Sheffield Theatres announces 2026/27 season

Sheffield Theatres Artistic Director Elizabeth Newman and CEO Tom Bird have announced details of the 2026/27 season.

With this newly announced season, Sheffield Theatres continues to grow in the strength and scale of its ambition to engage audiences and artists across its four auditoria, foyers, rehearsal rooms, across the city and beyond.

An ambitious season of classics alongside five world premieres will welcome audiences across the Sheffield Theatres stages. This includes a double-bill of Shakespeare in the Crucible with two major new productions brought to the stage by a company of actors across both titles. The company will be joined by screen and stage stars Mathew Horne in Twelfth Night directed by Jamie Glover (Measure for Measure), and Ian McDiarmid in King Lear directed by Donmar Warehouse Associate Artistic Director Titas Halder (The Dance of Death) in association with MGC, which marks a reunion for Sheffield Theatres and former Artistic Director Michael Grandage. Olivier Award-winner Jonathan Church (The Drifters Girl) will return to Sheffield Theatres with the sure-fire splash-hit Singin’ in the Rain whichwill delight audiences in the Crucible over the festive period.

Set in Yorkshire and based on the acclaimed book, the world premiere of The Ballroom will mark the return of the Director of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie to Sheffield Theatres. The production is created and staged by Jonathan Butterell, Kevin Clifton (Strictly Come Dancing) and Anna Hope. Dates and further details will be announced soon.

As always, Sheffield Theatres’ programming brings together locally-rooted productions with global stories. The world premiere of Ugandan born and Sheffield bred and based John Rwothomack’s Never Look Back (Lines) is a retelling of the East and Southern African soldiers who fought for the Commonwealth in World War II, brought to the stage in a co-production with Sheffield Theatres’ Associate Company Roots Mbili Theatre. Sheffield Theatres collaborates with English Touring Theatre and Graeae with the world premiere of 12 Letters To My Name by Sheffield’s Lettie Precious (This is Us), telling the story of two African schoolchildren who have recently made Sheffield their home. The world premiere of the stage adaptation of Sunjeev Sahota’s (The Spoiled Heart) novel The Year of the Runaways is directed by Artistic Director Elizabeth Newman and adapted by playwright Stephanie Street (Sisters), presented in association with Ranga Shankara.

This autumn, Open Works, a first-of-its-kind festival for Sheffield Theatres, will celebrate artists from across South Yorkshire and beyond in a coming together of creatives that will expand Sheffield as a destination for discovery. A new generation of talent will also take to the stage as Sheffield Theatres’ Youth Theatre present the world premiere of The Trip by Janys Chambers (North and South), created in collaboration with its young members and creatives. The Women’s Prize for Playwriting 2025 winner,  Sapling  by Georgina Duncan will be produced at Sheffield Theatres, the new venue partner of the Prize, in co-production with Paines Plough and the Women’s Prize for Playwriting. Sapling is a tender and darkly funny story, which follows a young man dealing with the pains of adolescence and the lingering shadow of grief in 1990s Belfast.

After a sold-out West End run, KENREX opens on Broadway this April and Everybody’s Talking About Jamie will be touring the UK once again, celebrating ten years since it first burst onto the Crucible stage. Looking into next year, Sheffield Theatres continues to develop global partnerships, including the association with Ranga Shankara in Bengaluru, India, a collaboration rooted in exchange, learning and shared ambition.

Sheffield Theatres’ Artistic Director, Elizabeth Newman said: “As we continue to create and share our current season of work – my first as Artistic Director – I’m so excited to announce news of the next season for Sheffield Theatres.

“Over the coming months, we’re planning to throw our doors open wider than ever before. We’ll be staging bold classics alongside five world premieres, heralding big musicals alongside launching our very first Open Works Festival. We’re championing Sheffield artists next to global voices – making our stages places of discovery, ambition and joy for audiences here in the city and beyond.

“It’s an exciting time, and we cannot wait to make more magic in Sheffield.”

CEO Tom Bird added: “We’re thrilled to be announcing this extraordinary season of work, the ambition of which underlines Sheffield Theatres’ status as a beacon of large-scale, high-quality produced theatre.

“From new productions of world-changing classics, through a much-adored musical, to sparkling new plays and adaptations, our 2026/27 season contains an exhilarating variety of world-class theatre. We can’t wait to welcome audiences from across our region and beyond to enjoy these wonderful shows in our famous theatres.”

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