Playhouse Square Is Broadway's Biggest Stage Outside New York. Here's What's On.

If you think Broadway only happens on Broadway, Cleveland would like a word. Playhouse Square is the second-largest performing arts centre in the United States, second only to New York's Lincoln Center, and this year its historic theatres are packed with names any West End regular will recognise.

Five restored 1920s theatres sit within a few blocks of each other in downtown Cleveland: the KeyBank State Theatre, the Connor Palace, the Mimi Ohio Theatre, the Allen Theatre and the Hanna Theatre. Together they host touring Broadway, comedy, concerts, ballet and more, most of it a short walk from all the key accommodation points in the city. Here's what's worth building a trip around:

Catch The Lion King While It's In Town - Disney's The Lion King is at the KeyBank State Theatre from 28 July through 16 August, which makes it a genuinely easy add-on for anyone visiting Cleveland this summer. The puppetry and staging are the same show that's been packing out the Lyceum in London for over two decades, just with a Great Lakes skyline outside the stage door instead of the Thames.

Wicked Flies In for the Holidays - For anyone planning a Christmas or New Year trip, Wicked lands at the KeyBank State Theatre from 9 December to 3 January. Green witches and festive Cleveland is a fairly wonderful combination, and it's exactly the kind of thing that turns a city break into an occasion.

Hadestown, Death Becomes Her and a Genuinely Stacked Broadway Series - The KeyBank Broadway Series is where the big-ticket touring shows land, and the schedule reads like a highlights reel. Hadestown, the Tony-winning retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice, plays the Connor Palace 3–8 November. Death Becomes Her, the stage adaptation of the cult 1992 film, runs 12 September through 3 October. Later in the season, Mamma Mia! arrives in January and Maybe Happy Ending, the newest Best Musical Tony winner, follows in March. UK visitors used to paying West End prices are often pleasantly surprised by what a night at Playhouse Square costs by comparison.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Comes to Ohio - Worth planning well ahead for: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child opens at the KeyBank State Theatre in August 2027. It's the same production that's run for years at the Palace Theatre in London's West End, now making its way to Cleveland. Early notice, but for Potter fans mapping out a longer trip, it's one to have on the radar.

Shakespeare and Sondheim, Cleveland Style - Great Lakes Theater, the city's resident classical company, keeps a rotating repertoire at the Hanna and Ohio theatres that will feel familiar to any UK theatregoer. The Winter's Tale opens the autumn season, followed by Sweeney Todd, A Christmas Carol, The Comedy of Errors, Les Misérables and The Importance of Being Earnest across the year. It's a proper season of the classics, performed with the kind of craft you'd expect from a company that's been at this since 1962.

A Bit of Music Hall Nostalgia - Buena Vista Social Club, the Tony-winning musical inspired by the Grammy-winning Cuban album, plays the Connor Palace next July, and Jersey Boys returns the same month for a run telling the Four Seasons' story all over again. Both are the kind of jukebox musical that UK audiences have taken to warmly at home, now on a Cleveland stage.

For the Comedy and Science Crowd - Two names UK audiences will know well: Scottish comedian Daniel Sloss brings his new show Bitter to the Mimi Ohio Theatre on 12 November, and physicist Professor Brian Cox brings Emergence to the KeyBank State Theatre on 4 December. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson is also in the building on 7 October with Search for Life in the Universe, for anyone who likes their evening out with a side of existential wonder.

See the Theatres Themselves - Even without a ticket to a show, the buildings are worth the trip. Playhouse Square's restoration tours take visitors behind the scenes of these lovingly restored 1920s picture palaces, chandeliers, gold leaf and all. One runs on 17 August at 6:30pm, with more added through the year. It's a good way to understand exactly what makes this district so special before you take a seat inside one of the theatres for a show.

For tickets and the full schedule, visit playhousesquare.org

For more information, visit https://www.thisiscleveland.com/