Well 2025 is now over, and as of the time of writing, we’re three weeks into 2026.
It was a mad year for a lot of things — in politics, technology, culture and sports etc — but on the slightly lighter end of the scale, there were a lot of theatrical shows that came to Northern Ireland for the first time, which were performed in our iconic oldest theatre, the Grand Opera House, in Belfast.
In this blog, I’m going to review four of the performances I went to see over the last year, before detailing a few of the reviews you’ll be seeing on this website throughout 2026.
Show 1: War Horse
Based off the novel by Michael Morpurgo, ‘War Horse’ visited Belfast for the first time in 2025, and I was lucky enough to go along and see it.
It follows the story of Joey, a horse who is sold at auction in 1912 to a farming family and develops a friendship with the family’s teenage son, Albert. However, after the First World War breaks out two years later, the horse is sold to the Cavalry and shipped to France, where it serves first for the British and then for the Germans.
Meanwhile, despite not being old enough to enlist, his owner, Albert, embarks on a treacherous mission to find his horse and bring him home.
The cast included:
- Eloise Beaumont-Wood, Jordan Paris and Diany Samba-Bundza as Joey as a foal.
- Rianna Ash / Alexandra Donnachie / Matthew Lawrence / Tea Poldervaart as Joey / Tophorn Head.
- Robin Hayward / Lewis McBean / Chris Millford / Rafe Young (as Joey / Tophorn Heart).
- Felicity Donnelly / Thomas Goodridge / Michael Larcombe / Gun Suen (as Joey / Tophorn Hind and The Goose).
- Alexander Ballinger as Captain Friedrich Müller and Allan.
- Ike Bennett as David Taylor and Thomas Bone.
- Haydn Burke as Billy Narracott and Sergeant Klebb.
- Sophie Cartman as Matron Callaghan.
- Jo Castleton as Rose Narracot.
- Owen Dagnall as Geordie.
- Tom Gilbey as Sergeant Fine.
- Karl Haynes as Ted Narracott and Brandt.
- Madeleine Leslay as Paulette and Sarah Carter.
- Jack Lord as Private Klausen and Priest.
- Damian Lynch as Chapman Carter and Colonel Strauss.
- Anne-Marrie Piazza as Nell Allan / Private Schnabel / Song Captain.
- Gareth Radcliffe as Arthur Narracott and Sergeant Thunder.
- Daniel Rock as Captain Stewart and Ludwig.
- Diany Samba-Bandza as Emilie.
- Alistair Sa as Veterinary Officer Martin.
- Simon Stanhope as Monfred.
- Tom Sturgess as Albert Narracott.
- Sally Swanson as The Singer.
- Lucy Thorburn as Jennie Burn and Nurse Annie Gilbert.
- Chris Williams as Lieutenant Nicholls / Doctor Schweyk / Voice Captain.
- Tom Gilbey as Movement and Puppetry Captain.
- Chris Milford as Fight Captain.
So what did I think of the entire performance overall?
Well, although it’s been nearly a year since I went to see it, I remember it being extremely emotional but also extremely well performed.
Both the actors who played the roles of humans and the puppeteers who played Joey and other horses were extremely skilled, and I could see and hear the emotion with which each performer performed.
I especially remember watching the departure between Joey and the family and how emotional the actor who played Albert on the night I was there got.
However, I also remember being simply mesmerised with how well the audience got to witness the transformation of Joey as a foal into Joey as a fully grown horse, as the way it was performed made it look very 3D or like you were watching something that could grow quickly transforming in a matter of seconds.
And it was also fun to see how footage of the Great War and other images would be projected so well they would blend into the scene, as well as other choices with set design that made the audience feel like a historical moment was taking place in front of them.
It was also highly impressive how tall the puppeteers were able to make Joey and the other horses at times, and how they were able to get each part of the body stuck in traps.
So overall, I would rate the 2025 performance of War Horse as a very realistic and heartfelt production, that displayed perfectly the many themes and bonds that would have been felt during the First World War and that we still see unravelling through modern day conflicts.
Show 2: Dear Evan Hansen
Dear Evan Hansen was in the Grand Opera House between 11th-15th March 2025.
Following the story of a socially anxious teen, Evan Hansen, who has never quite fit in, and who starts writing letters to himself after being advised to do so by his therapist. In one of these letters, Evan writes about a girl he has a crush on, Zoe Murphy, but when Zoe’s brother, Connor, who is troubled teen finds it, he gets angry and takes the letter away from him.
Shortly later, it is confirmed that Connor died by suicide with Evan’s letter in his pocket, which his parents think Connor wrote.
To lighten the load on Connor’s grieving parents, Evan fabricates a friendship with Connor, and becomes a symbol of an online movement called “The Connor Project”, as he’s taken in even more by the grieving family. But as the lie grows bigger, Evan has to choose between revealing the truth and feeling accepted, as his relationship with Connor is blown out of proportion.
The cast included:
- Ryan Kopel as Evan Hansen.
- Sonny Monaghan as Evan Hansen (Understudy/Ensemble).
- Alice Fearn as Heidi Hansen
- Lauren Conroy as Zoe Murphy.
- Killian Thomas Lefevre as Connor Murphy.
- Helen Anker as Cynthia Murphy.
- Richard Hurst as Larry Murphy,
- Tom Dickerson as Jared Kleinman.
- Vivian Panka as Alena Beck.
- Daniel Forrester as Ensemble.
- Lara Beth-sas as Ensemble.
- Will Forgrave as Ensemble.
- Jessica Lim as Ensemble.
- Olivia-Faith Kamau as Ensemble.
So what did I think of the show after I went to see it the 14th of March 2025.
Well, as someone who had only a small idea of what the musical was actually about and was a bit curious about its themes, I found the musical strangely enjoyable, and am now a big fan of the soundtrack and the show.
Despite being at a performance where Evan was played by an understudy, I still felt like the audience got a good understanding of the anxiety the character feels throughout the show, as well as the emotions other characters feel as well. Evan’s lines were performed with clarity and restraint, but so were his mother’s, and I think this helped the audience have empathy for multiple characters throughout the show, including the Murphy family.
However, I also loved how well the production managed to transition between one setting and another, especially during the performance of the first song, ‘Anyone Have A Map’, during which the crew managed to transition the stage from being Evan’s house to being Connor’s house perfectly, without making it seem unusual.
But I also enjoyed the way emotions were portrayed in the performance, such as the hidden humour, as well as the disgust characters begin to feel as Evan’s lie grows even bigger.
Something that especially comes to mind is the performance of ‘Sincerely Me’. I thought all the actors who performed the song performed the song performed it well, but I especially liked how Sonny Monaghan and Killian Thomas Lefevre played off each other throughout the song, and the slight cheekiness with how Lefevre performed the line about rubbing nipples and moaning with delight.
It was also an interesting choice as far as set design goes to have Connor Murphy lit in a lighter way throughout scenes he’s in after his death, which I felt supplied the audience with a ghost-like feeling.
But lastly, something else I also found impressive was how messages of support were projected to the audience during the ‘You Will Be Found’ song, displaying perfectly many of the themes that countless people around the world feel when it comes to the good sides of social media. Although I equally liked how the same effect was used towards the end of the show after Evan’s lie came out to display the bad side of social media.
So while the themes of teenage anxiety, internet safety and the bad sides of social media may not make it a musical for everyone, I thought it was very well performed by all actors involved. I felt a wide range of emotions while watching it, and I felt like all the actors in it were able to cope with the widely changing circumstances in their character’s circumstances. So while I may not have known a lot about it before going to see it, I am pleasantly surprised about everything it entails, making it one that I would be happy to see if it comes back, though not every time.
Show 3: Fiddler On The Roof
An acclaimed musical that made its debut in 1964 before inspiring a film and an all out revival, ‘Fiddler On The Roof’ was in the Grand Opera House from the 6th-9th August 2025.
Set in the fictional small village of Anatevka in 1905 alongsidet a radically changing Russia, it follows the story of a poor but devout Jewish milkman called Tevye, his wife, Golde, and their five daughters — Tzeitel, Hodel, Chava, Sphrintze and Bielke. But as the three eldest daughters — Tzeitel, Hodel and Chava — are of marrying age, the musical largely focuses on their nonconventional marriage choices and how their deeply religious father responds to these, as Tevye battles with his traditional values or his daughters’ happiness.
The cast included:
- Matthew Woodyatt as Tevye.
- Jodie Jacobs as Golde.
- Natasha Jules Bernard as Tzeitel (the eldest daughter who marries Motel) .
- Georgia Bruce as Hodel (the second eldest daughter who defies tradition by only asking for her father’s blessing instead of his permission).
- Hannah Bristow as Chava (the third daughter who falls in love with a Russian and is later disowned).
- Ashleigh Schuman as Scprintze (Tevye and Golde’s fourth daughter).
- Georgia Dixon as Bielke (Tevye and Golde’s youngest daughter).
- Beverley Klein as Yente (the family matchmaker).
- Dan Wolff as Motel Kamzoil (Tzeitel’s boyfriend / future husband).
- Greg Bernstein as Perchik (the radical student from Kyiv and Hodel’s future husband).
- Michael S Siegel as Lazer Wolf (a rich butcher and widow who Yente the matchmaker originally matched with Tzeital).
- Gregor Milne as Fyedka (a Russian villager and Christian who later becomes Chava’s husband).
- Raphael Papo / Roman Lytwyniw as the Fiddler.
- Simon Anthony as Sasha (Fyedka’s friend).
- Gareth Davies as Avram (a bookseller).
- Siôn Lloyd as Mordcha (an innkeeper).
- Sue Appleby as Shandle (Motel’s mother).
- Carys McQueen as Mirila (a villager).
- Ed Bruggemeyer (a begger).
- Mark Faith as the Rabbi.
- Jack Osmond as Russian Number 1.
- Alex Pinder as Russian Number 2.
- Susanna Van Den Berg as Rifka (a villager).
- Toby Turpin as Mendel (the Rabbi’s son).
- Karl Wilson as the Constable.
- Chris Draper as an offstage swing.
- Brady Isaacs Pearce as an offstage swing.
- Dylan Saffer as an onstage swing.
- Maya Kristal Tenebaum as an offstage swing.
I went to see it on its opening night in Belfast, so what did I think?
Well I found the acting, dancing and singing absolutely amazing, and you could feel how much each actor cared about the musical they were part of.
Matthew Woodyatt’s performance was amazing, and he filled Tevye with pride, vulnerability, humour, anger and fear. I could list off all my favourite scenes that Tevye was in, but if I did I’d be here all day, so I’ll just list a few.
First of all, I loved when Tevye and Lazer Wolf (Michael S. Siegel) performed ‘To Life’, as I felt like it was done with a huge amount of energy.
But I also loved the level of acting we got to see during ‘The Dream’, which I think treated the audience to a performance that made it seem like our main character was actually being tortured.
But likewise, I also thought the performances of the actresses who played the daughters were superb, so much so that I felt like I could feel their emotions in each of their scenes. This was especially the case during their performance of ‘Matchmaker, Matchmaker’, in each of the scenes where they had to plead with their father to allow them to marry their nonconventional choices for husbands, or during wedding scenes, especially Tzeitel and Hodel’s wedding.
And speaking of the wedding scenes, my favourite part of the performance was the Bottle Dance, which I couldn’t help but feel mesmerised at, especially when considering the amount of effort it would have taken to not break the bottles.
Raphael Papo also played the Fiddler extremely perfectly and in a way that reminded the audience about how fragile tradition and change can be.
So overall, I feel like the performance of ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ that I saw in August 2025 was extremely well performed, with skills that were filled with strong singing and strong acting, capable of attracting strong emotions and attention from the audience. No matter what scene was being played out, I felt myself engaging fully with the characters involved, and the set design, costume design and performances of actors was so good that all of them combined portrayed an emotional historical and religious story, that was also especially eerie, considering certain political divides in the world today.
So with all of this said, I found it an absolutely magnificent performance, that was both funny, emotional and dramatic at times, but that hit the right notes for people who are attracted to it.
Show 4: Pinocchio (The Grand Opera House’s 2025 Pantomime)
Based off the classic book by Carlo Lorenzini and the classic 1940 Disney film, ‘The Adventures of Pinocchio’ was Belfast’s 2025 family pantomime offering.
Starring Paddy Jenkins as Jiminy Cricket, Adam C Booth as Pinocchio, Jolene O’Hara as The Great Stromboli, Jayme-Lee Zanoncelli as the Blue Faerie, Philippa O’Hara as Phyllis The Fox, Maeve Byrne as Kitty The Cat and Northern Ireland’s favourite Pantomime Dame, May McFettridge, as May Geppetto, it treated the audience to a different retelling of the classic tale that they’ve never seen before, in which May Geppetto brings her puppet Pinocchio to life, aided by Jiminy Cricket and the Blue Faery, with the hope they will manage to help him become a real boy and keep him out of trouble, as difficult as that may seem at times.
I went to see it on 7th December 2025.
So what did I think about it?
Well overall, I thought it was a brilliant pantomime that was suitable for a wide range of ages, with a performance that included good humour, designed to be enjoyed by younger and older audience members.
I loved how the performance opened up, with an animation involving a book prop that opened up and displayed illustrations and text, an interesting design choice, that gave the audience a bit of a taster before they were introduced to the characters, which then transitioned perfectly into an an updated performance of ‘When You Wish Upon A Star’ where you got to see the the ensemble cast (Arran Bell, Grace Burrows, Amy Cheung, Max Coussins, Ruby Doe, Jonny Ford, Elli Hosier and Ryan Lee) dancing like they actually were puppets, which fit into the scene perfectly.
Fast forward a few seconds to when we were introduced to the characters, I feel like we were introduced to them in a very natural way, that was a treat for any usual pantomime goer, whether they be young or old. May McFettridge introduced herself in her normal way, as May Geppetto ranted and worried about whether or not her wee Pinocchio was missing school or not — a reminder of the usual worries countless parents across Norn Iron face — and the same style of Northern Irish humour was displayed when Jiminy Cricket appeared on the stage, insisting he’d just ran off again.
This energy and humour was still present, though, when we finally got to meet Pinocchio, who introduced himself in a way that was filled with a lot of good jokes. For the children in the audience, there were a lot of jokes about why he was refusing to go to school again, how boring he found his teachers and how he generally found it a waste of time, but it wasn’t long before a good bit of hidden adult humour made its entrance as well, especially after May Geppetto and Jiminy Cricket caught up with where Pinocchio was hiding.
I especially like how they played with the well known fact that Pinocchio’s nose grows when he tells a lie, which they doubled with a sort of lie detector test. But how did this double as showing a slight bit of hidden adult humour? Well, it did it by attaching Pinocchio up to the lie detector and then singing a song, but each time Pinocchio would then say: “I would never tell a lie,” a bit of his clothing would then come off. Now, with it being a family pantomime, I honestly wasn’t expecting much hidden adult humour that they would show, but the fact that they went so far to strip Pinocchio of so much clothing that there was only a leaf covering his genitals was extremely humorous, or at least if you are someone who is the right audience for that.
But of course, when it comes to any panto, the bad guy is always one of the best, and The Great Stromboli topped this expectation completely, along with her evil sidekicks, Phyllis The Fox and Kitty The Cat. I thought they showed just the right amount of evil scheming that they were able to position themselves as the key obstacles to Pinocchio becoming a real boy, and the set design and sound design really showed off a lot of this evil side as well. I especially loved the idea of Stromboli planning to have a puppet circus entertaining, and the fact that the character was indeed a woman instead of a man treated us to a unique perspective, which I personally thought went down extremely well with the audience.
There’s so much more I could mention, but if I did, this blog would go on forever, and I’m not sure people have all the time in the world now. So I’ll just make two more references to two other scenes that I believe were very well performed.
If you take the Disney film as an example, the scene where Pinocchio, Gepetto and Jiminy Cricket are swallowed by a whale then plot to get out is certainly something, with emotions and schemes that would be very difficult to pull off on stage. But that isn’t to say that we didn’t get a suitable alternative, along with good songs that equally added a bit of weight.
Therefore, I found the cast’s rendition of ‘At the Bottom of the Great Blue Sea’ more than enough to replace it, with electric eels and other sea creatures also playing a part.
I also liked how at the end, after Stromboli and her evil team were forced to turn from evil to nice, they showed a massive change by saying they were going off to do nice things, including doing a shift at a hospice, which got a lot of laughs.
So overall, I thought the Grand Opera House’s performance of their 2025 Pantomime, ‘The Adventures of Pinocchio’, was a fun pantomime, with jokes and other moments that were suitable for all ages. The songs — including new ones — were all brilliant, and the cast were able to play along with the puppet theme very well.
I will definitely be making it my life’s mission to hunt down tickets for this year’s pantomime, ‘The Little Mermaid’ once I get a job again, but now, let’s move onto my closing remarks.
Closing Remarks
Well, the Grand Opera House has certainly been getting a lot more big shows coming to Northern Ireland for the first time since it got its rebuild, and I think the shows I’ve written about here showcase that.
By all means, ‘Fiddler’ has been here before, and we’ve always had our Pantomime, but ‘War Horse; and ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ were performed in Belfast last year for the first time, and I think they performed extremely well.
This year, I will be going to see Miss Saigon, Legally Blonde and the Addams Family, and I plan to write reviews for all of them on here, as I aim on launching my freelance journalism career again. But if the last year is anything to go by, they won’t disappoint.