07/09/2026
NO PAUSE. NO REPLAY. NO SECOND CHANCE: FIVE EXTRAORDINARY LIVE EVENTS SET TO ELECTRIFY BLACKPOOL GRAND
Four one-night spectacles and one Olivier Award-winning week bring magnificent music, breathtaking ballet, gothic obsession, operatic passion and riotous romance to Blackpool.
Some performances can only truly be understood by being there.
It is the moment an orchestra surges into Land of Hope and Glory, snow begins to fall around a stage filled with dancers, a voice rises above Puccini’s magnificent score or an entire auditorium erupts into laughter as Jane Austen collides with karaoke.
Between September 2026 and May 2027, Blackpool Grand Theatre will bring five extraordinary live experiences to its historic stage. Four will be in the town for one night only. The fifth arrives for one glorious, award-winning week.
Together, they travel from Blackpool’s own symphony orchestra and one of the world’s best-loved ballets to Oscar Wilde reinvented as a new musical, the devastating passion of Italian opera and an Olivier Award-winning Austen adaptation unlike anything polite society has seen before.
The series begins on Sunday 20 September when Blackpool Symphony Orchestra presents Last Night of the Proms.
Union flags at the ready: this is not an evening for sitting silently on the sidelines. Light classical favourites and much-loved show tunes build towards the great Last Night traditions of Rule, Britannia!, Jerusalem and Land of Hope and Glory as Blackpool’s own orchestra fills Frank Matcham’s magnificent auditorium with live music.
It is stirring, celebratory and proudly communal – the kind of night when orchestra and audience become part of the same performance, and joining in feels almost inevitable.
Just two weeks later, on Sunday 4 October, Imperial Classical Ballet brings The Nutcracker to life for one enchanting performance accompanied by a large live orchestra.
Tchaikovsky’s timeless score, including the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy and Waltz of the Flowers, carries audiences into a dreamlike world of snow flurries, magic, princes and sweets. Lavish costumes, beautiful choreography and the richness of live music combine in a production that offers a perfect first experience of classical ballet while remaining irresistible to those who already treasure it.
Christmas may still be approaching, but for one night The Grand will become a place where toys awaken, snow begins to dance and almost anything feels possible.
The atmosphere darkens dramatically on Saturday 14 November with The Picture of Dorian Gray – A New Musical.
Faithful to Oscar Wilde’s original 1890 novel, this new sung-through musical enters the seductive and increasingly dangerous world of Dorian Gray: a wealthy and beautiful young man whose wish for eternal youth is mysteriously granted. While Dorian remains untouched by time, his portrait begins to absorb the evidence of every selfish act, secret desire and moral corruption.
Inspired by the dark, grand-scale musicals of the 1970s and 1980s, the production unfolds across two acts set 20 years apart. Beauty becomes obsession, pleasure becomes destruction and the portrait waits in the shadows as Dorian descends further into a life without apparent consequences.
This is a rare opportunity to experience an original musical at the beginning of its journey – gothic, theatrical and deliciously dark, with only one Blackpool performance.
On Wednesday 24 February 2027, Ukrainian National Opera presents Puccini’s Tosca, performed by the acclaimed Dnipro Opera from Ukraine with a live orchestra.
Set amid political unrest in Rome, Tosca follows celebrated singer Floria Tosca as she becomes trapped in a deadly struggle between her lover, the artist Mario Cavaradossi, and the ruthless Chief of Police, Baron Scarpia.
Love, jealousy, corruption and sacrifice collide as Scarpia’s power tightens around them. Puccini’s sweeping score – including the immortal aria Vissi d’arte – drives the story towards one of the most devastating conclusions in all opera.
With international soloists, traditional staging, lavish costumes and the full emotional force of a live orchestra, Tosca is both a magnificent experience for established opera lovers and a gripping introduction for anyone encountering the art form for the first time. Sung in Italian with English surtitles, every twist of its thriller-like story remains completely accessible.
The season reaches its gloriously unruly finale when the Olivier and Evening Standard Theatre Award-winning Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of) returns to Blackpool from Monday 26 April to Saturday 1 May 2027.
Following its hugely popular first visit to The Grand in May 2023, Isobel McArthur’s audacious adaptation returns with a new company and all the men, money and microphones that made it a West End sensation.
At its heart is the story audiences have loved for more than two centuries: Elizabeth Bennet, Fitzwilliam Darcy, five unmarried daughters and a society obsessed with wealth, status and finding a suitable husband. This version, however, has karaoke, ingenious multi-roling and pop classics including Young Hearts Run Free, Will You Love Me Tomorrow and You’re So Vain.
It is irreverent without ever losing its affection for Austen, transforming one of literature’s greatest love stories into a riotous mixture of period drama, pop concert and brilliantly inventive comedy.
Andrew Howard, Head of Audiences, Marketing and Sales at Blackpool Grand Theatre, said:
“There are some experiences that simply cannot be replicated through a screen. You need to feel an live orchestra filling our auditorium, hear a great operatic voice without anything between you and the performer, watch dancers appear to defy gravity and share the laughter when a brilliant company completely takes hold of a room.
“What makes these productions so exciting is that they take stories, music and traditions people may think they already know and make them feel immediate again. From the wonderful Blackpool Symphony Orchestra and the beauty of The Nutcracker to the gothic world of Dorian Gray, the emotional force of Tosca and the glorious chaos of Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of), every visit offers something completely different.
“Four of these productions are at The Grand for one night only, while Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of) returns for just one week. Once the orchestra has played its final note and the curtain comes down, that particular moment is gone. These are the nights to choose now, put firmly in the diary and make sure you can say you were there.”
There is no pause button in theatre – and that is precisely what makes it unforgettable.
Blackpool Symphony Orchestra – Last Night of the Proms is at Blackpool Grand Theatre on Sunday 20 September 2026 at 7.30pm.
The Nutcracker is on Sunday 4 October 2026 at 7.30pm.
The Picture of Dorian Gray – A New Musical is on Saturday 14 November 2026 at 7.30pm.
Tosca is on Wednesday 24 February 2027.
Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of) runs from Monday 26 April to Saturday 1 May 2027.
Tickets are available from the Blackpool Grand Theatre website or by calling the Blackpool Grand Theatre Box Office on 01253 290190.
