The best new theatre shows: London, February 2023
Ancient works in exciting hands, West End transfers for winning productions and new writing in major venues are among February's theatre offerings
Phaedra, National Theatre
Writer-director and adapter extraordinaire Simon Stone (Yerma) reimagines Seneca's play about the Cretan princess Phaedra (here, a politician) consumed with love for her stepson. Janet McTeer (Ozark) plays the title role, with Assaad Bouab (Call My Agent) making his London stage debut as Hippolytus.
Read more ...Shirley Valentine, Duke of York's Theatre
Olivier and BAFTA-winning actress Sheridan Smith stars in director Matthew Dunster's revival of Willy Russell's uplifting one-woman play about a disgruntled housewife who gets her mojo back on a holiday in Greece.
Read more ...St Martin's Lane, London, WC2N 4BG
Medea, @sohoplace
Dominic Cooke (Good, The Normal Heart) is directing Sophie Okonedo and Ben Daniels in a new production of Euripides' Medea, running at new West End theatre @sohoplace.
Read more ...Standing at the Sky's Edge, National Theatre
It opened to critical acclaim in Sheffield back in 2019, now new musical Standing at the Sky's Edge is finally getting its pandemic-delayed London run. With a book by the ever-exciting Chris Bush (Hungry, Nine Lessons and Carols), and music and lyrics by Richard Hawley, the show follows the lives and hopes of three generations living on an estate in Sheffield.
Read more ...The Great British Bake Off Musical, Noël Coward Theatre
The Noël Coward Theatre is being transformed into reality TV's famous white tent, as The Great British Bake Off Musical plays the West End for a limited run of 12 delicious weeks.
Oklahoma!, Wyndham's Theatre
Director Daniel Fish's Tony-winning revival of Oklahoma! transfers from its critically-acclaimed run at the Young Vic to the West End's Wyndham's Theatre, keeping most of its original London cast intact.
Read more ...The Winter’s Tale, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
In a monumental first for Shakespeare’s Globe, associate artistic director Sean Holmes (The Tempest, Hamlet, Twelfth Night) presents a production of The Winter’s Tale that makes use of both the theatre’s candle-lit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse and its outdoor auditorium, which usually remains closed in winter. The audience travels with the story from the stiff court of Sicilia in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse to the more care-free, pastoral lands of Bohemia in the Globe Theatre – presumably come wind, rain or snow.
Read more ...Guys and Dolls, Bridge Theatre
It’s staged immersive Shakespeare and transformed its stage into a flooded Oxford for its adaptation of Philip Pullman’s La Belle Sauvage, now the Bridge Theatre is putting on its first musical, running with a Golden Age classic: Frank Loesser, Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows’ 1950 hit, Guys and Dolls.
Read more ...Women, Beware the Devil, Almeida Theatre
Conversations with Friends star Alison Oliver joins a cast including Lydia Leonard and Leo Bill in bringing Sunday Times Playwriting Award-winner Lulu Raczka's historic drama to life. The Almeida's Rupert Goold directs.
Read more ...Trouble in Butetown
In this world premiere by award-winning playwright Diana Nneka Atuona, an escaped African American soldier seeks safe harbour in an illegal boarding house in Cardiff. There's no segregation here, but who can he trust? Sarah Parish and Samuel Adewunmi star.
Read more ...