Theatre in Manila
15 plays, musicals and ballets are running or announced across Metro Manila, from Tanghalang Pilipino at the CCP complex to a festival of new one-act plays staged in a Poblacion bar room. This page rebuilds from the listings every time you load it, so it is never a season guide that went out of date in March. Everything links through to the full listing with the theatre, the run dates and where to buy. Also on: concerts, what is on this weekend and galleries and museums.
Jonah by Rachel Bonds
New company Spike Theatre debuts with Rachel Bonds' one-act memory play, winner of the 2024 Laurents/Hatcher Prize.
- When
- 29 Aug 2026
- Theatre
- Dance Royalties StudioMandaluyong
How the Manila theatre year works
Manila theatre runs on seasons rather than open-ended runs. The resident companies, Tanghalang Pilipino at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Ballet Philippines, Ballet Manila and Repertory Philippines, announce a slate in the middle of the year and stage it between roughly August and May, which is why this page is fullest in the second half of the year and quiet in June and July.
A production usually plays two weekends, occasionally three, and almost never longer. That is the single most important thing to know: a show you read about on a Monday may have two performances left. Ballet is the exception at the December end of the calendar, when the Nutcracker becomes an annual fixture and more than one company stages its own version in the same month.
The work splits three ways. The big licensed musicals and original Filipino musicals go to the large rooms, Newport Performing Arts Theater in Pasay and the Samsung Performing Arts Theater in BGC, and sell weeks ahead. The straight plays and new writing go to the black boxes, which hold around a hundred people and are where most of the interesting work is. And the national companies use the CCP complex, whose theatres reopened in stages after the main building closed for retrofitting, so check which room a CCP show is actually in.
On stage now
All eventsRunning this week. Theatre runs are short in Manila, often two weekends, so these are the ones with a real deadline on them.
Plays and new work
All eventsStraight plays, devised work and festivals of new writing, from restagings of Filipino classics to two handers in a black box.
Musicals
All eventsOriginal Filipino musicals and licensed productions, the ones that book out weeks ahead.
Muli: An OPM Musical
Globe Auditorium
Bongga Ka, 'Day!: The Annie Batungbakal Musical
Newport Performing Arts Theater
Sayaw ng mga Ilaw
Tanghalang Ignacio Gimenez
Gregoria Lakambini: A Pinay Pop Musical
The Proscenium Theater
Gabriela: The Musical
Hyundai Hall
Ballet and dance
All eventsFull-length classical ballet and contemporary dance from the national companies.
Jonah
Dance Royalties Studio
Paglalakbay: 1001 Nights
The Theatre at Solaire
Passion and Purpose
Tanghalang Haribon
The Nutcracker
Samsung Performing Arts Theater
The Nutcracker
Maybank Performing Arts Theater
The companies staging work this season
Ballet Manila and Steps Dance Studio. Ballet Philippines. Barefoot Theatre Collaborative. Charissa Pammit and Andrei Pamintuan. IdeaFirst Live. Newport World Resorts with Viva Communications, The Philippine STAR and PETA Plus. Philippine Ballet Theatre. Spike Theatre. Tanghalang Pilipino. Theatre Group Asia.
Where theatre happens in Manila
This season's productions are spread across 13 rooms: Dance Royalties Studio, Doreen Black Box Theater, Globe Auditorium, Halxyon Club, Hyundai Hall, Maybank Performing Arts Theater, Newport Performing Arts Theater, Power Mac Center Spotlight Blackbox Theater, Samsung Performing Arts Theater, Tanghalang Haribon, Tanghalang Ignacio Gimenez, The Proscenium Theater, The Theatre at Solaire. The CCP complex in Pasay holds several of them, the black boxes in Quezon City and Poblacion take the newer and smaller work, and the big licensed musicals go to Newport in Pasay or the Samsung Performing Arts Theater in BGC. Check the individual listing for the room, because a company will move between them from one production to the next.
How to book
Manila theatre runs are short, frequently two weekends and sometimes a single one, and the companies with a following sell out before the reviews land. Book the musicals as soon as they go on sale and treat the black box work as something you can decide on the week of, though the small rooms hold a hundred people and go faster than that suggests. Most productions sell through TicketWorld or the venue directly, and the listing for each show carries the link.
For the rest of what is on: today, this weekend, concerts, this week and the calendar.
Know when a run opens
A short list of what is worth your time in Manila, every Friday, including what just went on sale.