The Palace is Manchester's grandest theatre, opened in 1891 and still running in its original Oxford Street home. The auditorium seats just under 2,000 and has the ornamented plasterwork, gilded boxes, and deep red upholstery that Edwardian theatre-builders did so well. It's worth arriving early just to look at it properly before the lights go down.
The programming is solidly mainstream — touring productions of West End musicals, ballet, opera, and the occasional big-name comedy. If you're after experimental work, look elsewhere, but for a large-scale production in a beautiful room, this is the right place. The stalls bar fills up quickly in the interval, so get your order in early.