Our guide to the top new shows opening in London and the West End in December 2025.
December in the West End is packed with fun this year! From Matthew Bourne’s The Red Shoes bringing swoony, cinematic dance glamour to Sadler’s Wells; to Sheridan Smith spiralling in Ayckbourn’s darkly comic Woman in Mind at the Duke of York’s.
The Trafalgar Theatre hosts the riotous, Tony-winning satire Oh, Mary!, and Sondheim’s twisty fairytale musical Into the Woods returns in a big Bridge Theatre revival.
Over at the Harold Pinter Theatre, High Noon swaggers into town playing out as a real-time western thriller, and the Ambassadors Theatre turns horror into a live, immersive experience with Paranormal Activity.
Festive sparkle arrives via Irving Berlin’s tap-happy classic Top Hat at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, while the National Theatre stages Synge’s uproarious Irish tale The Playboy of the Western World.
For drama lovers, the late Tom Stoppard’s time-slipping drama Indian Ink gets a major revival at Hampstead Theatre, and over at the Other Palace gripping, one-man true-crime thriller KENREX is back.
You can see the full West End listings of What’s New in December 2025, and also visit our All Shows Playing in December 2025.
Matthew Bourne’s The Red Shoes (Sadler’s Wells Theatre)
Matthew Bourne and New Adventures bring their sumptuous dance version of The Red Shoes back to London, retelling the Powell & Pressburger classic and Andersen fairytale as a swoony, cinematic ballet about ambition, obsession, and the cost of artistry. Set to Bernard Herrmann’s soaring score and packed with Bourne’s trademark storytelling choreography, it’s a glossy, romantic winter treat for dance fans.
Woman in Mind (Duke of York’s Theatre)
Alan Ayckbourn’s darkly funny psychological comedy Woman in Mind returns to the West End with Sheridan Smith leading the cast as Susan, a woman whose grip on reality begins to fray in vivid, hilarious, and unsettling ways. She’s joined by Romesh Ranganathan, Louise Brealey, Tim McMullan and Sule Rimi in this sharp, surreal portrait of a mind rebuilding its own world.
The Tom Stoppard Theatre (formerly the Duke of York's Theatre), London
Oh, Mary! (Trafalgar Theatre)
Broadway sensation Oh, Mary! lands in the West End for an 80-minute blast of anarchic comedy, imagining Mary Todd Lincoln’s last chaotic weeks before the assassination. Mason Alexander Park stars as a gloriously unhinged Mary, joined by Giles Terera, Kate O’Donnell, Oliver Stockley and Dino Fetscher, in Cole Escola’s Tony-winning, razor-sharp satire, directed by Sam Pinkleton.
Trafalgar Theatre, London
Into the Woods (Bridge Theatre)
Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s dark-fairytale musical Into The Woods returns to London in a big Bridge Theatre revival, directed by Jordan Fein (Fiddler on the Roof), with a starry cast led by Jamie Parker (the Baker), Katie Brayben (Baker’s Wife), and Kate Fleetwood (the Witch).
High Noon (Harold Pinter Theatre)
Eric Roth’s stage take on 1952 western High Noon plays out in real time at the Harold Pinter Theatre, with Billy Crudup as marshal Will Kane and Denise Gough as his newly-wed wife Amy. A tight, fever-clock thriller about courage and community as the noon train brings danger to town, don’t miss this West End Event Play for December.
Paranormal Activity (Ambassadors Theatre)
The mega-hit horror franchise becomes a nerve-shredding live experience in Paranormal Activity: A New Story Live on Stage, written by Levi Holloway and directed by Punchdrunk’s Felix Barrett. When James and Lou move from Chicago to London, they discover their new home has a terrifying agenda of its own—promising immersive scares, real-time tension, and the film series’ signature creeping dread, now in the theatre.
Ambassadors Theatre, London
Top Hat (Queen Elizabeth Hall)
Irving Berlin’s tap-happy romantic comedy Top Hat glides into London for the festive season in Kathleen Marshall’s sparkling revival, following its Chichester success. Phillip Attmore returns as suave star Jerry Travers, with Amara Okereke stepping in as Dale Tremont, plus Clive Carter and Sally Ann Triplett among the comic chaos. Expect glamour, mistaken identities, and “Cheek to Cheek” fun.
The Playboy of the Western World (National Theatre – Lyttelton)
J.M. Synge’s riotous Irish classic The Playboy of the Western World comes to the National Theatre with a hot cast including Nicola Coughlan, Siobhán McSweeney and Éanna Hardwicke. Expect big laughs and sharp bite as the play skewers myth-making and small-town morality when a mysterious stranger strolls into a Mayo village claiming to be a killer.
National Theatre - Lyttelton Theatre, London
Indian Ink (Hampstead Theatre)
Tom Stoppard’s time-slipping drama Indian Ink gets its first major UK revival, directed by Jonathan Kent, with Felicity Kendal leading the cast as the glamorous, enigmatic Mrs Swan. Set between 1930s India and the present, Indian Ink blends memory, art, and empire into a witty, haunting story of a poet, a painter, and the secrets left behind.
KENREX (The Other Palace)
Back in London following a number of acclaimed runs, gripping true-crime thriller KENREX stars Jack Holden in his own urgent, one-man account of a community torn apart by the murder of teenager Ken Rex McElroy. Fast, forensic, and emotionally punchy, it’s a modern folk-horror tale about violence, complicity, and who gets to tell the story.
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