London theatre had one other astonishing 12 months in 2025 with week after week of thrilling productions which illustrated that we’re the epicentre of the stage world by way of the sheer range of what’s on supply. From small productions in native theatres to West Finish A-Record blockbusters, and a whole lot of choices alongside the size, there actually was one thing for everybody (and, regardless of ticket worth considerations, for each pockets, in case you actually look).
As for 2026, properly, it’s already rocketing forward on the theatre entrance, with the likes of All My Sons (Wyndham’s), Kenrex (The Different Palace), The Spy Who Got here In From the Chilly (@sohoplace), Most Favoured (Soho Theatre), Bengal Tiger within the Baghdad Zoo (Younger Vic) and Paddington (Savoy Theatre) all nonetheless on stage.
And what’s to come back? Properly, this little lot, for starters:
Sheridan Smith in Lady in Thoughts
Oliver Rosser
Sheridan Smith returns to the stage – and the venue the place she triumphed as Shirley Valentine – alongside Romesh Ranganathan in Alan Ayckbourn’s play a couple of lady concurrently residing an earthly and an extravagant fantasy life after a head damage, directed by Michael Longhurst.
Orphans
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Lyle Kessler’s Tony-nominated comedy-drama play a couple of pair of orphan in brothers in Philadelphia, one petty legal, Deal with, who retains his youthful brother trapped indoors a childhood world. When Deal with kidnaps a stranger for a shakedown, their unusual existence comes crashing down. Stars Forbes Masson (Farm Corridor, Laughing Boy), Chris Walley (The Lieutenant of Inishmore, The Younger Offenders), and Fred Woodley Evans (Outlying Islands, Bridgerton). Must be electrical within the intimate Jermyn Avenue Theatre.
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HIGH NOON. Denise Gough (Amy Fowler), Billy Crudup (Will Kane) and Firm
Johan Persson
Thrilling Hollywood fare with display screen hero Billy Crudup taking over the Gary Cooper function in a stage adaptation of the traditional 1952 Western. It’s the theatre debut of author Eric Roth (who wrote Dune: Half One and received an Oscar for Forrest Gump) and is directed by Thea (Equus) Sharrock. Denise Gough stars reverse Crudup so as to add additional clout to this tense story of a Marshall counting down in actual time to the arrival of a nasty man on the midday practice.
Carrie Cracknell’s revival of Tom Stoppard’s fashionable traditional about human want, arithmetic and far else apart from has gained further poignancy following the author’s loss of life earlier this month on the age of 87.
Director Jordan Fein carry his Fiddler on the Roof magic to the Younger Vic with this Arthur Miller play concerning the Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn in 1938 reacting to information of occasions in Germany. Olivier-winner Nancy Carroll performs Sylvia, who loses her skill to stroll as she is consumed by phrase of the Nazi atrocities occurring throughout the water.
Rebecca Lucy Taylor
Jono White
Rebecca Lucy Taylor – AKA Self Esteem – takes to the London stage once more on this revival of David Hare’s play a couple of Janis Joplin-style 60s counter-culture singer misplaced within the wreckage of her personal revolt. It was first carried out on the Royal Court docket in 1975 with Helen Mirren within the function, and Taylor is bound to carry some raucous new power – and social commentary – to this hotly anticipated present.
John Proctor is the Villain
John Proctor is the Villain
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Kimberly Bellflower’s up to date response to The Crucible, a large Broadway hit, comes direct from New York with producers Sonia Friedman and Wessex Grove behind it, directed by Tony Winner Danya Taymor, (The Crucible had its London premiere on the Royal Court docket’s opening season in 1965: that is the seventieth anniversary season)
Starring Strictly hero Johannes Rabede, this hit musical returns to the West Finish for a restricted run. Cyndi Lauper is behind the music in fact, and right here Nikolai Foster directs, because the present tells the story of a Northampton shoe manufacturing unit proprietor who has his life – and enterprise – circled when he meets a drag queen referred to as Lola.
Sadie Sink in Romeo and Juliet
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Stranger Issues star Sadie Sink (who was additionally Tony nominated on Broadway for the aforementioned John Proctor is the Villain) stars alongside Noah Jupe in Shakespeare’s play directed by Robert Icke, whose Oedipus was one of many highlights of 2024,
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
An thrilling revival of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest starring Aaron Pierre (a high Bond contender) as Randle P. McMurphy, the function made well-known by Jack Nicholson within the movie adaptation of Ken Kesey’s novel. This stage model written by Dale Wasserman and right here directed by Clint Dyer, brings colonialism into the combo as Nurse Ratched’s placid psychiatric unit is stirred up by the rampant McMurphy.
Ralph Fiennes returns to play Sir Henry Irving, the best star of the Victorian stage, as this acclaimed manufacturing transfers from Theatre Royal Bathtub, with Miranda Raison starring as Ellen Terry who tries to recruit him for her firm.
The continued reappraisal of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s again catalogue continues: Cats reopens on the Open Air Theatre later this month, whereas Sam Ryder is the messiah on this biblical present, directed by Tim Sheader, choreographed by Drew McOnie and designed by Tom Scutt.
Provided
In a transfer that exactly nobody noticed coming, Hollywood Chris (Star Trek, Marvel Lady) Pine stars in a transforming of Chekhov’s lesser-known drama by Simon Stone, whose adaptation of Ibsen’s The Girl From the Sea with Alicia Vikander and Andrew Lincoln brought about a splash at this venue in 2025.
