Offer theater, offer imagination and emotions

Madrid food

(Comedy Theater, until January 18). The National Classical Theater Company reconstructs this production, with the version and direction by Rafa Castejón, the musical direction of Antonio Comas and the choreography of Nuria Castejón. The work revolves around the figure of Francisco Arderíus, actor, singer and theater entrepreneur, who revolutionized the Madrid scene with the implementation of the bufo genre, which he practiced with his company Los Bufos Madrileños. In the cast, Clara Altarriba, Chema del Barco, Rafa Castejón, Antonio Comas, Paco Déniz, Eva Diago, Beatriz Miralles, Alejandro Pau and Cecilia Solaguren.

Little Red Riding Hood in Manhattan

(La Abadía Theater, until January 9). Another repeat of a montage that shone last season. Lucía Miranda adapted and directed this story by Carmen Martín Gaite, whose birth will be one hundred years old in 2025. She wrote the novel in 1990, five years after the death of her daughter Marta, at just 29 years old, a victim of AIDS, and there is something therapeutic in its pages, “of the power of fiction as a safe space and refuge in the face of adversity”. Mamen García, Miriam Montilla, Carmen Navarro, Carolina Yuste and Mar Calvo as well as the double bass of Marcel Mihok make up the cast.

Carmen

(Teatro Real, until January 4). The Teatro Real closes the year 2025 and opens the year 2026 with one of the most popular titles in the opera repertoire: “Carmen”, with music by Georges Bizet and a libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovis Halévy, based on the novel of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. It is probably the most Spanish French opera, with a central character who has become one of the great myths of our culture. The production is by Damiano Michieletto, and on the podium is Korean conductor Eun Sun Kim.

The function that is wrong

(Amaya Theater). A work that has become a true phenomenon wherever it has been presented: in London, it has existed for eleven years and in Madrid, it is in its seventh season. Its authors are Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, founding members of the British theater company Mischief Theater, and the work was born from their own experiences: it recounts the attempts of a mad company to put on a theatrical performance, marked by Murphy’s law: if something can go wrong, it will go wrong. Laughter is guaranteed.

Story of a teacher

(Teatro Valle-Inclán, until January 11). March 2026 commemorates the birth of Josefina Aldecoa, Spanish writer and educator, director of Colegio Estilo, who placed creativity and the arts as a central axis of education. The work, adapted by Aurora Parrilla and directed by Raquel Alarcón, draws on the novelist’s texts to become both a biography of her mother, a teacher close to the thought of the Institución Libre de Enseñanza. In the cast, Esther Isla, Thomas J. King, Andrés Picazo, María Ramos, Julia Rubio, Víctor Sainz, Ainhoa ​​​​Santamaría, Fernando Soto, Alfonso Torregrosa, Pablo Vázquez, Manuela Velasco.

Get excited

(Gran Teatro Pavón, until January 11). Jorge Blass presents this show, which he himself defines as “an experience that makes the heart beat, awakens the imagination and makes you believe, for a moment, that anything is possible”. It is “a declaration of love for magic, of respect for the stage and of affection and gratitude towards the public”, says the illusionist who, in this show, travels to the essence of stage magic, without great artifices or machines, only with his hands and the imagination and enthusiasm of the spectators.

The miserable

(Apollo Theater). Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg are the authors of this musical, based on the novel by Victor Hugo, which has become one of the great phenomena on the international scene in recent decades. It was the producer Cameron Mackintosh, a true King Midas of musical theater, who forty years ago shaped the material that the authors put in their hands to produce a show that has been seen by more than 150 million people around the world and which has once again planted its barricades in Madrid.

Numancia

(Teatros del Canal, until February 1). Based on the historic Roman siege of this vanished city, located near Soria, it is one of Miguel de Cervantes’ most recognized theatrical works. It is now staged by José Luis Alonso de Santos, in an “old version”, with around twenty actors on stage. The work, says its director, “is a cry, and I also wanted to scream from the stage with the author and with the Numantine protagonists of the work and the historical event.” The cast includes names such as Arturo Querejeta, Javier Lara, Jacobo Dicenta, Pepa Pedroche and Karmele Aranburu.

Olivier Twist

(La Latina Theater). The novel by Charles Dickens is the basis of this entirely Spanish musical, with a libretto by Pedro Víllora, music by Gerardo Gardelín and direction by Juan Luis Iborra, who with this production realizes a dream that he has cherished for years. The play, set in 19th-century London, tells the story of an orphan who arrives in the city and is “recruited” by a scoundrel, Fagin, who employs children to steal. Rubén Yuste, Marta Malone, Lourdes Zamalloa, Manuel Rodríguez and Tomy Álvarez lead the “adult” cast of the series.

To rent out

(Fernán Gómez Theater, until January 25). On January 26, 1996, the first performance at the New York Theater Workshop took place of “Rent”, a musical which would become a fundamental work for the revival of the genre. Just 24 hours earlier, its author, Jonathan Larsson, died. The work, inspired by Puccini’s opera “La bohème”, tells the story of contemporary bohemians confronted with problems such as drugs, housing, AIDS or artistic creation. José Luis Sixto is the production director and César Belda is the musical director, while Adrián Perea is responsible for the dramaturgy. The young cast is led by Luis Maesso, Pascual Laborda, Candela Camacho, Tiago Barbosa, Adrián Amaya, Carla Pulpón, Begoña Álvarez and Tatán Selles.