London theatre: best plays, May 2022

Legally Blonde the Musical, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre

'Omigod you guys!' Legally Blonde the Musical gets its first major UK revival this summer at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. The new production, helmed by Six director Lucy Moss, stars Courtney Bowman (Six, Everybody's Talking About Jamie) in the central role and kicks off the theatre's 90th birthday season.

Henry VIII, Shakespeare’s Globe

Women Beware Women and Fantastically Great Women Who Change The World director Amy Hodge teams up with the Globe’s resident writer Hannah Khalil (A Museum in Baghdad) to examine Shakespeare’s final play, Henry VIII, from a female perspective.

My Fair Lady, London Coliseum

Oh, wouldn't it be luvverly to see My Fair Lady curtsey its way onto the West End stage again? It’s been 21 long years since the last major revival of Lerner and Loewe’s best-loved musical, when Trevor Nunn’s multi-Olivier-winning production, starring Martine McCutcheon, impressed at both the National and Theatre Royal Drury Lane.

Well, we need wait no longer, because The Lincoln Centre’s critically acclaimed 2018 production, helmed by Tony-winning director Bartlett Sher (Oslo, The King and I) arrives in the West End this month.

Amy Adams in The Glass Menagerie, Duke of York’s Theatre

Six-time Oscar nominee Amy Adams (Nocturnal Animals, Sharp Objects) makes her West End debut in a new production of Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie, directed by Jeremy Herrin (Wolf Hall trilogy, People, Places and Things) and designed by Vicki Mortimer (Follies, Wise Children).

Britannicus, Lyric Hammersmith

It's a Sin's Nathaniel Curtis stars in writer Timberlake Wertenbaker and director Atri Banerjee's modern-day retelling of Jean Racine's Britannicus, a tale of one dictator's corruption-fuelled rise to power.

Father and Assassin, National Theatre

Oppression and extremism are at the fore as director Indhu Rubasingham (The Great Wave) reunites with playwright Anupama Chandrasekhar to tell the story of the man who murdered Mahatma Gandhi.

Julius Caesar, Shakespeare's Globe

JMK Award-winner Diane Page takes on Shakespeare's tale of tyranny, deceit and treachery in Rome, infusing the story with contemporary relevance.

The House of Shades, Almeida Theatre

The brilliant Bafta and Olivier Award-nominated Anne-Marie Duff (His Dark Materials) leads the cast of the world premiere of Most Promising Playwright-winner Beth Steel’s new play, charting the ever-changing industrial landscape of working-class Britain. The story centres on the Webster family, charting five decades of their hopes and dreams, lives and deaths. Blanche McIntyre (Hymn) returns to the Almeida to direct.

The Breach, Hampstead Theatre

Kentucky-born playwright Naomi Wallace presents the UK debut of her latest play The Breach, a dark, coming-of-age story about a group of teens growing up in the turbulence of 1970s America. Seventeen-year-old Jude will do anything to keep her younger brother Acton safe. But when a game takes a dangerous turn, it threatens to derail their lives forever. Artistic director of Manchester Royal Exchange Sarah Frankcom helms the show.

Operation Mincemeat, Riverside Studios

SpitLip's musical comedy Operation Mincemeat first had London audiences guffawing in 2019, but the company – a collaboration between Fringe favourites Kill the Beast and composer Felix Hagan – used the pandemic to re-write the show into something sharper, tighter and even funnier. Based on a real WWII operation that helped the Brits deceive Hitler and successfully invade Sicily, this smart, high-speed, song-filled remake is a wickedly entertaining riot. It's had two hit runs at Southwark Playhouse and now transfers to Riverside Studios. Catch it while you can.