartolini, at the Teatro Mirella & Lino Saputo in the Leonardo Da Vinci Centre from May 17 to 25.
Dawson College’s Professional Theatre Department presents the 1928 Broadway play Machinal – considered one of the high points of Expressionist theatre – by American playwright Sophie Treadwell, directed by Michael E. Hughes (April 22 to May 3) at Dawson’s gorgeous New Dome Theatre.
Also, click here for updates on upcoming National Theatre School productions at the Monument-National.
From Broadway to Montréal
Evenko and Broadway Across Canada present HAMILTON, the epic saga that follows the rise of U.S. Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. Presented at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier from August 19 to September 7.
French theatre
There are many French-language plays and theatres in Montréal.
A production of note: GSP: L’instinct d’un champion is a one-night-only rare encounter with mixed martial arts icon Georges St-Pierre, in a unique stage event directed by Québec showbiz legend Joël Legendre. Billed as “an intimate immersion into the world of an exceptional athlete, with inspiring stories and moments of truth.” At Théâtre St-Denis on June 7.
Click here for French-language theatre in Montréal this spring.
Richard Burnett
Richard “Bugs” Burnett is a Canadian freelance writer, editor, journalist, blogger and columnist for alt-weeklies, mainstream and LGBTQ+ publications. Bugs also knows Montréal like a drag queen knows a cosmetics counter.