West End

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Theatre 

From the chance to see Lily James opposite Kristin Scott Thomas, to a dose of Shakespeare from the maestro Kenneth Branagh, the hottest theatre to book now

Essential

Theatre 

The Unfriend, a thriller-sitcom from Doctor Who and Sherlock writer Steven Moffat, returns to the West End

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Theatre 

Andrew Scott delivers a phenomenal performance playing all eight characters in this batty but brilliant one-man take on Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya

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Theatre 

The memoir of Henry Fraser, a former rugby player paralysed from the shoulders down, becomes an uplifting musical about coping with adversity

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Theatre 

Shakespeare aficionado Kenneth Branagh directs and leads the cast in King Lear, coming to the West End's Wyndham's Theatre this autumn

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Theatre 

Andrew Scott, Nicole Scherzinger and Ian McKellen are just some of the stars descending on the London stage this month

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Theatre 

Ian McKellen and Roger Allam reunite with director Sean Mathias to bring Ben Weatherill's Frank and Percy to the stage

Tried and Tested

Theatre 

Gareth Southgate’s reform of the England men’s football team is the subject of James Graham’s heartwarming play Dear England, transferring to the West End

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Musicals 

From the long-awaited arrival of a Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical to, er, more musicals and the return of a Lucy Prebble masterpiece (not Enron, sorry!)

Tried and Tested

Theatre 

Mark Rylance’s play about Hungarian doctor Ignaz Semmelweis, whose early discovery of bacteria was snubbed by his seniors, is compelling from start to finish

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Theatre 

Kristin Scott Thomas and Lily James swap screen for stage, starring in Jerusalem director Ian Rickson's production of Penelope Skinner's new play Lyonesse

Tried and Tested

Musicals 

Susan Stroman's Crazy For You revival takes up a seven-month residency at the West End's Gillian Lynne Theatre after impressing in Chichester

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Theatre 

From eagerly awaited transfers to poignant new writing, we round up the best plays opening in London this July

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Musicals 

Arriving from Broadway, Mrs. Doubtfire the musical is a cheeky, high-spirited family show, with the potential to tickle audience members of all ages

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Theatre 

Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman finally arrives in the West End – 20 years after its premiere – with Lily Allen in the lead role and Matthew Dunster directing

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Theatre 

From the West End premiere of a Martin McDonagh classic to new work conceived by and starring the great Mark Rylance, June's best new theatre shows

In the Know

Theatre 

The European premiere of Broadway hit Clyde's reunites Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage with director Lynette Linton at the Donmar Warehouse

Tried and Tested

Musicals 

Gorgeous staging and near-perfect performances can’t mask the ick factor of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Aspects of Love, revived at the West End’s Lyric Theatre

In the Know

Musicals 

The Jamie Lloyd Company brings Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Sunset Boulevard to a new generation with a production starring pop star Nicole Scherzinger

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Theatre 

Brokeback Mountain looks the part and is fronted by two worthy stars, but this mechanical production fails to capture the intense longing of the story

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Theatre 

Brian Cox returns to the West End for the first time in almost a decade to star in Jeremy Herrin’s starry revival of Long Day’s Journey into Night

Tried and Tested

Musicals 

SpitLip’s World War II-set musical comedy Operation Mincemeat triumphs on the West End stage, coupling pre-loved performances with a design glow-up

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Theatre 

David Tennant and Cush Jumbo star in Max Webster's production of Macbeth – the last in the Donmar Warehouse's 30th birthday season

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Theatre 

Lolita Chakrabarti's adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s best-selling novel Hamnet comes to the West End for a 14-week run

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Musicals 

Operation Mincemeat creators SpitLip speak to Culture Whisper about the show's West End ascension and why, as musical theatre sceptics, they decided to write one

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Theatre 

London's love affair with musicals shows no sign of abating, with beloved revivals and fresh arrivals landing this May. Elsewhere, outdoor theatres reopen!

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Theatre 

From the National Theatre to the West End: Lyndsey Turner's production of The Crucible is back on stage with a new cast including Milly Alcock and Brian Gleeson

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Theatre 

Michael Longhurst’s fresh look at Noël Coward’s Private Lives, playing at the Donmar, is a reminder of how far our views on gender equality have come in the last century

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Theatre 

Proving the public’s interest in the Vardy V Rooney trial still hasn’t waned, Liv Hennessy’s dramatisation of it returns to the West End, before tackling a national tour

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Theatre 

Ivo van Hove’s A Little Life is as relentless and harrowing as you’d expect, but artfully staged and led by a breathtaking central performance from James Norton

In the Know

Theatre 

It's a starry month on the London stage (see The Motive and the Cue and Private Lives in particular), and there's revivals aplenty celebrating the classics

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Musicals 

No soggy bottoms here: TV favourite The Great British Bake Off has been kneaded and rolled into a musical – and it rises pleasingly on the West End stage