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 the docu-concert The Secret Chord: A Leonard Cohen Experience about the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer who adored his hometown of Montréal. The text is entirely new for this restaging: the storytelling that carries the show between songs has been rewritten, so audiences who have already seen it will find a different experience built around the same music, while performers Divine Brown, Emily Schultz and Andrew Penner return from the previous run of The Secret Chord. Runs October 5 to 25.

The Tony-winning musical Come From Away tells the remarkable true story of 7,000 stranded passengers and the people of Gander who welcomed them during 9/11. Uplifting, heartfelt and deeply human, Come From Away celebrates kindness, resilience and the bonds that unite. Runs November 22 to December 13. 

Centaur Theatre

After a lifetime devoted to climate activism, internationally-renowned environmentalists David Suzuki and Tara Cullis take to the stage in What You Won’t Do for Love, an intimate and inspiring theatre experience. Presented in English with French surtitles. Runs October 2 to 4.

The Centaur kicks off their 2026-2027 mainstage season with master puppeteer Ronnie Burkett whose Ronnie Burkett Theatre of Marionettes presents Wonderful Joe about an old man and his dog who set out on one last fantastical adventure after gentrification forces tenants out of Joe’s apartment building to make room for a new condo tower. The acclaimed production touches on some serious issues affecting aging LGBTQ communities, all told with Ronnie’s trademark campy wit and style. Age restriction: 16+. Runs October 13 to November 1.

A world premiere starring Montréal theatre luminaries Brian Dooley and Danielle Desormeaux, Holiday in Zürich follows a happily married Canadian couple in their 70s as they prepare for a hard-earned, jam-packed trip to Switzerland. The husband is travelling toward the most difficult challenge of his life while his wife is eager for a holiday full of sight-seeing, romance and European cuisine. As they pack their suitcases, their different expectations for the trip come into direct and funny collision. Runs November 4 to 22.

Other theatre

An Imago Theatre and The Sound of Dogs Collective co-production, The Sound of Dogs is about a hearing child of Deaf parents who invites us into her world. Through Deaf cultural storytelling and humour, she shares personal stories and pushes back against the assumptions made about her parents, blending American Sign Language, spoken English, and movement within a vivid digital landscape. Runs October 1 to 10 at the Centaur Theatre.

Mainline Theatre presents their hugely popular annual production of Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show starring Montréal drag sensation Augusta Wind as Dr. Frank N Furter. Runs October 28 to 31. Six shows over four nights at the Théâtre La Comédie de Montréal.

Located in the Plateau-Mont-Royal, the innovative Montréal, arts interculturels cultural organization – better known as “The MAI” – presents ROSA, a 60-minute dance-theatre work conceived, directed and choreographed by Carlos Rivera that explores the female body as a site of memory, identity and resistance. Runs November 11 to 14.

The Hudson Village Theatre presents their all-ages annual holiday pantomime Alice in Wonderland filled with singing, dancing, silly jokes, goodies and baddies, written Tom Whalley and directed by Katie McHugh and Jean-Frédéric Samson. Runs December 11 to January 3, 2027.

From Broadway to Montréal

The evenko and Broadway Across Canada 2026-2027 season brings smash hit musicals to Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier at Place des Arts:

• Mamma Mia! On the eve of her wedding, a daughter’s quest to discover the father she’s never known brings three men from her mother’s past back to a Greek island. Features a greatest-hits soundtrack by ABBA. Runs October 13 to 18.
• The Book of Mormon Outrageous musical comedy follows the adventures of a mismatched pair of missionaries sent halfway across the world to spread the Good Word. Runs March 2 to 7, 2027.
• A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical How a kid from Brooklyn became a chart-busting, show-stopping American rock icon. Runs April 13 to 18, 2027.

National Theatre School of Canada

The 2026-27 English Section season of The National Theatre School of Canada presents five productions from graduating students, running October through May 2027, presented primarily at the Monument-National in the Quartier des Spectacles.

Each production brings together final-year students from the NTS Acting, Playwriting, Set and Costume Design, and Production Design and Technical Arts programs, working alongside professional directors from Canada and abroad. It’s a wonderful opportunity for Montréal audiences to catch emerging talent before they enter the professional theatre world.

Here is the 2026-27 NTS English Section season at a glance:

• The Parliament of the Birds (October 21 to 25) — Guillermo Verdecchia's adaptation of the Sufi classic, directed by Soheil Parsa.
• Paradise Lost (December 9 to 12) — Erin Shields’ retelling of Milton, directed by Sarah Garton Stanley.
• Pericles (February 24 to 28, 2027) — Shakespeare, directed by Sir Gregory Doran, former Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
• New Words Festival (April 25 to May 2) — two new plays by graduating playwrights: Fireproof by Ella Kohlmann and Kindle by Geneva Noppers.

Click here for info on all upcoming NTS productions at the Monument-National.

More student theatre

Dawson College’s Professional Theatre Department presents several plays at Dawson’s gorgeous New Dome Theatre during their 2026-27 season:

• Declarations by playwright Jordan Tannanhill (September 30 to October 3).
• The Horse about Roman Emperor Caligula wagering on a chariot race (November 9 to 20).
• Romeo & Juliet by Shakespeare (January 25 to February 4, 2027).
• I Have Loved Strangers (March 3 to 6, 2027).
• The Rest Will Be Familiar to You from Cinema, a radical reworking of Euripides’ The Phoenician Women (March 10 to 13, 2027).
• [BLANK] by playwright Alice Birch (April 19 to May 1).
   

John Abbott College Theatre Department presents student productions at their Casgrain Theatre. Click here for TBA dates. 

Concordia University also presents public theatre performances. Click here for their 2026-27 season.

McGill University students studying drama and theatre present public theatre performances at Moyse Hall Theatre. Click here for their 2026-27 season.

Looking ahead to 2027

La Chapelle Scènes Contemporaines presents About cruising: Lignes de désir, a wordless theatre piece that explores the role of imagination in desire. The piece follows a novice protagonist who discovers a cruising space, confronting him with the paradoxes of his desires: what he envies, what disgusts him, the projection of his own fantasies onto others, the excitement of danger, and more. Runs January 11 to 15.

Imago Theatre presents Akuteu about a young Innu woman who shares her perspective on blending into a predominantly white society. Runs January 27 to February 6 at La Chapelle Scènes Contemporaines.

Talisman Theatre and Infinithéâtre co-present NOLI about an out-of-work actress who earns her living as a daycare educator. Between auditions and lackluster intimate encounters, she finds solace in stories she invents and tells the children under her care. When she discovers NOLI, a feminist erotica audio app, her life is turned upside down as this fictional universe opens her mind to new perspectives. Runs February 17 to 27 at La Chapelle Scènes Contemporaines.

Canada’s oldest Black theatre company, Black Theatre Workshop remounts the award-winning Taking Care of Maman by playwright Djennie Laguerre as part of their 2026–27 “Tête-à-Tête” season. Runs in February 2027. Click here for dates TBA.

Creating theatre for young audiences and their families, Geordie Theatre presents Horseplay about the relationship between a horse and his jockey which – as race day approaches – becomes the heart of a wildly funny and unexpectedly moving story about friendship, loyalty and growing up. Runs at the Segal Centre for the Performing Arts  in March 2027. Click here for dates TBA.

As part of their 45^th season, Teesri Duniya Theatre presents The Green Line which explores intergenerational memory through the lens of four queer relationships in Beirut, by playwright Makram Ayache and directed by Aladeen Tawfeek. Runs April 2 to 18. 

French theatre

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