The London stage is, as ever, bustling with an array of shows to satisfy all tastes. Starry plays and revivals jostle with high-profile musicals, both new and revivals, new drama and children’s theater.
Here’s a guide to some of the enticements of the coming months, presented with an awareness that just as London contains multitudes, so, too, does its theater.
Shows With Star Power
Inter Alia
Rosamund Pike has made her name onscreen in films like “Gone Girl” and “Saltburn” and returns to the stage to head the new play from the team behind the London and Broadway hit “Prima Facie.” Like that play, Suzie Miller’s “Inter Alia” is set in the legal profession, with Pike as a prominent London judge, though unlike its solo-performer predecessor, “Inter Alia” features a supporting cast, led by Jamie Glover. The show is just one of several National Theater titles vying for playgoers’ attentions this summer: Others include the return of Michael Sheen in “Nye” and the West End transfer of Beth Steel’s “Till the Stars Come Down.”
Runs July 10 through Sept. 13 at the National Theater.
Giant
The accolades have been pouring in for the onetime director Mark Rosenblatt’s Olivier Award-winning debut play, which recalls an episode in the career of the author Roald Dahl. John Lithgow is in career-best form as Dahl, who has written a book review that is widely seen as antisemitic and refuses to reign in his language. Aya Cash and Elliot Levey do standout work playing his publishers; Nicholas Hytner is the characteristically adroit director.
Through Aug. 2 at the Harold Pinter Theater.
Mrs. Warren’s Profession
Imelda Staunton returns regularly to the stage, often under the guidance of the director Dominic Cooke. After reviving “Hello, Dolly!” last summer, they have chosen this play by George Bernard Shaw about a brothel-keeper and onetime prostitute (Staunton) whose “profession” doesn’t sit well with her stern, university-educated daughter, played by Staunton’s real-life daughter, Bessie Carter.
Through Aug. 16 at the Garrick Theater.
A Moon for the Misbegotten
Ruth Wilson and Michael Shannon have tackled Eugene O’Neill’s soulful terrain separately and now are teaming up in the author’s pained, poetic “A Moon for the Misbegotten,” which premiered in 1957. Shannon is in outstanding form as the alcoholic Jim Tyrone, who could as well be O’Neill himself, with Wilson as a farmworker, Josie Hogan, who offers the reckless boozer a final chance at love. The director is Rebecca Frecknall, who cut her teeth on Tennessee Williams, and the venue is the ever-buzzy Almeida.
Through Aug. 16 at the Almeida Theater.
Evita
The 24-year-old American Rachel Zegler is making her London stage debut as Eva Peron in the much-awaited revival of the 1978 musical from Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Much ink has been spilled during the show’s previews over Zegler delivering the show’s anthemic number, “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina,” from an external balcony to hordes of spectators gathered in the street below.
Through Sept. 6 at the London Palladium.
Musicals to Leave You Humming
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
I’ve seen this year’s Olivier Award-winning best musical four times — twice at Southwark Playhouse (in two versions) and twice at its current West End perch. And it’s always rewarding to watch how this F. Scott Fitzgerald adaptation about a man who lives his life backward moves an audience with its message about living for the moment. The action in this production has been transposed to the coastal environs of Cornwall in southern England, and it soars on the back of a shanty-rich score from Darren Clark and Jethro Compton.
Through Oct. 11 at the Ambassadors Theater.
Hercules
It’s unusual for a Disney musical to reach the West End before Broadway, but that’s the case with the company’s latest, “Hercules,” which has been seen in various iterations in New York, New Jersey and Hamburg, Germany. This London iteration tethers a gag-heavy book from Kwame Kwei-Armah and Robert Horn to a score from Alan Menken and David Zippel (who wrote the music for the 1997 animated movie on which the show is based). The title role is played by the likable West End performer Luke Brady, and the director-choreographer is Casey Nicholaw, whose “The Book of Mormon” is continuing across town. Unlike that show, “Hercules” is suitable for children age 6 and up.
Open-ended run at Theater Royal, Drury Lane.
Sing Street
This 2019 Off Broadway show had a Broadway transfer thwarted by the coronavirus pandemic; now, it has arrived Off West End at the Lyric Hammersmith, directed in London as in New York by Rebecca Taichman. Adapted from John Carney’s 2016 film, with music and lyrics by Carney and Gary Clark, the show is a coming-of-age story set in 1980s Dublin. The cast consists largely of newcomers: Spot them here first before they become names.
Runs July 8 through Aug. 23 at the Lyric Theater, Hammersmith.
Burlesque the Musical
This stage musical adaptation of the 2010 film “Burlesque,” starring Cher and Christina Aguilera, allows the Broadway powerhouse Orfeh (Cher’s real-life goddaughter) to make her London debut as proprietress of the burlesque house where the action takes place. Her co-stars include Todrick Hall and Jess Folley, who have contributed new songs to the existing work of Aguilera and the Australian pop star Sia.
Runs July 10 through Sept. 6 at the Savoy Theater.
Brigadoon
This 1947 Broadway musical about a Scottish village that only comes to life every 100 years doesn’t come to life so often itself, despite its storied songwriting team of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, who gave us “My Fair Lady” and “Camelot.” But here it is at the alfresco Open Air Theater in Regent’s Park, and with a new book from the lauded Scottish playwright Rona Munro. The director-choreographer is Drew McOnie, in his first season as the theater’s artistic director; the singers of the ravishing score include Edward Baruwa, Louis Gaunt and Danielle Fiamanya.
Runs Aug. 2 through Sept. 20 at the Open Air Theater, Regent’s Park.
The Producers
Mel Brooks’s gloriously giddy — and gay — 2001 musical, adapted from his 1967 film, rang out with renewed vigor and hilarity in revival last winter at the Menier Chocolate Factory. That production, directed by Patrick Marber (“Leopoldstadt”), will soon be crossing the Thames to set up shop at the Garrick Theater, with Andy Nyman once again playing the go-for-broke showman Max Bialystock alongside the invaluable Marc Antolin as his sweet sidekick, Leo Bloom.
Runs Aug. 30 through Feb. 21, 2026, at the Garrick Theater.
Transfers From New York
Stereophonic
It’s a pleasure to report that the West End iteration of this 2024 Tony winner for best play equals the New York production and boasts four new cast members alongside three Broadway holdovers. Set in a recording studio during the 1970s, “Stereophonic” tells the Fleetwood Mac-adjacent story of a band striving for success even as relationships start to fray. In London, you really feel the influence of Chekhov in the play’s cross currents of feeling, and the show’s director, Daniel Aukin, shapes the three-plus hours like a true maestro.
Through Oct. 11 at the Duke of York’s Theater.
The Great Gatsby
As adaptations of F. Scott Fitzgerald go — and there are a lot of them — few are as eye-popping as this iteration, which won a 2024 Tony for Linda Cho’s costumes. Forget nuance and characterization: The emphasis is on the wow factor. You want a car onstage? A mansion? Bejeweled party togs? Prepare for those and more, as well as an impressive cast starting with Jamie Muscato in the title role and such West End heavyweights as Rachel Tucker (“Wicked”) and John Owen Jones (“Les Miserables”).
Through Sept. 7 at the London Coliseum.
Girl From the North Country
The Irish writer-director Conor McPherson’s musical, set in a boardinghouse in 1930s Minnesota, sets its hardscrabble story to the music of Bob Dylan. The production has been playing ping-pong across the Atlantic: Previously seen Off Broadway and on, where it was nominated for seven Tony Awards, the show is returning, recast, to the Old Vic, the theater where it premiered in 2017. The company is led this time out by Katie Brayben, who made her Broadway debut last year in the title role of the musical “Tammy Faye.”
Through Aug. 23 at the Old Vic.
Good Night, Oscar
Oscar Levant remains too little known a half-century after his death in 1972. This mentally fragile pianist, talk show host and raconteur is the subject of Doug Wright’s “Good Night, Oscar,” which confirmed its star, Sean Hayes, as a Broadway presence to reckon with in 2023: Who knew Hayes played the piano this well? Hayes leads the London transfer, directed as before by Lisa Peterson and with the musicals star Rosalie Craig (”Company,” “City of Angels”) lending luster in the non-singing part of Levant’s ever-patient wife.
Runs July 31 through Sept. 21 at the Barbican Theater.
Tried and Tested Crowd-Pleasers
Cabaret
Rebecca Frecknall’s West End revival of “Cabaret” will reach the four-year mark in November and has seen numerous star pairings of Emcees and Sallys come and go. But even as the less successful Broadway version plans to shutter in the fall, its London predecessor continues to thrive. The current leads are Hannah Dodd (Francesca in the Netflix series “Bridgerton”) and the fast-rising Rob Madge, who has made a name as an actor-playwright and social media personality.
Open-ended run at the Kit Kat Club.
The Mousetrap and Witness for the Prosecution
One is in its 73rd year, the other in its eighth. That’s because Agatha Christie paints a cozy picture of Britain that many tourists (and some locals) can’t resist. Whether you like your Christie adaptation set in a snowbound manor house or a stuffy courtroom, you’ll enjoy matching wits not just with the characters but with thousands of playgoers before you.
Open-ended runs at St. Martin’s Theater (“The Mousetrap”) and County Hall (“Witness for the Prosecution”).
The Crucible
Arthur Miller’s time-honored drama set in 17th-century Salem, Mass., gets done more in England than pretty much any other American play and is currently running outdoors at Shakespeare’s Globe. Gavin Drea plays John Proctor in this production from Ola Ince, which is the outlier in a Globe summer season otherwise given over — as you might expect — to “Romeo and Juliet,” “The Merry Wives of Windsor” and “Twelfth Night.”
Through July 12 at Shakespeare’s Globe.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
You may think you’ve seen this play often enough to put it to rest, but that was before Nicholas Hytner revived it in this immersive production. Here it is again with a mostly new cast headed by Susannah Fielding and JJ Feild, with the charismatic David Moorst returning as a sinister, shape-shifting Puck. Forego seats and join the action to get closer than ever to Shakespeare’s most mercurial play.
Through Aug. 20 at the Bridge Theater.
Up Close With Small Casts
The Fifth Step
David Ireland’s pacey two-hander finds Jack Lowden in springy, high-adrenaline form as a recovering alcoholic, with Martin Freeman as the sponsor who is helping him get clean. Finn den Hertog directs a play that will be followed at @sohoplace, a newish London venue, by another dynamite small-scale show: the West End debut of the much-traveled solo play “Every Brilliant Thing,” by Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe.
Through July 26 at @sohoplace.
Being Mr. Wickham
Adrian Lukis played the rakish Mr. Wickham to star-making effect in the much-loved 1995 TV adaptation of “Pride and Prejudice,” with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. How has the character fared in the 30 years since? This hourlong solo play, in the close quarters of the 70-seat Jermyn Street Theater, finds the celebrated cad in advancing years, still married to Lydia Bennet — imagine! — and full of stories about the Bingleys and Mr. Darcy, among the Jane Austen novel’s familiar cast of characters.
Runs Aug. 12 through Aug. 30 at the Jermyn Street Theater.
Born With Teeth
The American writer Liz Duffy Adams has seen her two-hander produced in Houston and Minneapolis. But its natural home is surely London, given that its characters are William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe. So here it is in a Royal Shakespeare Company production directed by the company’s co-artistic director, Daniel Evans, and starring Ncuti Gatwa (“Doctor Who”) as Marlowe and Edward Bluemel (“Killing Eve”) as Shakespeare.
Runs Aug. 13 through Nov. 1 at Wyndham’s Theater.
New Writing
Till the Stars Come Down
The gifted playwright Beth Steel makes her West End debut with this transfer from the National Theater of an explosive family drama. Sparks fly at a wedding in an English former coal mining town between a local woman and a Polish immigrant. Sinead Matthews and Julian Kostov play the bride and groom; Bijan Sheibani directs.
Runs July 1 to Sept. 27 at the Theater Royal, Haymarket.
The Estate
Adeel Akhtar headlines a new British drama about the machinations that ensue when the Parliamentary opposition leader is forced to resign in the wake of a scandal. Its author, Shaan Sahota, is a medical doctor making her playwriting debut, and the acclaimed Daniel Raggett (“Anna X”) directs.
Runs July 9 to Aug. 23 at the National Theater.
Poor Clare
The American writer Chiara Atik’s play premiered in 2021 in Los Angeles and has now emerged Off West End at the in-the-round Orange Tree Theater, an appealing venue in London’s western suburbs. The Clare of the title refers to St. Clare of Assisi, who was one of the early adherents of a rather better-known saint, namely Francis of the same Italian city. Arsema Thomas, seen on TV in the “Bridgerton” spinoff “Queen Charlotte,” makes her stage debut in the title role, and the director is the ever-excellent Blanche McIntyre.
Runs July 12 to Aug. 9 at the Orange Tree Theater.
For Children and Families
Hold On to Your Butts
With “Jurassic World Rebirth” crowding movie theaters this summer, what better time for a 75-minute parody of that dinosaur franchise, intended for audiences age 8 and up. And a matinee each Sunday means you could see the show by day and head to a nearby movie theater for “Rebirth” in the evening.
Runs July 7 to Aug. 31 at the Arts Theater.
I Want My Hat Back Trilogy
Here’s something for the wee ones, age 3 to 8. The source is the Canadian-born author-illustrator Jon Klassen’s popular trio of picture books: In one, a bear asks his fellow animals where his missing hat has gone and then has to figure out whose response is the dishonest one. Put Agatha Christie on the case — or just sit back for the 40-minute performance and enjoy.
Runs July 9 to Aug. 10 at the Polka Theater.
Rough Magic
Shakespeare’s three witches live on in this “Macbeth”-inspired children’s entertainment at the Sam Wanamaker Theater, indoors at the Globe. Expect much talk of spirits and the supernatural, coupled with Shakespeare-adjacent jokes and the actors’ gifts for racing through the slow bits. (Can’t all shows do that?) Lucy Cuthbertson, the Globe’s director of education, is at the helm of a production suitable, we’re told, for “everyone from 5 to 105.”
Runs July 19 to Aug. 23 at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.
The post What to See in London Theaters This Summer appeared first on New York Times.
