The Taylor Swift Eras Tour of Science Comes to Boston
World-renowned professor Brian Cox sheds light on the mysteries of the universe at the Boch Center Shubert Theatre.

Professor Brian Cox, who holds the Guinness World Record for most tickets sold for a science tour, brings Horizons: A 21st Century Space Odyssey to the Boch Center Shubert Theatre this month. / Photo by Nicky J. Sims
In his various TV series about the solar system and the cosmos, Professor Brian Cox guides audiences through the most beautifully vast ideas humans can comprehend, from the mystery of life to how black holes defy time. The episodes are packed with audiovisual stimuli, from soaring music to jaw-dropping CGI depicting distant worlds, but they also feature Cox himself, an engaging presence who is able to convey the overwhelming scale of the universe while still bringing it down to earth. His combination of wonder and warmth has made him a household name around the world, and now Bostonians will be able to experience Cox in person when he brings his world-conquering show, Horizons: A 21st Century Space Odyssey, to the Boch Center Shubert Theatre on May 11 and 12.
“The conception of the show comes from the idea that if we talk about cosmology, there are—we think—2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe, or even 400 billion suns in the Milky Way,” Cox says. “Those numbers are both unimaginable and terrifying…. So we’ve discovered that we’re just a speck in a potentially infinite universe, but we may be extremely valuable, because there may be very few places where civilizations exist.”
In its three years touring the globe, Cox has performed Horizons in front of more than 400,000 people. But now the tour comes to an end in North America, with Boston the penultimate stop before the finale in New York. “I’ll be sad to see it go,” Cox says, laughing when he hears comparisons to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. “It’s evolved into something else, and it’s kind of the way I’d always wanted it to be.” One notable change is thanks to the new James Webb Space Telescope, whose images look startlingly better on massive LED screens than the older images from the Hubble. Cox is also waxing more philosophical than when he started, aided by his increased use of music. “Music is a response to the mystery and majesty of nature,” Cox says. “I’m just mixing different ways of exploring the world together…it’s kind of a giant experiment, in a way.”
Sunday, May 11 and Monday, May 12, Boch Center Shubert Theatre, 265 Tremont St, Boston. Tickets remain for Monday, May 12. briancoxlive.co.uk.