English theatre shines in Montréal

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.

Segal Centre for Performing Arts

The Segal presents Detroit: Music of the Motor City from Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre, a high-energy celebration of the music that defined a city, from Motown to Hip Hop. Runs April 12 to May 3.

The Segal theatre season continues with a new Canadian musical from Michael Rubinoff, original producer of Come From Away: Grow is an irreverent and moving tale that follows two sheltered Amish sisters whose journey of self-discovery takes root in the most unexpected place: a cannabis dispensary. Runs May 24 to June 14.

The Segal season closes with a Dora Wasserman Yiddish Theatre production of Di Shvegerins (Les Belles-sœurs in Yiddish), a powerful reimagining of Quebec icon Michel Tremblay’s classic 1965 play celebrating language, culture and the resilience of working-class women. Runs June 14 to 28.

Centaur Theatre

The Centaur closes its 57th season with the English-language world premiere of playwright Marie-Claude Verdier’s hard-hitting sci-fi drama Seeker which takes place in the year 2250 and follows a pair of exes hired by the US military to solve a mystery that could have consequences for all of humanity. Presented at Centaur in partnership with Talisman Theatre from April 15 to May 3.

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 27th season includes Camille Huang’s interdisciplinary Fish Spit Feast (April 22 to 25); and Edmonton deaf arts collective The Invisible Practice presents Carbon Movements which blends theatre, dance, poetry, and vibrotactile technology (May 13 to 16).

Festival TransAmériques 

Montréal Fringe Festival

After a record-breaking 2025 edition, the bilingual St-Ambroise Montréal Fringe Festival returns June 1 to 21 when 500 artists from some 90 producing companies present more than 800 indoor performances at this year’s 36th edition. The OFF Fringe runs concurrently from June 3 to June 21.

The Fringe celebrates diversity, accessibility and artistic freedom and remains one of the most affordable entertainment options in town with 100% of the ticket price returned to the performing artists.

Other theatre

The West End musical Bat Out of Hell: The Musical headlines Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier on April 5, featuring the music of Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf.

The Hudson Village Theatre mounts playwright John Cariani’s Almost, Maine which presents nine short vignettes of couples falling in and out of love (April 9 to 19); and playwright Kristen Da Silva’s Hurry Hard, a Canadian comedy about a small-town curling club fighting to win what might be its final Bonspiel, directed by local theatre legend Don Anderson (May 13 to 24).

Geordie Theatre presents an all-ages production of Snow White at the Centaur Theatre from April 16 to 26. Geordie then presents its adults-only Showtime Cabaret Cocktail fundraiser filled with burlesque, stand-up comedy, acrobatics, live music, cocktails and dancing at Le Balcon on May 7.

La Chapelle Scènes Contemporaines presents Suzanne Guité, a dreamy and poetic tribute (March 25) about the murdered legendary artist to mark the centenary of her birth, as part of La Chapelle’s bilingual 36th interdisciplinary season.

Imago Theatre presents Simmer: Short Works Performance Festival featuring innovative works in progress by local emerging artists, at Théâtre La Comédie De Montreal (March 20 to 22).

Teesri Duniya Theatre presents award-winning writer Anosh Irani’s Behind the Moon which explores the challenges faced by immigrant workers in the food industry where over 25% in the sector are immigrants (April 3 to 19); and in collaboration with Sort of Productions, Wine & Halva by award-winning playwright Deniz Basar is about the unconventional friendship between a Canadian gay white man and a Turkish woman dealing with institutional discrimination (May 9 to 23). 

A new theatrical melodrama in one act, Witness for the Persecution is more than just an entertaining take on the famous courtroom-drama film of a very similar name (Witness for the Prosecution) starring Marlene Dietrich and Charles Laughton. It is a dark and enthralling experiment in melding performance art and theatre, in which theatre legend Sky Gilbert invites his own mother to the witness stand to defend him. Written and directed by Sky Gilbert, and starring Canadian comedy star and actor Gavin Crawford as Marlene Dietrich, at Théâtre Sainte-Catherine (May 21 to 23).

Dawson College’s Professional Theatre Department presents The Rover which is like a Thelma & Louise from the year 1677, by playwright Aphra Behn (1640-1689), the first professional woman writer in English literature. Runs April 21 to May 2 at Dawson’s gorgeous New Dome Theatre.

John Abbott College Theatre Department presents Everybody by Pulitzer-winning playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, and the satirical comedy Glass Mountain by legendary Norwegian playwright Tor Age Bringsvaerd. Both plays will be mounted in May 2026 at the Casgrain Theatre. Click here for TBA dates. 

Concordia University Department of Theatre presents Don’t Cry When Constellations Beg to Burn by playwright Ho Ka Kei (also known as Jeff Ho), about a group of students tasked with selecting which books are to be taken out of their school library, based on the governing party’s new guidelines. Runs April 8 to 11 at the gorgeous state-of-the-art downtown Concordia Theatre, a 387-seat proscenium theatre worthy of Broadway.

Also, click here for info on all upcoming National Theatre School productions at the Monument-National and at the Pauline-McGibbon Studio on the NTS Saint-Denis Campus, notably Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, directed by theatre legend Amanda Kellock (April 28 to May 1).

From Broadway to Montréal

evenko and Broadway Across Canada present smash hit touring productions at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier. Their 2026 Broadway season includes Montréal’s first-ever presentation of & Juliet (March 17 to 22), as well as Moulin Rouge! The Musical (June 9 to 14), and the triumphant return of Disney’s THE LION KING for a whopping 24 performances (August 19 to September 6).

French theatre

There are many French-language plays and theatres in Montréal.

Théâtre Denise-Pelletier closes its 62nd season with a bold adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula by Marie-Claude Verdier: Dracula - Un nouveau règne du mal explores instant intelligence and artificial power via David Rand, a.k.a. Dracula, powerful lord of Silicon Valley. Stars Maxime Denommée as David Rand / Dracula. Runs March 17 to April 14.