Theatre Under the Stars 2024 Lineup

Theatre Under the Stars (TUTS) is a Vancouver summertime tradition. The company puts on a pair of musical productions in July and August each year.

The 2024 shows were CATS and School of Rock. They alternated nights throughout the summer season. The shows this year began on July 5th and they run until August 24th. Dates and shows for 2025’s season are to be confirmed.

Keep reading for details about both of the productions.

Location and Ticket Prices

All TUTS shows take place at the Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park. The venue is in the southeast end of the park, not far from the Vancouver Aquarium and Stanley Park Train.

Admission in 2024 cost between $30 and $65 for adults (ages 13+) depending on which section the seats were in. Children ages 5 to 12 cost $30 regardless of where they sat. Those under the age of 5 had free admission (but needed to sit on an adult’s lap if they didn’t have their own ticket).

As the name implies, Theatre Under the Stars is a fully outdoor theatre. That means that if there’s rain, it rains on the audience! If the forecast looks a little dicey be sure to bring a rain jacket or umbrella.

Another option is to purchase Exchange Insurance which allows you to change tickets to a different night later in the run if the weather is bad (or if something else comes up). The insurance costs an extra $5 per ticket. You can buy it if you want to, but it’s not required.

For tickets to the shows, see the Theatre Under the Stars website.

The 2024 Productions

There were two musicals that took to the stage in 2024. Below are details on both of them.

CATS Musical at Theatre Under the Stars

CATS is one of the most successful musicals of all time, with nearly 9,000 performances in London and over 7,000 performances on Broadway in New York. Created by Andrew Lloyd Webber, the lyrics of the songs in the musical are based on poems written by T.S. Eliot.

The show is somewhat unorthodox compared to other musicals as the focus is more on the poetry, music and visuals than on the overarching narrative structure. In other words, there is less of an actual “story” compared to a typical musical.

In CATS the plot centres on the Jellicle Ball – an annual tradition among a tribe of cats where one of their members ascends to the Heaviside Layer and is reborn into a new life. Much of the show consists of the individual cats introducing themselves and/or stating why they should be the ones chosen through musical numbers.

The TUTS production of CATS had fantastic singing and choreography. There was lots of dancing, including tap dancing! It was visually quite fun!

The show is a “sung-through” musical which means that every line spoken is sung as part of a song. There are also plenty of parts with no lyrics where there is just music and dancing. The play focuses less on narrative elements and more about just trying to have some fun!

Click CATS to learn more about the play.

School of Rock Musical at Theatre Under the Stars

Another Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, School of Rock is based on the movie of the same name. We’ve seen the film and it’s really good. The musical is a relatively recent one, making its debut on Broadway in 2015.

School of Rock tells the story of Dewey Finn, an unemployed wannabe rockstar who lies his way into becoming a substitute teacher at a private school by pretending to be his roommate (who is an actual teacher).

At the school, Dewey turns his students into a rock band that competes in the town’s Battle of the Bands competition. Dewey has to try and hide everything going on in his classroom throughout the show from the other faculty, the kids’ parents, and both his roommate and his roommate’s controlling girlfriend.

This Theatre Under the Stars production was excellent! It had a definite “rock music” theme. The set at the opening had posters for bands like AC/DC, Van Halen, The Doors, Iron Maiden, Nirvana, and other harder rock bands. The music in the play wasn’t heavy metal, but it wasn’t not soft rock either.

Many of the actors at the School of Rock musical at Stanley Park were actually students from Vancouver’s own School of Rock music academy. They are teenagers, so they fitted their characters well. The group was talented with its dancing and singing. They are also very good musicians, as you’ll see when they perform throughout the show. The young actors weren’t playing air guitars or just pretending to play the drums and keyboard.

For those who love the movie, the main songs from it were in this show, but there were plenty of new songs as well! There were probably around 20 musical numbers in the show, mostly original. As a whole the adaptation was pretty faithful to the movie, with its own twists. If you like the movie, then you would have liked this show!

Click School of Rock to learn more about this musical.

Other Information

For more information about the shows and the theatre company behind it, see our Theatre Under the Stars article or visit the Theatre Under the Stars website.

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