A star-gazer's guide to London theatre: famous actors on stage

By Lucy Brooks on 3/3/2020

There's something magical about London's live theatre especially if it means the chance to see celebrities on the West End. When there's the perfect symbiosis between sizzling script and super hot star, we want to be in the front seats, watching – annoyingly, so does everyone else.
For a star safari, here's the shows to book fast, before the herds of superfans!

Emilia Clarke's ingénue

Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke swaps her dragons for a Seagull to make her stage debut in a fresh version of Chekhov's classic play, as part of Jamie Lloyd's theatre season.

WHEN

11 Mar 2020 – 30 May 2020, 7:30 PM – 10:00 PM

WHERE

Playhouse Theatre
Northumberland Avenue, London, WC2N 5DE

David Tennant to star in Good at the Playhouse Theatre

David Tennant's moral conundrum

Dr Who and Deadwater Fell star David Tennant returns to the stage to play a liberal professor who is swept along by Nazism in a revival of 1981 drama Good.

WHEN

06 Oct 2020 – 19 Dec 2020, 7:30 PM – 10:00 PM

WHERE

Playhouse Theatre
Northumberland Avenue, London, WC2N 5DE

Kristin Scott Thomas to make National Theatre debut

Kristin Scott Thomas's tragic hero

Simon Stone directs a radical re-telling of the Phaedra myth, with Kristin Scott Thomas making her National Theatre debut as a British politician.

WHEN

01 Dec 2020 – 28 Feb 2021, From December 2020; dates to be confirmed

WHERE

National Theatre
South Bank, London, SE1 9PX

Aaron Taylor-Johnson to star in The Pillowman

Aaron Taylor-Johnson's twisted writer

Martin McDonagh's ghoulish 2003 comedy is revived on the West End stage, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson as a twisted short-story writer whose plots mirror a series of real life child murders.

WHEN

24 Jul 2020 – 17 Oct 2020, 7:30 PM – 10:00 PM

WHERE

Duke of York's Theatre
St Martin's Lane, London, WC2N 4BG

Timothée Chalamet's London Theatre debut

Timothée Chalamet's UK stage debut

Timothée Chalamet is a young actor on his way to world domination. And now he's coming to the London stage. The Call Me By Your Name star comes to The Old Vic for a Pulitzer-nominated drama about a young man and his grandmother.

WHEN

06 Apr 2020 – 23 May 2020, 7:30 PM – 10:00 PM

WHERE

The Old Vic
The Cut, London, SE1 8NB

Mark Strong and Helen Mirren in Oedipus

A star cast assembles to re-invent the Oedipus myth on the West End. Helen Mirren and Mark strong lead a modern, English-language version of Sophocles' tragedy, as re-imagined by visionary theatre-maker Robert Icke.

WHEN

TBC

WHERE

TBC

Jessie Buckley and Josh O'Connor star in Romeo and Juliet at National Theatre

Jessie Buckley and Josh O'Connor's star-crossed lovers

Romance, rebellion and tragedy come to the National Theatre in 2020 as two rising stars take on Shakespeare's star-crossed lovers. Josh O'Connor (The Crown) and Jessie Buckley (Wild Rose) play the title parts in new production of Romeo and Juliet directed by Simon Godwin.

WHEN

01 Aug 2020 – 31 Oct 2020, From August 2020, exact dates to be confirmed

WHERE

National Theatre
South Bank, London, SE1 9PX

Jake Gyllenhaal in Sunday in the Park with George. Photo by Matthew Murphy

Jake Gyllenhaal's West End musical

Jake Gyllenhaal makes his long-awaited return to the London stage in a musical revival that delighted audiences and critics alike on Broadway. 'Performing Sunday in the Park with George... was one of the greatest joys of my career,' Gyllenhaal enthused. 'I've also deeply missed the West End and so to be bringing Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Pulitzer Prize-winning musical there is both humbling and thrilling.'

WHEN

11 Jun 2020 – 05 Oct 2020, 7:30 PM – 10:00 PM

WHERE

Savoy Theatre
Savoy Court , Strand, London, WC2R 0ET

Jessica Chastain, A Doll's House. Photo by Charlie Gray

Jessica Chastain's Nora

Golden Globe winner Jessica Chastain will swap the big screen for the London stage to make her UK theatre debut in a production of A Doll's House.

WHEN

10 Jun 2020 – 05 Sep 2020, 7:30 PM – 10:00 PM

WHERE

Playhouse Theatre
Northumberland Avenue, London, WC2N 5DE

Whoopi Goldberg 'Deloris Van Cartier' and Jennifer Saunders 'Mother Superior'. Photo Matthew Murphy and Oliver Rosser

Whoopi Goldberg's return to the nunnery

Whoopi Goldberg will be back in the habit to play Deloris Van Cartier in an all-singing all dancing stage adaptation of hit 90s film Sister Act. And Jennifer Saunders will star as Mother Superior. Oh happy days!

WHEN

29 Jul 2020 – 30 Aug 2020, 7:30 PM – 10:00 PM

WHERE

Hammersmith Apollo
45 Queen Caroline Street , London, W6 9DZ