From Harry Potter and the Cursed Child to Rosmersholm and All My Sons, this is our regularly updated guide to the best plays currently on the London stage. Theatre doesn’t get better than this!
Lily James in All About Eve. Noel Coward Theatre
All About Eve ★★★
Where: Noel Coward Theatre
Address: 85-88 St Martin’s Ln, Covent Garden, London WC2N 4AP
Until: 11 May 2019
In a nutshell: ‘Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.‘ One of the most highly anticipated premieres of 2019. Lily James stars as Eve Harrington, a predatory fan obsessed with status-anxious Broadway star Margo Channing (played by Gillian Anderson), in this efficient staging by Ivo van Hove of the 1950 silver-screen classic.
All My Sons ★★★★
Where: Old Vic Theatre
Address: The Cut, Lambeth, London SE1 8NB
Until: 8 June 2019
In a nutshell: Sally Field, Bill Pullman, Jenna Coleman and Colin Morgan star in Arthur Miller’s blistering family drama. Set in 1947 post-war America, the return of an unexpected figure forces them to count the true cost of their American dream.
Betrayal
Where: Harold Pinter Theatre
Address: 6 Panton Street London SW1Y 4DN
Until: 1 June 2019
In a nutshell: Tom Hiddleston, Zawe Ashton and Charlie Cox star in Harold Pinter’s compelling drama charting a seven-year romance thrilling told in reverse chronological order.
Admissions ★★★★
Where: Trafalgar Studios
Address: 14 Whitehall, London, SW1A 2DY
Until: 25 May 2019
In a nutshell: Alex Kingston (ER, Doctor Who) and Sarah Hadland (Miranda) star in this award-winning and bitingly funny new comedy about university Admissions, that dares to question whether the race to the top is ever simply black and white.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Palace Theatre. Credit: Manuel Harlan
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child ★★★★★
Where: Palace Theatre
Address: Shaftesbury Ave, London W1D 5AY
Until: 28 July 2019
In a nutshell: Tremors of excitement at the premiere of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – the first Potter play, and the eighth story in the publishing phenomenon that made J K Rowling’s name and fortune – are being felt across the world… The big news is that this is just what was needed, will raise the benchmark for family entertainment for years to come and may even usher in a whole cycle of Potter-world stories.
Rosmersholm
Where: Duke of York’s Theatre
Address: St Martin’s Lane, London WC2N 4BG
Until: 20 July 2019
In a nutshell: Hayley Atwell (Avengers), Tom Burke (The Musketeers) and Giles Terera (Hamilton) star in a new adaptation of Ibsen’s rarely staged Rosmersholm, by Duncan Macmillan. Pronounced ‘Rosmers Home’, Ibsen’s depiction of a fragmenting, polarised society torn between extremes of right and left, faith and atheism, just on the cusp of a monumental election, feels spectacularly timely.
Witness for the Prosecution ★★★★★
Where: County Hall, London
Address: Belvedere Road, London, SE1 7PB
Until: 29 March 2020
In a nutshell: Agatha Christie’s classic courtroom drama is ingeniously staged in the magnificent chamber of London’s County Hall. Experience the intensity and drama of Agatha Christie’s gripping story of justice, passion and betrayal.
Find tickets to The Witness for the Prosecution
Death of a Salesman
Where: Young Vic Theatre
Address: 66 The Cut, Waterloo, London
Until: 13 July 2019
In a nutshell: Wendell Pierce (The Wire, Suits, Selma), Sharon D. Clark (Caroline, Or Change) and Arinzé Kene (Misty, Been So Long) star one of the greatest plays of the twentieth century, as seen through the eyes of an African American family. Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is co-directed by Marianne Elliott and Miranda Cromwell.
The Comedy About a Bank Robbery. Criterion Theatre.
The Comedy About A Bank Robbery ★★★★★
Where: Criterion Theatre
Address: Piccadilly Circus London SW1Y 4XA
Until: 3 November 2019
In a nutshell: The jokes come thick and fast in this entirely original stage comedy that pays explicit homage to B-movie bank robbery capers. This “lung-bustingly funny”(Guardian), “screw-ball comedy” (Time Out) “will have you on the edge of your seat” (The Stage), in what “is the funniest show in the West End” (The Telegraph).
Find tickets to The Comedy About A Bank Robbery
Simon Russell Beale, Ben Miles and Adam Godley in The Lehman Trilogy at the National Theatre. Photo by Mark Douet.
The Lehman Trilogy ★★★★★
Where: Piccadilly Theatre
Address: 16 Denman Street London W1D 7DY
Until: 3 August
In a nutshell: Following a sold-out run at the National Theatre, Sam Mendes (Skyfall, King Lear) acclaimed production tells the story of a family and a company that change the world. Told in three parts, Simon Russell Beale, Adam Godley and Ben Miles reprise their Olivier nominated roles as the Lehman Brothers.
Find tickets to The Lehman Trilogy
The Play That Goes Wrong. Duchess Theatre. Credit Helen Murray
The Play That Goes Wrong ★★★★
Where: Duchess Theatre
Address: 3-5 Catherine Street London WC2B 5LA
Until: 27 October 2019
In a nutshell: The multi-award winning play-within-a play comedy about a theatre troupe trying to stage a 1920s murder mystery. As props start to disappear, actors go missing and the set begins to fall down around the cast, mayhem ensues and everything that could go wrong, does!
Find tickets to The Play That Goes Wrong
Small Island ★★★★★
Where: National Theatre
Address: Upper Ground, Lambeth, London SE1 9PX
Until: 10 August 2019
In a nutshell: Andrea Levy’s epic, Orange Prize-winning novel bursts to new life on the Olivier stage. A company of 40 tells a story which journeys from Jamaica to Britain, through the Second World War to 1948 – the year the HMT Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury.
The Starry Messenger
Where: Wyndham’s Theatre
Address: Charing Cross Rd, Covent Garden, London WC2H 0DA
Until: 10 August 2019
In a nutshell: Hollywood star and multiple Tony Award-winning Broadway legend Matthew Broderick makes his West End debut alongside Elizabeth McGovern (Downton Abbey, The Handmaid’s Tale) in a bittersweet, comic drama that explores the meaning of love and our place in the universe.
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