Matthew Bourne’s THE CAR MAN Returns for 2026 UK Tour
New Adventures today announced that Matthew Bourne’s award-winning dance thriller THE CAR MAN will return for a UK tour in 2026. The production opens at Curve, Leicester on 15 June 2026 and will visit 16 additional venues over 22 weeks, including a five-week summer season at Sadler’s Wells. Listings information is available, with casting to be announced.
Loosely inspired by Bizet’s beloved opera, THE CAR MAN features one of the most thrilling and instantly recognisable scores in New Adventures’ repertoire. The familiar 19th-century Spanish cigarette factory is reimagined as a greasy 1950s garage-diner in the American Midwest, where the dreams and passions of a small town are thrown into chaos by the arrival of a handsome and enigmatic stranger. Driven by heat and desire, the inhabitants spiral into greed, lust, betrayal, and revenge.
Matthew Bourne commented:
“I never dreamed when we created this show at the beginning of the new millennium that it would still be around, thrilling audiences, 25 years later! Inspired by vintage movie film noir classics, it holds a unique and special place in the New Adventures repertory as the only piece based on an opera and possibly the first ballet to feature a bi-sexual anti-hero! I’m particularly happy that we are taking the show ‘on the road’ again after more than 10 years and I can’t wait to re-visit the hot and steamy town of Harmony USA – the best place to be next Summer!”
THE CAR MAN premiered in 2000, winning the Evening Standard Award for Musical Event of the Year and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award for Best Choreography. Its most recent revival was staged for The Royal Albert Hall’s 150th Birthday in 2022, earning rave reviews and nightly standing ovations. However, this upcoming tour marks the first time the production has toured since 2015.
Directed and choreographed by Matthew Bourne, THE CAR MAN features music by Terry Davies and Rodion Shchedrin’s Carmen Suite (after Bizet’s Carmen), with sound by Paul Groothuis, lighting by Chris Davey, and design by Lez Brotherston.
The tour begins at Curve, Leicester from Monday 15 to Saturday 20 June. Tickets go on general sale from Friday 14 November. For more information and bookings, visit www.curveonline.co.uk, call 0116 242 3595, or visit Curve’s Box Office in person.