Cabaret
Theatre
· Cabaret
Stand-up and cabaret have several fixed venues across the Łódź region: a club in Łódź with regular comedy nights, an improv theatre with its own repertoire, a big arena with galas featuring well-known names, and a cultural centre in Kutno hosting guest cabaret performances for audiences in the western part of the region. This page shows where to find such evenings on a regular basis - a specific programme with dates is in the current events calendar.
One club in Łódź hosts stand-up more often than any other venue in the city - its schedule is filled with solo performances by Polish comedians, tryouts of new sets and evenings with several performers on one stage, practically every week. It's an intimate format, so tickets for more popular names are worth buying in advance, before the table seats sell out.
One of the venues on Piotrkowska Street stages only shows created live with audience participation, instead of a fixed script. Its regular repertoire includes formats like improvised comedy with the audience taking part, or themed evenings combining comedy with other elements - every show looks different, because it's created in front of the audience. Tickets usually fall in the range of a few dozen złoty.
Two theatre venues in Łódź have shows in their repertoire that combine cabaret with theatrical form, staged cyclically throughout the season. The biggest cabaret galas, featuring several groups on one stage, take place at a large sports and events arena - a format for several thousand viewers, reserved for the genre's biggest names and usually staged once a year.
Besides the main club, stand-up appears cyclically in several smaller venues: in a passage in the city centre as part of a weekly summer cycle, at the Scenografia club on Zachodnia Street, and in cafés with an arts programme. Nowa Sukcesja combines stand-up with a bowling alley format, giving an unusual, less formal room layout than a classic comedy club. Open mic nights, where anyone can try their hand, are organised cyclically by Dom Literatury w Łodzi (the House of Literature). All of these venues share a small format and close contact with the audience, unlike the big galas.
Yes, the open-stage cycle at Dom Literatury w Łodzi lets anyone who writes and wants to try performing in front of an audience take the stage, regardless of experience - performance time is limited to a few minutes, and texts aren't judged unless the author asks for feedback themselves.
Club evenings in small rooms are usually aimed at an adult audience - some sets are marked as for adults only due to language and subject matter. Improv shows are more universal, though some of them also carry age restrictions given for the specific event. Big cabaret galas on the large stage are a family-friendly option, closer to a TV-style entertainment format than club stand-up.
The Łódź region has its own cabaret scene beyond the regional capital too. Kutnowski Dom Kultury (the Kutno Cultural Centre) regularly hosts guest cabaret shows, including stand-up and comedy formats for an adult audience - a good option for residents of the western part of the region who don't want to travel all the way to Łódź for such an evening.
Tickets for club stand-up evenings start at a few dozen złoty, improv shows are usually in a similar range, and bigger cabaret productions on large stages can be noticeably more expensive, running into hundreds of złoty for better seats. It's worth checking prices for the specific event, as they vary between performers and formats, and popular names sell out the cheaper tickets fastest.
The most regular stand-up evenings are organised by one club in the city centre - it's the main venue for this genre in the region.
Yes, one of the theatres on Piotrkowska Street stages only improv shows, created live with audience participation.
The biggest cabaret galas featuring several groups take place cyclically at a large sports and events arena in Łódź.
Yes, the open-stage cycle at Dom Literatury w Łodzi is an open mic where anyone can perform.
In the club format, prices start at a few dozen złoty, improv shows fall in a similar range, and tickets for big galas can be noticeably more expensive.
Cabaret in Łódź itself is gathered on the cabaret in Łódź page, and in Zgierz and Kutno on the cabaret in Kutno page. Anyone looking for other theatre evenings should check the theatre shows in the region page, and live music fans will find the concerts and music category useful. Dance and club evenings are described on the dance in the region page, and family shows and other events for children on the events for children page. The full calendar of all events in the region is on the events in the Łódź region page, and more about the city itself is in the discover Łódź section.
