El gran teatro (Spanish: "The Great Theatre" or "The Grand Theatre") is a 1979 novel by Argentine writer Manuel Mujica Lainez, part of his Buenos Aires series.

El gran teatro
First edition (Argentina)
AuthorManuel Mujica Lainez
LanguageSpanish
Publication date
1979
Publication placeArgentina
Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback)

The whole action of the novel takes place during a performance of Wagner's Parsifal at Buenos Aires' famous opera house, the Teatro Colón.

The Colón is, emblematically and par excellence, The Great Theatre, a giant and impossibly splendiferous jewellery box built, in an improbable bygone age, for a glitteringly self-assured class of leaders (or, alternatively, disgusting show-offs) to show itself off.