Best Theatre Shows in Hong Kong This Month — May 2026

Julie Taymor's production of The Lion King — the definitive Broadway/West End musical staging — continues its Hong Kong run through early June. The production needs no introduction: Taymor's animal puppetry, Lebo M's score, and a design that remains astonishing 28 years on. The HKCC Grand Theatre, with its 1,733-seat auditorium, is a legitimate house for this scale of production. If you haven't taken children (or indeed, yourself), May is your last chance before the run closes.

The Royal Shakespeare Company's current touring production of Hamlet — with a British-Asian lead cast and a stripped-back design by RSC Associate Designer Rosie Elnile — arrives at the HKAPA Lyric Theatre for a 10-day run. The casting is deliberately diverse and the political dimensions of the play — corruption in the court, the cost of inaction — land with particular force in the contemporary reading. Approximately three hours including interval; demanding but rewarding.

Chung Ying Theatre Company — Hong Kong's bilingual civic theatre company established in 1979 — presents a new Cantonese drama exploring intergenerational family conflict against the backdrop of the city's changing identity. The company has long navigated the space between British and Chinese theatrical traditions, and their productions consistently demonstrate the highest craft standards in local drama. Ko Shan Theatre in Hung Hom is well served by MTR from both Kowloon and New Territories. Cantonese with English surtitles available on selected nights.

The Hong Kong Repertory Theatre — the city's leading Chinese-language theatrical company — stages a new production examining the lives of three generations of a Sham Shui Po family. The writing is by a young Hongkonger and the direction is by HKRT's artistic associate; the result is reported to be tender, precise, and thoroughly local. The Sheung Wan Civic Centre Theatre is a 450-seat space that suits the intimacy of the storytelling. Book early — HKRT productions sell well.

Freespace at West Kowloon is Hong Kong's most exciting space for new international performance work. This month it hosts a Hong Kong premiere by Berlin-based choreographer and installation artist whose work dissolves the boundary between dance, architecture, and sound design. The piece — performed across multiple levels of the Freespace building simultaneously, with the audience following a curated path — is the kind of work that reminds you why West Kowloon's investment in contemporary practice matters. Dress for walking; no fixed seating.

The Shouson Theatre at M+ is Hong Kong's most architecturally beautiful performance space — a 1,500-seat hall designed by Herzog & de Meuron with extraordinary acoustics and an LED ceiling that can transform the entire auditorium into an artwork. In May, the Shouson Theatre hosts a series of artist cinema works — performance-films and moving image installations screened in the main auditorium — as part of M+'s ongoing programme of live performance adjacent to its visual arts mission. Check the M+ website for the current schedule.