Nelson Youth Theatre Company presents the irrepressible comic strip heroine in one of the world's best-loved, award-winning musicals.

Based on the popular comic strip and adapted from the Tony Award-winning Best Musical, Annie JR. features everyone’s favourite little redhead in her very first adventure.

With equal measures of pluck and positivity, little orphan Annie charms everyone's hearts despite a next-to-nothing start in 1930's New York City. Annie is determined to find the parents who abandoned her years ago on the doorstep of an orphanage run by the cruel Miss Hannigan. Annie eventually foils Miss Hannigan's plans for her, and finds a new home and family with billionaire Oliver Warbucks, his personal secretary, Grace Farrell, and a lovable mutt named Sandy.

At only an hour long, Annie JR is the perfect show to introduce young children to the world of theatre!

Note - Very limited season, 6 performances over 3 days only.

It's 1955, and into a square little American town rides a guitar-playin' motorcycle ridin' roustabout who changes everything and everyone he meets in this hip-swivelling, lip-curling musical comedy.

Featuring the music of Elvis Presley and a script that's packed to the seams with comic one liners, Nelson Youth Theatre Company will have you jumpin' out of your blue suede shoes with such classics as "Heartbreak Hotel", "Jailhouse Rock", "Teddy Bear", "Hound Dog", "It's Now or Never", "Devil in Disguise", "One Night With You", "Don't Be Cruel" and of course the title song "All Shook Up".

Saddle up the family and come along for a trip back in time to the very beginnings of classic Rock 'n' Roll and celebrate the magic of the music of "The King".

Note: Limited season, 6 performances at 7pm only.

Sinbad the Sailor has retired from his voyages and is now sitting around his palace feeling just a bit fed up. His knees ache and his back hurts; the result of all the wild adventures of his youth. That is, until one day, he gets a cry for help from an old friend, Betsy High Boots - the Pirate Queen. Will he be able to go adventuring again? Not without some help from his son, Sindabit.

This new family pantomime has all the traditional fun and audience interaction you’d expect; there will be singing, dancing, terrible puns, mermaids and a camel. What more could you want?

Unfortunately this year's Gangshow is cancelled due to Level 2 restrictions. Ticket holders will be refunded via eventfinda for online purchases, and through Theatre Royal for counter sales.

It’s more than just a show, it’s the Nelson Scouts Gangshow!

That’s right, our fun filled family variety show for young and old is back for another season in 2020.

Book your tickets now for an evening of well-known songs and sketches for the whole family.

"Join Maggie Taylor as she guides you through basic carpentry skills and chisels away at the stereotype that has kept women out of the toolbox for so long.”

So reads the flyer for The Pink Hammer Workshop, but when Annabel, Helen, Louise and Siobhan turn up, looking forward to learning carpentry skills from a pioneering, female furniture maker, they soon discover their tutor has disappeared – along with their pre-paid fees. They find Maggie’s husband instead; a disgruntled out-of-work builder, who knows nothing about the course, even less about GirlPower and is not impressed to find four sheilas amongst his claw hammers.

Not the sort of women to back down from a challenge, the group convince Woody to teach them the tricks of the trade in this hilarious and heart-warming Kiwi comedy.

Five unhappy people in a shed full of tools. What could possibly go wrong?

‘A damn good play. Very funny.’ – Roger Hall

“The Pink Hammer is Kiwi comedy at its best. It’s quirky as all hell; it’s very funny; it provides phenomenally strong roles for four women – and one guy! – but more than anything else, these are recognisable New Zealanders, which is why this is an outstanding play to produce.”
- Artistic Director, Ross Gumbley, The Court Theatre.

This show has been cancelled.

Run through the fields of time with Nelson's much-loved theatre troupe the People's Republic of Improv, and jolly well share a laugh or two along the way.

In this comedic exploration of Nelson history from multi-media annals of the long-forgotten past, our brave actors will take timeworn Nelson Mail headlines, old-fashioned advertising, disregarded objects of eras bygone-and your suggestions-to regale you with history that definitely, precisely, unquestionably (might have) happened, in Nelson.

The Boy is back!

One of NZ’s most successful comedians on the world stage, and a champion of both America and Britain’s Got Talent.

Watched by over 70 million people on line.

He’s taking a short break from a 3 year residency in Las Vegas to return to the 2020 NZ International Comedy Fest for the first time in seven years, bringing with him a brand new show - New Jokes, New Props, Same Tape

Putting your shoes on will never be the same after seeing this show.

Don’t miss The Tape Face Show

“Utterly spectacular! Endlessly inventive, hysterically funny. Sublime physical lunacy – fight for a ticket” Time OUT UK

“So funny …I absolutely love you, congratulations” – Simon Cowell, America’s Got Talent

One of New Zealand's theatre icons, Mark Hadlow, stars in a one man theatre show as that most polarising of species - a middle aged man in lycra.

Bryan Cook is a property developer who has accumulated a small fortune building leaky homes. He's stressed out, self-medicating and self-loathing, killing himself to increase his bank balance while decreasing his golf score.

When things fall apart, he joins a men's cycling group to relieve stress - and makes a few startling discoveries in various cracks and crevices.

Achingly funny and poignant, MAMIL presents the male mid-life crisis in all its lurid glory.

"This production will be one of the highlights of the year. It is a must see show for men and women." - Dominion Post

R15+
No flash photography or recording allowed

In order to make this acclaimed show accessible to everyone in the time when many are struggling, we have created a limited number of $10 tickets. However, it will not come as a surprise that the Theatre Royal is struggling as well, after months without income, and no large productions in the near future. We are therefore offering more expensive tickets, with proceeds going to the theatre and for you to show your support.

Following her smash hit Promise and Promiscuity, and after a sell-out Nelson Arts Festival, Olive Copperbottom is back! Penny Ashton brings Dickensian inspired orphaned hero Olive, and a squalid gaggle of hilarious Victorians, to crusty life. A rollicking romantic musical journey through fifteen gin soaked characters told with song, dance and questionable personal hygiene. It's Oliver! meets Blackadder with a saucy feminine twist.

Ashton's "...tour-de-force..."(Theatreview) won the Press Critic's 'Iron Chicken award for best indoor show at the Christchurch International Buskers' Festival 2018 and Best Overall Show at the Victoria Fringe in Canada 2017.

"...very very good...very very funny" Radio NZ National 2017

"...a one-woman show wonder." Canadian Broadcasting Corporation 2017

"It sparkles with intelligence, wit and verve." The Christchurch Press 2018

R13

This show has been postponed

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and complex border & travel restrictions, we regret to inform you that Heath Franklin’s Chopper -'The Silencer' on March 3 is postponed.

Please hold on to tickets! Laughing Stock Productions is working towards rescheduling a new date for later in the year, and hope to have a clear outcome soon.

For updates, continue to check your inbox for Theatre Royal and/& Eventfinda emails (including in spam/junk folders). Information regarding new show dates will also be posted on this webpage and across relevant social media platforms too.

We apologise for the inconvenience.