Best new theatre shows: London, September 2023
Andrew Scott, Nicole Scherzinger and Ian McKellen are just some of the stars descending on the London stage this month
Andrew Scott in Vanya, Duke of York's Theatre
Andrew Scott is starring in a one-man version of Chekhov's classic masterpiece, Uncle Vanya. (If you had to read that sentence twice, so did we.) Yes, the formidable, wildly versatile actor, who's brought to life a spine-chilling villain in Sherlock's Moriarty and a sex symbol as Fleabag's Hot Priest, is now attempting to single-handedly conjure the ennui felt on the play's rural estate, slipping into the skin of each of its characters.
Read more ...Sunset Boulevard, Savoy Theatre
The Jamie Lloyd Company brings Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Sunset Boulevard to a new generation with a production starring pop star Nicole Scherzinger.
Read more ...Pygmalion, Old Vic Theatre
Patsy Ferran (A Streetcar Named Desire, Summer and Smoke) plays Eliza Doolittle, the Covent Garden flower girl turned prim and proper lady, not in the more frequently staged musical My Fair Lady, but a revival of the play that inspired it, Pygmalion. Opposite her is the equally revered Bertie Carvel (Ink), playing bachelor about town Professor Henry Higgins, who bets his friend Colonel Pickering he can turn Eliza into a lady.
Read more ...Frank and Percy, The Other Palace Theatre
It's undoubtedly the star billing that makes Ben Weatherill's play about two elderly gentlemen whose friendship blossoms into romance over long dog walks on Hampstead Heath such an enticing prospect. The indomitable Ian McKellen plays Percy, the proudly single, openly gay half of the duo. Roger Allam (The Moderate Soprano, Rutherford and Son) plays the widowed Frank, who before meeting Percy identified as straight.
Read more ...Hamnet, Garrick Theatre
Lolita Chakrabarti's (Life of Pi, Hymn) adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s best-selling novel Hamnet comes to the West End, following an initial run at the Royal Shakespeare Company's Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. Set in Warwickshire, 1582, the play charts the death of Shakespeare's 11-year-old son Hamnet – an event that eventually led to the Bard writing his famous tragedy Hamlet in his son's memory.
Read more ...Death of England: Closing Time, National Theatre
Clint Dyer and Roy Williams are back at the National with the fourth and final instalment to their Death of England series, an exploration of race and identity in working-class Britain. Introducing female characters for the first time, it focuses on Denise (Jo Martin) and Carly (Hayley Squires), the wife and girlfriend of Delroy, who was the focus of part two.
Read more ...Mlima's Tale, Kiln Theatre
A chance to see work by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage (The Secret Life of Bees, Sweat) is always an exciting prospect. This one, about an elephant who haunts those connected to his death after he's murdered for his tusks, is a mythical-sounding tale doubling as a warning cry about the inhumane ivory trade. It premiered in the US back in 2018, and now it's getting its first UK outing at the Kiln. Miranda Cromwell (Death of a Salesman) directs.
Read more ...King Stakh's Wild Hunt, Barbican Theatre
Last year saw Belarus Free Theatre storm the Barbican Theatre stage with their raucous if batty show Dogs of Europe, based on a novel by Alhierd Bacharevic. This autumn, the company – exiled from their own country for speaking out against their government and Russia's through their work – are back with another adaptation: Uladzimir Karatkievich's folklore-inspired King Stakh's Wild Hunt. A 'gothic noir', the story follows an eerie hunt to save a young heiress from a wicked curse. Expect a fusion of opera, theatre, live music and multimedia from the show, which is being performed by both Belarusian and Ukrainian actors.
Read more ...Untitled F**k M*ss S**gon Play, Young Vic
Transferring to the Young Vic after a raved-about run at Manchester International Festival earlier this year, Kimber Lee's stereotype-smashing play calls out hundreds of years of narratives that tell all-too-familiar stories about Asian women and the white men who breeze in and out of their lives – cue references to Madama Butterfly, South Pacific, M*A*S*H and The King and I. Can Kim claw her way out of these cyclical narratives before it's too late? The intensely watchable Mei Mac (My Neighbour Totoro) stars.
Read more ...Red Pitch, Bush Theatre
Tyrell Williams' gentrification-shaming play about three friends hoping to save their south London football pitches from developers returns to the Bush Theatre following a sold-out run last year.
Read more ...Derren Brown's Unbelievable, Criterion Theatre
Derren Brown's supreme skills as a magician not only make for cracking TV, but his shows, which have seen punters do all sorts of things in the name of hypnosis, have also now inspired a theatre-cum-magic show all of their own. The man himself doesn't star, mind, but the experience has been masterminded by his own team of backstage puppeteers. With audience participation essential to the show, no two performances will be entirely the same.
Read more ...The Little Big Things, @sohoplace
Sportsman Henry Fraser's life was changed forever when a diving accident left him using a wheelchair. Based on his best-selling autobiography, this new musical from Joe White (book), Nick Butcher (music and lyrics) and Tom Ling (Lyrics) sets his remarkable story to an uplifting quasi-pop soundtrack.
Read more ...Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends, Gielgud Theatre
Cast your minds back to 2022 when, to mark the passing of legendary musical composer Stephen Sondheim (in late 2021), big-shot producer Cameron Mackintosh invited an esteemed line-up of performers to stage a tribute concert, featuring many of Sondheim's greatest musical hits. Now that concert is being remounted as a song-heavy theatre production with a four-month run, with Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga leading the cast.
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