\n<\/p>\n
London\u2019s theaters offer something for everyone. Whether in big West End venues or on stages tucked away above a pub, the city\u2019s shows include the classics, new plays and some productions that defy classification. Open air playhouses attract audiences willing to brave the unpredictable summer weather, and venues spread throughout the city make for an accessible theater landscape that extends far beyond the heavily trafficked tourist hot spots.<\/p>\n
Whether you\u2019re looking for frothy musicals or fiercely charged political writing, chances are your wishes can be answered somewhere around town. Below, in seven categories, are some of the shows vying for the attention of visitors and residents seeking out London theater this summer.<\/p>\n
Few London playhouses generate as much buzz as the Almeida, and expectations are high for its run of this new play from the Australian playwright Kendall Feaver, whose theatrical debut, \u201cThe Almighty Sometimes,\u201d impressed British critics<\/a> when it played in Manchester, England, in 2018<\/a>. Feaver\u2019s latest is set on a university campus rocked by sexual assault allegations, and Polly Findlay directs a cast led by Phoebe Campbell and Justine Mitchell. Through July 20 at the Almeida Theater.<\/em><\/p>\n The regional accents may prove a challenge \u2014 especially if English isn\u2019t your first language \u2014 but there\u2019s no denying the passion and power that course through James Graham\u2019s stage adaptation of this era-defining 1982 British TV show. Through a community of Liverpool road builders\u2019 struggles, Kate Wasserberg\u2019s empathic production reminds us that employment is crucial to self-esteem. Through Aug. 3 at the Garrick Theater.<\/em><\/p>\n The Bush Theater in West London might seem off the beaten path, but it\u2019s where the stage version of \u201cBaby Reindeer\u201d had its London run, before Netflix\u2019s runaway hit adaptation brought it to TV screens all over the world earlier this year. The Bush\u2019s current offering is the debut play from the British Nigerian actress Faith Omole, who was a 2023 nominee for London\u2019s equivalent to the Tonys, the Olivier Awards. \u201cMy Father\u2019s Fable\u201d follows a character named Peace, who discovers a brother she didn\u2019t know she had; Rakie Ayola stars and Rebekah Murrell directs. Through July 27 at the Bush Theater.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Duncan Macmillan\u2019s take-no-prisoners account of addiction and recovery \u2014 with snippets of Chekhov\u2019s \u201cThe Seagull\u201d <\/em>thrown in \u2014 won awards aplenty in London nearly a decade ago for its leading lady Denise Gough, who then brought the show to New York in 2017. Here it is again, with Gough in fearless form once more as the angsty, anguished Emma, and a supporting cast led by Gough\u2019s fellow Irishwoman Sinead Cusack. Through Aug. 10 at the Trafalgar Theater.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n This production at Shakespeare\u2019s Globe \u2014 a reconstruction of the 16th-century theater where many of the Bard\u2019s plays were first performed \u2014 has been a talking-point in London\u2019s theater world after disability activists objected to the theater\u2019s artistic director, Michelle Terry, taking the title role, because she is not disabled (and Terry performs the role without its typical hunch). That brought some renewed attention to a venue that has always been popular with visitors, where you can stand in an arena under an open sky, as Jacobean theatergoers did, or opt for seats around the side. Through Aug. 3 at Shakespeare\u2019s Globe.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n No\u00ebl Coward is a London favorite and his \u201cPrivate Lives\u201d received two major revivals here in 2023 alone. Now, the director Tom Littler is turning the attention of the Orange Tree Theater toward three lesser-known Coward plays from 1965, all set in the same Swiss hotel suite and all dealing with relationships on the rocks. Tara Fitzgerald, Stephen Boxer and Emma Fielding lead the cast, and the Orange Tree Theater presents the plays as a double-bill and a stand-alone show, which can be seen in either order. Through July 6 at the Orange Tree Theater.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Each decade seems to offer up a defining London production of Arthur Miller\u2019s 1950s tragedy. This go-round finds the small-screen star Dominic West (\u201cThe Wire,\u201d \u201cThe Affair\u201d) returning to his theatrical roots to play Eddie Carbone, the Brooklyn longshoreman with a guilty secret. The protean Kate Fleetwood plays his wife, Beatrice, who learns far more about her husband than she ever expected. Through Aug. 3 at Theater Royal, Haymarket.<\/em><\/p>\n Frank Galati\u2019s adaptation of John Steinbeck\u2019s enduring novel played the National Theater in 1989 on the way to a Tony-winning Broadway run. Now, it\u2019s back in a new production that underscores the timeless importance of the Joad family\u2019s Depression-era travails on the largest of the National\u2019s three stages. Expect large-scale emotion in a big theater, not least with the mighty Cherry Jones, a two-time Tony winner, heading the cast. Runs July 17 to Sept. 14 at the National Theater.<\/em><\/p>\n It\u2019s been a dozen years since James Corden took the play \u201cOne Man, Two Guvnors\u201d to Broadway; he went on to win a Tony and launch a successful career in the United States as a late-night talk show host. This summer, he\u2019s back on the London stage for the first time since then, leading the cast for a new play by Joe Penhall set in the world of British politics, a timely production given Britain votes this summer in a general election. Matthew Warchus, who runs the Old Vic, directs. Through Aug. 10 at the Old Vic.<\/em><\/p>\n Leading lady Imelda Staunton has shown a career-long interest in the American repertory, from Edward Albee to Stephen Sondheim. This summer, she lends her powerful singing voice to to a revival of the Jerry Herman Broadway favorite, here directed by Dominic Cooke, who also worked with Staunton on an acclaimed revival of Sondheim\u2019s \u201cFollies.\u201d Her character, the matchmaking Dolly Gallagher Levi is a funnier, frothier one than Staunton often plays, so look for smiles both onstage and in the audience; Andy Nyman and Jenna Russell co-star. Runs July 6 to Sept. 14 at the London Palladium.<\/em><\/p>\n The last time Tom Holland was on a West End stage, he was a prepubescent member of the company in \u201cBilly Elliot the Musical.\u201d The 28-year-old \u201cSpiderman\u201d star has now graduated to the big league with his Shakespeare debut in \u201cRomeo and Juliet\u201d: a heavily cut, stripped-back version that bears the stark signature of its director, Jamie Lloyd. With Holland\u2019s name attached, the show sold out in just hours, even before Juliet had been cast (she\u2019s played by Francesca Amewudah-Rivers), but last-minute box office visitors have been known to snap up returned tickets. Through Aug. 3 at the Duke of York\u2019s Theater.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Kit Harington may have come to worldwide attention as Jon Snow on \u201cGame of Thrones,\u201d but the actor returns regularly to his theatrical roots. And despite his star power, he\u2019ll be getting alphabetical billing in the West End premiere of the <\/em>Jeremy O. Harris drama \u201cSlave Play,\u201d which made headlines in New York for its bold depiction of race, sex and power in the American South. The London cast includes alumni from the New York cast, such as James Cusati-Moyer and Chalia La Tour; Robert O\u2019Hara directs again. Runs June 29 to Sept. 21 at the No<\/em>\u00ebl Coward Theater.<\/em><\/p>\n The BBC only made 12 episodes of this TV show in the 1970s, but that was enough to secure Basil Fawlty and his wife Sybil spots in the canon of British comedy, along with the employees and guests of their seaside hotel. A dashing Adam Jackson-Smith is the spitting image of John Cleese as the easily flustered Basil, and Anna-Jane Casey, sporting surely the heaviest wig on the West End, steps ably into Prunella Scales\u2019s shoes as his sly and snarky wife. Through Jan. 4, 2025, at the Apollo Theater.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n It\u2019s nearly 10 years since the West End opening of this Mischief Theater company production about an amateur theatrical troupe attempting \u2014 not very successfully \u2014 to stage a 1920s murder mystery. After many cast changes and a heap of international acclaim, Mark Bell\u2019s staging continues to offer up both mayhem and mirth, not to mention a Tony Award-winning set from Nigel Hook that collapses on cue in each performance. At the Duchess Theater.<\/em><\/p>\n This frothy stage version of Alfred Hitchcock\u2019s 1935 spy thriller ran for nine years on the West End, won a 2007 Olivier Award for best comedy and toured to 39 countries. Its late-summer London return will surely beguile audiences anew. Tom Byrne, who played Prince Andrew in \u201cThe Crown,\u201d is the star this time around, supported by three multitasking colleagues who take on a dizzying array of roles. Runs Aug. 16 to Sept. 28 at the Trafalgar Theater.<\/em><\/p>\n A busy summer for American musicals in London includes a rare outing for of \u201cThe Baker\u2019s Wife,\u201d a portrait of French provincial life in the 1930s from the book writer Joseph Stein (\u201cFiddler On the Roof\u201d), and the composer Stephen Schwartz, whose subsequent monster hit, \u201cWicked,\u201d<\/em> is soon to be a two-part film. This latest production of \u201cThe Baker\u2019s Wife\u201d is in the hands of the American director Gordon Greenberg, whose Huey Lewis musical \u201cThe Heart of Rock and Roll\u201d just closed on Broadway; Clive Rowe (\u201cCarousel\u201d) and Lucie Jones (\u201cWaitress\u201d) play the middle-aged baker and his beautiful young wife. Runs July 6 to Sept. 14 at the Menier Chocolate Factory.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Frank Loesser\u2019s gorgeous 1950 musical chronicling two love affairs is especially adored in London, where it seems to get revived every few years. But Nicholas Hytner\u2019s acclaimed production for the Bridge Theater is the first time this show has been presented as an immersive experience. You can watch the performance on foot, following the cast from one shifting location to another, or you can sit and watch the action from the above. Whatever you choose, you\u2019ll thrill anew at Arlene Phillips\u2019s high-kicking choreography and a cast whose affection for the immortal score is palpable from the first note. Through Jan. 4, 2025, at the Bridge Theater.<\/em><\/p>\n The Barbican Theater, once home to the Royal Shakespeare Company, gives itself over every summer to a production of an American musical. This year it\u2019s Cole Porter\u2019s feisty 1948 backstage musical \u201cKiss Me, Kate,\u201d about two warring lovers putting on \u201cThe Taming of the Shrew.\u201d<\/em> The American director Bartlett Sher is at the helm of an international cast headed by the expert Stephanie J. Block, on loan from Broadway, in the dual roles of Lilli Vanessi and Shakespeare\u2019s Katharine; the Irish actor Adrian Dunbar (\u201cLine of Duty\u201d) makes his mainstream musical theater debut playing Fred Graham and Petruchio. Through Sept. 14 at the Barbican Theater.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n High school can be an unforgiving place, as we are reminded by this stage musical version of the popular 2004 film. Six years after its Broadway run led to 12 Tony nominations, \u201cMean Girls\u201d <\/em>has reached the West End, directed, as in New York, by Casey Nicholaw. Charlie Burn plays the wayward class newbie, Cady, who finds herself confronting Georgina Castle\u2019s Regina, the meanest of the girls in her midst. At the Savoy Theater.<\/em><\/p>\n This adaptation of Julia Donaldson\u2019s 1999 children\u2019s book reached the stage in 2001, courtesy of the Tall Stories theater company. Here\u2019s a chance to revisit the tale of the hungry mouse whose quest for hazelnuts brings him into contact with the titular forbidding buffalo-like creature. The show is being performed during the day in the same West End theater where the more adult musical \u201cHadestown<\/a>\u201d runs <\/em>in the evening. Runs<\/em> July 17 to Sept. 8 at the Lyric Theater.<\/em><\/p>\n J.K. Rowling\u2019s Hogwarts saga was a benchmark achievement in children\u2019s literature long before the stage version pushed the narrative forward to encompass Harry and his school friends\u2019 adult lives. On Broadway, the director John Tiffany\u2019s ceaselessly imaginative two-part production has been compressed into one play; New York visitors wanting to see the more capacious original can still do so on the West End, where the eye-popping production celebrates its eighth birthday on July 30. At the Palace Theater.<\/em><\/p>\n Frances Hodgson Burnett\u2019s tale of 10-year-old Mary Lennox, dispatched from India to northern England to live with an uncle she doesn\u2019t know, has been refashioned many times and reaches the stage anew this summer, alfresco in Regent\u2019s Park. (Check the weather forecast before heading out.) Puppets have been added to the mix in this version, directed by Anna Himali Howard. Through July 20 at the Open Air Theater, Regent\u2019s Park.<\/em><\/p>\n There\u2019s something rather sweet about watching girls dressed as Anna or Elsa heading into the West End production of \u201cFrozen,\u201d<\/em> which is now the Disney musical\u2019s flagship production since the Broadway version shut down in 2020. Families have just a few more months to check out the director Michael Grandage\u2019s lavish reappraisal of the hit film \u2014 that icescape! \u2014 with Laura Dawkes and Samantha Barks as the two sisters who let their voices go. Through Sept. 8 at Theater Royal, Drury Lane.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Circuses don\u2019t usually think small, but that\u2019s the case with this ironically named show from Tweedy the Clown, in which the big top has shrunken in size. Tweedy, a baggy-trousered Scot, has long been a mainstay of the touring Giffords Circus in England; this time, he\u2019s in the company of three colleagues, one of whom (Sam Goodburn) joins Tweedy in a tightrope walk without a wire. Runs<\/em> July 18 to 27 at the Underbelly Festival, Cavendish Square.<\/em><\/p>\n The Argentine company Fuerza Bruta\u2019s high-octane mixture of physical theater, music and movement has been seen around the world, and now the company is returning to London with \u201cAVEN,\u201d a show that promises more of their trademark, take-no-prisoners energy. The production, which premiered in Buenos Aires, promises to have the vibrancy of a rave<\/a>. Runs July 9 to Sept. 1 at the Roundhouse.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nThe Boys from the Blackstuff<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
My Father\u2019s Fable<\/a><\/span><\/h3>\n
People Places and Things<\/a><\/span><\/h3>\n
Richard III<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
Suite in Three Keys<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
A View from the Bridge<\/a><\/span><\/h3>\n
The Grapes of Wrath<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\nThe Constituent<\/a><\/span><\/h3>\n
Hello, Dolly!<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
Romeo and Juliet<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
Slave Play<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
\nI\u2019m Looking for a Laugh<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Fawlty Towers: The Play<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
The Play That Goes Wrong<\/a><\/span><\/h3>\n
The 39 Steps<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
\nI Love Musicals<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The Baker\u2019s Wife<\/a><\/span><\/h3>\n
Guys and Dolls<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
Kiss Me, Kate<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
Mean Girls<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\nMy Kids Want to Come, Too<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The Gruffalo<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
The Secret Garden<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
Frozen<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
Tweedy\u2019s Massive Circus<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
\nI Like the Weird<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
AVEN<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n