The biggest shows open in London and the West End this April 2025
Spring is a busy time in the West End, particularly for plays, as short run shows that opened after Christmas come to an end, and the spring/summer players enter the stage.
Musicals that are particularly prominent in April are led by The Great Gatsby, heading to London direct from a successful run on Broadway, and with some big ambitions – chiefly, to fill the giant London Coliseum.
Producers of the show are taking no chances, and have cast a wealth of starry West End talent, including up-and-coming Jamie Muscato (Moulin Rouge! The Musical) as Jay Gatsby and Frances Mayli McCann (Bonnie & Clyde The Musical) as Daisy Buchanan, with Corbin Bleu (High School Musical) as Nick Carraway, Amber Davies (Pretty Woman) as Jordan Baker, Joel Montague (Hamilton) as George Wilson, and West End big-hitters John Owen-Jones (Les Misérables) as Meyer Wolfsheim, Jon Robyns (The Phantom of the Opera) as Tom Buchanan, and Rachel Tucker (Wicked) as Myrtle Wilson.
Other musicals are smaller, chief amongst them a new show based on award-winning movie Midnight Cowboy. Directed by Nick Winston, who originally directed West End-bound Burlesque The Musical, the show has a book by Bryony Lavery, who scored a huge hit with Frozen (the play, not the musical), and songs by music Svengali Francis “Eg” White, who has written for everyone (by which we mean Adele). Midnight Cowboy The Movie scored three Oscars including Best Picture, Director and Screenplay, so let’s hope that the awards magic rubs off on this musical.
EastEnders star Max Bowden plays Rico ‘Ratzo’ Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman in the film), and Paul Jacob French (Grease, An Officer and a Gentleman) is Joe Buck (the movie’s Jon Voight, in a cast that also features Here We Go’s Tori Allen-Martin, who wowed in the brief West End run of I Wish You Well: The Gwyneth Paltrow Ski-Trial Musical.
April is a big month for plays in the West End, and stars. The Royal Court’s acclaimed production of Giant is transferring to the West End’s Harold Pinter Theatre, with its original cast largely intact, primarily John Lithgow giving a proper star-turn as Roald Dahl, plus Olivier Award-winner Elliot Levey (Cold War, Patriots, Good), and Olivier Award-nominee Rachael Stirling (The Divine Mrs S).
Giant is up for five Olivier Awards next Sunday. Nicholas Hytner directs, taking a rare job away from his Bridge Theatre.
More stars are in Michael Grandage’s new project: a sexy new contemporary take on Ibsen’s Master Builder, with My Master Builder opening at the Wyndham’s Theatre this month starring Ewan McGregor (Trainspotting, Moulin Rouge), Emmy and Golden Globe winner Elizabeth Debicki (Princess Diana in The Crown), and Tony and Olivier Award nominee Kate Fleetwood (The Wheel of Time, A View from the Bridge, 101 Dalmatians). Written by buzzy New York playwright, screenwriter and novelist Lila Raicek, it has The Perfect Couple vibes, set in the Hamptons, with added depths.
It’s not every month – or even year – we can say that a brand new Conor McPherson play is opening in London. The Brightening Air is playing The Old Vic, with a stellar cast that features Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids, The IT Crowd), Brian Gleeson (Bad Sisters) and Rosie Sheehy (Machinal); more reimagined Ibsen comes with a revival of Ghosts at the Lyric Hammersmith starring Victoria Smurfit (Rivals, Bloodlands) and Callum Scott Howells (It’s a Sin, Cabaret); the next comedy caper from Mischief Theatre is The Comedy About Spies, opening at the Noel Coward Theatre and featuring the treat of seeing the original Mischief/The Play That Goes Wrong cast; a new Neil LaBute play is also opening in London in April, with How to Fight Loneliness playing at the Park Theatre; and a Wild West themed Romeo & Juliet is coming to Shakespeare’s Globe.
Finally, I defy anyone to have imagined that the National Theatre’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s last musical Here We Are would have snared such an interesting and high-profile cast. Which is a clever move, as the show didn’t get rave reviews in New York, but audiences are flocking to buy tickets to see the show at the National, with Tracie Bennett (Follies, End of the Rainbow) and Denis O’Hare (American Horror Story, True Blood), reprising their roles from the New York production, alongside Jane Krakowski (30 Rock), Martha Plimpton (Sweat), Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Modern Family), Rory Kinnear (No Time to Die), Richard Fleeshman (Company), Harry Hadden-Paton (Downton Abbey), Cameron Johnson (Guys & Dolls), and Paulo Szot (South Pacific).
Also don’t miss
Major concerts at the London Palladium, including Frozen star Samantha Barks and Broadway’s Aaron Tveit; Self Esteem’s new album A Complicated Woman, in a theatrical live show at the Duke of York’s Theatre; Matthew Dunster directs a new production of Patrick Marber’s Dealer’s Choice at the Donmar Warehouse; and fun new show Now That’s What I Call A Musical visits the New Wimbledon Theatre in London, as does Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s hit Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
You can see all the new West End shows opening in April 2025, and also all shows playing in London in April.
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