Theatre is where most of my evenings go. In under three years I've been to around fifty shows, concerts and club nights in Barcelona, from Patti LuPone at the Tívoli to a Shrek rave at the Apolo. The big touring musicals mostly land at two Balañá houses, the Tívoli on Carrer de Casp and the Coliseum on Gran Via, with the Liceu and the Palau de la Música for the grand nights and the Paral·lel for drag, cabaret and comedy. These are the ones worth dressing up for, roughly in order of preference.
The grand nights
Patti LuPone, Songs from a Hat, Teatre Tívoli · 5/5
Patti LuPone's first tour of Spain gave me the theatrical event of my year. The show is exactly what the title says: a grand piano, a vase of red roses, her musical director Joseph Thalken at the keys, and a hat full of song titles from her repertoire. She pulls them out one by one and sings them in that order, with a few stories along the way, from Evita to Sunset Boulevard and Company. Nothing is a request and every song in the hat is planned, but the order is pure chance, so no two nights are alike. She is a Broadway diva and a living legend, and she was amazing.
The evening started before the curtain went up: outside the theatre I fell into conversation with a group of wonderful older ladies and ended up having drinks with them in the lobby. Barcelona is a casual city, so any excuse to dress eccentric and go to a show is welcome. One confession: on the day tickets went on sale I bought what I thought were front-row seats, but I'd been reading the seat map upside down and had bought the back of the stalls. I moved up to some empty seats, and front or back, it was fabulous.
It is a concert, not a staged show, so anyone expecting a band or costume changes will find it spare, and your favourite song may never leave the hat. At €75 to €99 a seat it isn't cheap for a piano evening, but for a living Broadway legend in a grand old theatre rather than an arena, I'd do it again. Afterwards I went on to Los Caracoles for dinner, as I always do.
Palau de la Música Catalana · 5/5
If you see one concert hall in Barcelona, make it this one. Lluís Domènech i Montaner built it for the Orfeó Català, it opened in 1908, and UNESCO listed it in 1997. Nothing prepares you for the ceiling: an inverted dome of stained glass in gold and blue, like a sun hanging over the stalls, ringed by ceramic roses that run down the side walls, with sculpted figures bursting out of the stage arch around the organ. I went for BCN Clàssics' Carmina Burana, sung by the Orfeón Donostiarra with the ADDA Simfònica under Josep Vicent. Ravel's second Daphnis et Chloé suite came first, and I spent it looking up rather than at the conductor. As a designer, it's the building I bring friends to first.
Nothing prepares you for the ceiling.
The flip side of a 1908 hall is comfort. Seats are narrow, legroom is tight and some upper-level seats look past columns, so study the seat map before you book. In summer the programme leans towards tourist "greatest hits" evenings; for the real thing, pick an orchestral or choral night like this one.
Sémiramis / Don Juan, Gran Teatre del Liceu · 4/5
Two Gluck ballets whose original choreography is lost, danced by the Ballet du Capitole de Toulouse with Jordi Savall conducting Le Concert des Nations in the pit. Ángel Rodríguez's Sémiramis is a light, poetic piece about women; Edward Clug's Don Juan is sharper and funnier, with 28 dancers, convent railings and a sculptural horse. The music was the star, and Savall got a standing ovation. The Liceu itself is half the evening: the marble grand staircase, the gilded foyers and the red-and-gold horseshoe of the auditorium. Both ballets drop the plot, so anyone wanting a story ballet may feel short-changed, and the closing scene of Don Juan falls flat.
Opening nights at the Coliseum
Jean Paul Gaultier's Fashion Freak Show · 4.5/5
Part revue, part runway, part autobiography: the perfect mix of variety and high fashion, and it reminded me a little of the Mugler Follies. Gaultier tells his own story, from the teddy bear he dressed as a boy to his first collection in 1976, through a cast of about fifteen singers, dancers and circus artists wearing his clothes. On opening night I sat near the man himself, which was a treat, and he came out for the curtain call. The audience was half the fun: everyone was dressed for the occasion, so the people-watching was superb. It's one of the few shows where you really do want front-row seats.
The first act has the clearer story; the second becomes more of a runway cabaret and loses its thread, and several French passages weren't surtitled. It rewarded the fans more than the curious.
SIX · 4.5/5
I first saw SIX in London, then at Chicago Shakespeare Theater before it moved to Broadway, where I saw it again, and then on the US tour in Tampa. Barcelona got the UK and International Tour, in English with surtitles, and on opening night it didn't disappoint. Henry VIII's six wives come back as a girl group, with an all-female band on stage, a pop-diva number for every queen and no interval, so it plays like a pop concert. It's fun, it's intelligent and it's full of historical detail, and it makes the story of the six wives easy for anyone to follow. Theatre and Tonic gave the run five stars; its only quibble was that the show feels short.
It is more concert than musical: the plot is thin, the jokes come fast, and if your English is shaky you'll be reading surtitles rather than watching. Next on my list is the Spanish-language production now at the Teatro Gran Vía in Madrid.
The Rocky Horror Show · 4/5
Is there a better place to spend Halloween? The UK touring production, directed by Christopher Luscombe, brought Jason Donovan back to Frank-N-Furter, a role he first played in 1998, for a short run in English with Spanish surtitles. It's a light, fun night: corsets, fishnets, the Time Warp and some audience participation, and honestly, it's hard not to make Rocky Horror fun. My one wish was for more costumes in the stalls; almost nobody dressed up, and that's half the point. It's a touring set, so don't expect West End scale.
Musicals at the Tivoli
El Fantasma de la Ópera · 4/5
I've seen Phantom at least seven times in the last 25 years, so I came to the Tívoli with high expectations. This is the Spanish-language production I'd already seen from the front row in Madrid: Federico Bellone's staging for LETSGO and Amigos Para Siempre, the company Andrew Lloyd Webber set up with Antonio Banderas, here on its first-ever Barcelona run. Daniel Diges led as the Phantom, with Ana San Martín as Christine and Isabel Malavia as Madame Giry, and there's a live orchestra of 15 in the pit. It was beautifully sung and well performed, but it lacks the grand spectacle of the other productions I've seen. I still recommend it; just lower your expectations if you've seen it in London, on Broadway or on the US tours.
The critics landed in much the same place. Ara called it an entertaining musical with directorial problems: the score, the voices and the orchestra are worth the trip, but the staging lacks energy. Theatre and Tonic gave it four stars for a flawless ensemble but found the low sets made the Phantom less menacing. My night had its own drama: near the end of the first act the sound failed and the show stopped for more than an hour. I'd already asked for a refund by then, so I left, and the theatre handled refunds for everyone who chose not to wait extremely well.
Priscilla, Reina del Desierto · 4/5
The jukebox road-trip musical came back to Barcelona, and the Tívoli went all in: a pink-lit PRISCILLA over the curtain, a giant silver stiletto to pose in and a feather-boa photocall in the foyer. Sharonne, the winner of the second season of Drag Race España, was a fabulous Bernadette. Simon Phillips's production promises more than 200 outfit changes from a wardrobe of 500 garments and 200 wigs, and the numbers ("I Will Survive", "It's Raining Men", "Like a Prayer") turn the stalls into a disco. The book is light, a string of excuses for the next song, which is exactly the point: come for the costumes, the hits and Sharonne rather than the plot.
Drag, flamenco and a Shrek rave
Sasha Velour, The Big Reveal, Paral·lel 62 · 4.5/5
Sasha Velour, winner of RuPaul's Drag Race season 9, brought her touring solo show to Paral·lel 62, the old Teatre Espanyol on the Paral·lel. It is drag as art: 90 minutes without an interval of lip-syncs, poetry, film-inspired vignettes, video art and comedy, built around the idea of the reveal. The costumes are the payoff; one orange feathered hat and coat could have filled the stage on its own. It's lip-sync rather than live vocals, and wordy in places, so it suits Drag Race fans and lovers of performance art more than anyone hoping for a party. Arrive early for a good view.
El Duende by Tablao Cordobés · 4/5
El Duende is the Tablao Cordobés's small room on La Rambla: a whitewashed, vaulted space with lanterns and tiled walls where guitar, cante and baile happen a few feet from your table, and in a room this size you hear every heel strike. It is a show made for visitors, about 55 minutes long, and seating is by price zone, which confuses some guests. The room isn't wheelchair accessible.
¡Ay, amor, amor!, Teatro Flamenco Barcelona · 4.5/5
For Pride in July 2026, the Teatro Flamenco Barcelona, on Carrer dels Abaixadors in the Born, staged ¡Ay, amor, amor!, a queer flamenco night about free love and diversity that paid tribute to Miguel de Molina, Antonio el Bailarín and Federico García Lorca. It's an excellent venue: live guitar, singing and dancing, a drink with your ticket, and at about an hour, the perfect length. Highly recommended, Pride or not; the theatre's regular show, Inspiración, runs every day.
Shrek Rave, Sala Apolo · 3/5
Very, very fun, and most of the fun was ours. We bought group tickets five months ahead, at a burlesque night at Foxy Bar, with people we'd only met there that evening. On the night we got ready at my place over mezcal cocktails, then walked, or rather paraded, in costume to the Apolo: I went as Puss in Boots, with friends as Pinocchio, Prince Charming and a black cat. Inside, under a giant ogre-eared Apolo logo, the room was full of costumes and the music was guilty-pleasure 2000s all night.
The event itself was thin. For a venue as good as the Apolo, the production was minimal and generic, and they could have done far more with it. The hours are odd too: 6 pm to 11 pm, which is extremely early for Barcelona, where 11 is when most people start getting dressed to go out. So we went on to Foxy afterwards and the night carried on. Fun once, but I wouldn't do it again.
Comedy and burlesque
Barcelona has a lively English-language comedy scene, and the big names pass through. Atsuko Okatsuka at Paral·lel 62 was fabulous and funny after a long wait to see her, and I'm going back for more. Chelsea Handler brought her A Broad Abroad tour to the Tívoli, Alok brought their stand-up to the Teatre Borràs, and Matteo Lane played the Coliseum on his We Gotta Catch Up! tour.
For burlesque, I first caught Rhythm and Boobs, with a live band, in the Jamboree jazz cellar on Plaça Reial; in September 2026 they starred in the MASIMAS Festival's tribute to Merche Mar at Paral·lel 62. Foxy Bar in the Raval runs burlesque nights too, and it's where the Shrek plan was hatched.
Coming up
Cabaret comes to the Coliseum on 10 February 2027 in Federico Bellone's immersive Kit Kat Klub production, the same director as Phantom, with a bar inside the theatre and seats on the stage itself, and I plan to be there for the first public performance. Before that, I'm a Soul Woman, a tribute to Aretha, Etta, Nina and Tina with seven singers and a seven-piece band, plays the Palau on 21 November 2026, and Atsuko Okatsuka brings The Big Bowl Tour to the Casino l'Aliança del Poblenou on 8 February 2027. Write-ups to follow.
