Palace Theatre, Manchester notable shows to have played successful seasons at the Palace Theatre include, amongst others, the regional premiere of "Les Misérables" which ran for 13 months from 1992–93, regional premiere of "Miss Saigon" in 2001, "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" in 2006 and "Mamma Mia!" over the 2006/07 Christmas season. Broadway musical "The Wedding Singer" had its UK premiere at the theatre in 2008 and in December 2008 to March 2009 the theatre hosted a season of the UK tour of "Mary Poppins", one of only six theatres in the country to accommodate the tour, both events further cementing the theatre's reputation
Development of musical theatre draw in the audiences, leading to better profits and improved production values. The first play to achieve 500 consecutive performances was the London (non-musical) comedy "Our Boys", opening in 1875, which set an astonishing new record of 1,362 performances. This run was not equaled on the musical stage until World War I, but musical theatre soon broke the 500 performance mark in London, most notably by the series of more than a dozen long-running Gilbert and Sullivan family-friendly comic opera hits, including "H.M.S. Pinafore" in 1878 and "The Mikado" in 1885. These were sensations on both sides of the Atlantic