9 Best new shows opening in London in May 2026 

1536

Ambassadors Theatre

Few plays dominated London’s 2025 theatre scene like 1536. Ava Pickett’s debut play about the dynamics of female friendship in the turmoil of the Tudor era sold out at The Almeida and is now arriving in the West End for a strictly limited run.

Three ordinary women gather to trade gossip about a distant royal scandal: the imprisonment of Anne Boleyn. As Henry VIII’s cruelty ripples outward from court, they begin to recognise parallels between the royal drama and the power struggles in their own lives. Sound gripping? It is.

Produced by Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap production company, now’s the time to take the opportunity to catch what is sure to be a future classic on stage while you can.

1536

Ambassadors Theatre, London

Sherlock Holmes

Regents Park Open Air Theatre

Regents Park’s Open Air Theatre launches its summer 2026 season with a brand-new Sherlock Holmes mystery. Transporting audiences from the leafy environs of the modern-day park to the fog-shrouded streets of Victorian London, it charts the famous detective as he races through the city’s streets with his faithful sidekick Watson in a bid to solve a conspiracy involving an unknown woman and a mysterious jewel.

Joshua James (Black Mirror, Andor) takes on the iconic role, with Jyuddah Jaymes (CHOIR BOY, Django, Amadeus) as Dr Watson. Written by Joel Horwood (The Ocean at the End of the Lane) and directed by the aptly-named Sean Holmes (Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, Death of a Salesman) it promises a slick stage thriller bringing new life to one of fiction’s most enduring characters.

Sherlock Holmes

Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, London

Beetlejuice The Musical

Prince Edward Theatre

Whether you dare say his name three times or not, Beetlejuice The Musical has been summoned and is exploding onto the West End stage this month, after its crowd-pleasing hit run in Broadway. Based on Tim Burton’s iconic 1988 film, this uproariously funny musical adaptation brings its own brand of supernatural chaos to audiences.

David Hunter (Waitress) and Chelsea Halfpenny (9 to 5) star as the newly-deceased Maitlands while David Fynn (School of Rock) takes on the titular role as the ghost with the most. Expect big staging, unforgettable songs and lots of mischief.

Beetlejuice

Prince Edward Theatre, London

Book Tickets

War Horse

National Theatre

Nearly two decades after its premiere on the National Theatre’s Olivier stage, it’s back to where it all began for stage smash War Horse. The most successful play in the National Theatre’s history returns to the Olivier to enrapt new audiences with its touching story of a boy who sets out to save his horse Joey from the ravages of World War I and bring him home.

Touching as the story is, it’s as much War Horse’s extraordinary stagecraft that makes it shine: the 15-strong puppetry team bring the equine protagonist to life in one of theatre’s most impressive technical achievements. Tom Sturgess leads the cast as Albert in this restaging created by both the original director Tom Morris and revival director Katie Henry.

War Horse

National Theatre - Olivier Theatre, London

High Society

Barbican Centre

Oozing sparkling glamour and with an equally brilliant cast, The Barbican’s High Society is the first large-scale staging of Cole Porter’s hit musical on the London stage in over a decade. The cast alone is a real talking point with Helen George (Call the Midwife) in the lead, joined by Felicity Kendal (The Good Life), Freddie Fox (Slow Horses) and Julian Ovenden (South Pacific).

The musical tells the story of spirited socialite Tracy Lord whose upcoming wedding is thrown into chaos by the arrival of her charismatic ex-husband and a tabloid reporter determined to sniff out their story.

Brimming with hits including Just One of Those Things, Let’s Misbehave, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Well, Did You Evah! and True Love – all performed with a full orchestra it’s a toe-tapping jaunt through the dazzling world of wit and sophistication.

High Society

An Ideal Husband

Lyric Hammersmith

Oscar Wilde is known for his sharp socio-political satire – and An Ideal Husband is the sharpest of them all, locking horns with the world of power, politics and scandal in Victorian London in the playwright’s characteristically witty style.

It’s been exactly 100 years since the play was last staged at the Lyric Hammersmith and this revival by Nicolai la Barrie promises to wow. His contemporary take on the classic material adds a bold new twist to the tale of politician Sir Robert Chiltern desperately trying to ward off scandal as the devious Mrs Cheveley spills secrets that could destroy him.

An Ideal Husband

Lyric Hammersmith, London

Let the Right One In

Underbelly Boulevard

Jack Thorne has proven himself to be one of the darling playwrights of the modern day long before he gripped the nation with his Netflix drama Adolescence thanks to his work on Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and When Winston Went to War with the Wireless (Donmar Warehouse) among many others. He’s now bringing his adaptation of the cult Swedish vampire novel Let the Right One In back to the London stage after a lauded run at the Royal Court in 2013.

Brutal but unexpectedly tender, a lonely teenager Oskar forms a friendship with Eli, a mysterious girl who never seems to leave her flat during the day. Performed by The National Youth Theatre’s REP Company, take the opportunity to see 18 of Britain’s most talented young performers on the stage under the direction of Olivier-Award winner James Dacre.

Let The Right One In

Underbelly Boulevard, London

Equus

Menier Chocolate Factory

Few plays are as raw and claustrophobic as Equus, Peter Shaffer’s psychological thriller. As unsettling as it is gripping, psychiatrist Martin Dysart is tasked with uncovering a boy’s motives for blinding six horses but, as he delves deeper into the patient’s psyche, the stability and normality of his own world is brought ever more in question.

More than 50 years after its first staging, Equus is every bit as powerful today. With Toby Stephens (Die Another Day, Jane Eyre, Coriolanus) as Dysart, Amanda Abbington (Mr Selfridge, Sherlock, The Son) as Hesther Salomon and newcomer Noah Valentine as the troubled boy Alan Strang and direction by Lindsay Posner (The Winslow Boy, The Turn of the Screw), this production promises to electrify the stage at the intimate Menier Chocolate Factory.

Equus

Menier Chocolate Factory, London

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

@sohoplace

One of the most eagerly anticipated new musicals of the year, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind arrives at @sohoplace on Charing Cross Road following a critically acclaimed world premiere run at the RSC’s Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Based on the internationally bestselling memoir by Malawian inventor William Kamkwamba, it tells the true story of a thirteen-year-old boy who — unable to continue at school due to unpaid fees, with his family’s farm failing during a devastating drought — spent his days reading in the local library, and emerged with a plan to build a wind turbine from scrap machinery that would change his community’s future.

It is the kind of story that could easily tip into sentimentality, but the creative team behind this production are too good for that.

The score, with music by Tim Sutton and book and lyrics by Richy Hughes, drew considerable praise during the Stratford run, and Chiwetel Ejiofor, who directed the 2019 film adaptation of the same story, joins the production as Executive Producer.

In the central role, Alistair Nwachukwu heads a cast that also includes Madeline Appiah, Tsemaye Bob-Egbe and Sifiso Mazibuko. Early audience responses have been ecstatic, and with a strictly limited twelve-week run at one of London’s most intimate West End venues, this is one to book without delay.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

@sohoplace Theatre, London