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theatre · Tuesday 11 August 2026 · Various 
High Society the Musical - Grand Opera House Belfast
At Grand Opera House · Great Victoria Street, Belfast, Co. Antrim
At Grand Opera House · Great Victoria Street, Belfast, Co. Antrim
Cole Porter’s wit and glamour land in Belfast for five nights this August, when the touring production of High Society takes the stage at the Grand Opera House. Starring Helen George - best known as Jenny Lee in Call the Midwife - alongside Freddie Fox and Julian Ovenden, this is a proper West End-calibre cast on a big touring production, not a cut-price version. If you enjoy musical theatre with real songs you already know, or you want a theatrical night out that leaves you in good spirits, this fits the bill for couples, friends, and theatre lovers from their teens upwards.
The story follows Tracy Lord, a Newport socialite whose society wedding begins to unravel when her ex-husband turns up uninvited and a tabloid reporter starts digging for scandal. It is based on Philip Barry’s play The Philadelphia Story, which also gave the world the 1956 film with Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Bing Crosby. That film used Cole Porter songs written especially for it, and this stage production draws on the same songbook - so you can expect “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”, “True Love”, “Well, Did You Evah?”, “I Love Paris”, and “You’re Sensational” sung by a 28-person ensemble with a full orchestra in the pit.
The production runs approximately two hours and thirty minutes with an interval. Rachel Kavanaugh directs and Anthony Van Laast - the choreographer behind Mamma Mia! - handles the dancing. There is a captioned performance on Thursday 13 August at 7:30pm.
The Grand Opera House is on Great Victoria Street in central Belfast, right beside the Europa Bus Centre - one of the easiest theatre drops in Ireland. Translink services connect Belfast from Dublin (via Enterprise rail, about two hours), Derry, and across the North. The Grand Central Station on Great Victoria Street puts you steps from the door. If you are driving, the city centre has multi-storey car parks nearby on Grosvenor Road and at the Victoria Square shopping centre, roughly a five-minute walk. Great Victoria Street itself is not a parking street on performance nights, so allow time to find a space.
The Grand Opera House opened in 1895 and was designed by Frank Matcham - the same architect behind the London Palladium. Its oriental-style auditorium, with ornate plasterwork and onion-domed minarets on the facade, is worth a moment to look at before the show. The surrounding Golden Mile has plenty of bars and restaurants for a meal beforehand. There is more to see in Belfast and across Co. Antrim.
Heading to Grand Opera House in Belfast? Antrim has plenty more to see. Read the Belfast area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.