The National Lottery’s Big Night of Musicals Returns to Manchester

For the second year running, The National Lottery is shining a light on the magic of musical theatre by hosting a musical extravaganza at the AO Arena, Manchester, on Monday 27th February.

Hosted by Jason Manford, The National Lottery’s Big Night of Musicals will feature performances from best-selling West End musicals and touring shows including We Will Rock You the Musical, Wicked, The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Matilda The Musical and Aspects of Love featuring Michael Ball

The show serves as a special thank you to National Lottery players who have helped tens of thousands of arts projects across the UK and supported over 2,000 theatres through the Covid crisis

After the huge success of its first musicals extravaganza last year, on Monday 27th February The National Lottery is once again bringing together the biggest shows from the world of theatre for a spectacular celebration of musicals. The National Lottery’s Big Night of Musicals, will serve as a massive thank you to National Lottery players who have helped tens of thousands of arts projects across the UK and supported over 2,000 theatres through the Covid crisis.

Hosted by comedian, actor, presenter and musical theatre star Jason Manford, tickets for The National Lottery’s Big Night of Musicals will go on general release at 10AM on Thursday 26th January 2023 on Ticketmaster.

The spectacular show will capture the magic of theatre and shine a light on the difference it makes to communities. Bringing together some of the biggest musicals from across the UK to Manchester’s AO Arena, the show will offer audience members the unique opportunity to see performances from 13 incredible West End and touring musicals under one roof.  Shows include We Will Rock You the Musical, Wicked, The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Matilda The Musical, Disney’s Newsies, Shrek the Musical UK and Ireland tour, SIX the Musical, Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of The Temptations, The Bodyguard The Musical and Rodgers & Hammerstein’s The King and I. There will also be a special performance from Aspects of Love featuring musical theatre star Michael Ball.

Thanks to National Lottery players, more than £30M is generated each week for National Lottery-funded projects, and since 1994 over 150,000 arts projects have received support.  National Lottery players stepped in during the recent Covid pandemic to help the sector which was so badly hit by the loss of live audiences. Over 2,000 theatres across the country were given a much-needed boost, and a total of £228M of funding was directed to the arts during that challenging time. The show is an opportunity to once again shine a light on the magic of the performing arts and champion the power of theatre at a time when the sector is navigating its recovery from Covid and through the current challenging times.

As a thank you to National Lottery players,12,000 FREE* tickets will be available on a first come, first served basis. National Lottery players will be able to reserve up to four tickets for free, plus a £2 booking fee applies per ticket and proof of purchase of a National Lottery product is required.

Jason Manford said of the show: ‘I’m thrilled to be back hosting The National Lottery’s Big Night of Musicals for another year! It was incredible to see so many amazing shows under one roof last year and with 13 completely different shows set to perform this year, it’s guaranteed to be another cracker of a night!”

The full line-up for The National Lottery’s Big Night of Musicals event will be announced at a later date. 

For further details and to get tickets, National Lottery players should go to: www.bignightofmusicals.com