The best theatre shows in London for 2025 and 2026 not to miss

What is it? US playwright Rajiv Joseph’s biggest hit, the Pulitzer-nominated Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo went on to transfer to Broadway in 2011, with the late, great Robin Williams in the role of the titular fast-talking tiger, which finds itself caught up in the chaos of post-Saddam, US-occupied Iraq.

Where is it? Young Vic.

How much is it? £12-£57.

Why book? A UK production has been hoped for for yonks – mischievous director Omar Elerian feels like the perfect man to bring the tale to life in the post-Iraq era. He’s assembled an excellent cast, headed up by David Threlfall as the tiger and Arinzè Kene as US soldier Kev.

What is it? Chiller specialising US playwright Levi Holloway adapts the classic found footage horror movie for the stage.

Where is it? Ambassadors Theatre.

How much is it? £25-£110.

Why book? Primarily because it’s being directed by Felix Barrett, the visionary founder of Punchdrunk: his audacious and chilling body of work suggests the film’s legacy is in good hands.

What is it? A major revival for the late, great Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods, his puckish musical subversion of the Brothers Grimm fairytales. 

Where is it? Bridge Theatre.

How much is it? £29.50-£185.

Why book? Well it’s an all time classic by the greatest musical theatre composer to have ever lived – always a strong start. While we don’t yet know about the cast, the show will be directed by Jordan Fein, an American making a serious name for himself over here thanks to his tremendous 2024 Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre revival of Fiddler on the Roof. 

What is it? Cole Escola’s outrageous comedy about an embittered, fame-hungry Mary Todd Lincoln – aka Abraham Lincoln’s wife – has been a massive hit on Broadway with Escola themself winning huge acclaim and a Tony Award for their turn as Mary (pictured).

Where is it? Trafalgar Theatre.

How much is it? £25-£150.

Why book? Mostly because it’s meant to be incredibly funny: filthy, outrageous, irrevent and, uh, short. It’s also got a terrific new cast headed by Mason Alexander Park – excellent in Jamie Lloyd’s recent Shakespeare plays – as Mary, with the mighty Giles Terera taking on the role of Mary’s deeply closeted husband, whom she utterly despises. History buffs can take some solace in the fact that it is not intended to be historically accurate, just funny.

What is it? Sheridan Smith stars in a Michael Longhurst-directed revival of Alan Ayckbourn’s 1985 play about Susan, a woman who takes a knock to the head and starts to experience two version of reality – one actual reality, featuring her actual family, and the other fantastical and featuring an entirely imagined family. She’s joined by Romesh Ranganathan, in his stage debut.

Where is it? Duke of York’s Theatre.

How much is it? £15-£175.

Why book? Smith remains a superb stage actress, and we’re probably due an Ayckbourn revival: he was massive in the ’80s but hasn’t been seen in the West End for over a decade.

What is it? A West End stage adaptation of the 1952 movie High Noon, which is regarded as a high watermark for the Western film, a real time, allegorical drama in which sheriff Will Kane and his new bride Amy must face down a gang our outlaws with no help from the timid, self-interested townspeople.

Where is it? Harold Pinter Theatre.

How much is it? £tbc.

Why book? A stage version of a film that has one of the most famous gunfights in history feels tricky, but there’s a remarkable team behidn this new High Noon. Cult US actor Billy Crudup will play Will, and the magnificent Denise Gough will follow in Grace Kelly’s footsteps and play Amy, with the excellent Thea Sharrock directing, and a screenplay from Academy Award winner Eric Roth, whose absurd list of credits runs from Forest Gump to Dune. 

What is it? A new production of Tom Stoppard’s masterpiece: a tremendously witty meditation on the nature of history, truth, sex, mathmatics and more that is set in two timelines: in 1809, teenage prodigy Thomasina Coverley makes astonishing scientific breakthroughs while under the tutelage of the conflicted Septimus Hodge; in the present, a group including the descendents of the original characters try to determine the truth about what happned to them.

Where is it? Old Vic.

How much is it? £13-£150.

Why book? Arcadia is forever essential, but it’s with grimly perfect timing that Stoppard’s undoubted masterpiece – the jewel in the crown of one of the most remarkable bodies of work by any playwright ever – gets its first major London revival in ages less than two months after his death.

What is it? Remember that one-woman Picture of Dorian Gray starring Sarah Snook? Well the Australian team behind it have made a couple of other high-tech one-woman stage adaptations of classic Victorian horror novels. And in 2026 Dracula will come to London with a proper big name at its centre: Cynthia Erivo, in her first West End role in over a decade.

Where is it? Noël Coward Theatre.

How much is it? £tbc.

Why book? Wicked star Erivo is a generational talent looking to prove she's not just a pretty voice: playing 26 different roles she'll certainly flex her acting muscles. But the show isn't just an actor showing off on an empty stage: as with Dorian Gray, director Kip Williams’s show is a  dazzling technological edifice that should blow your mind in its own right.

What is it? Michael Sheen recently launch the new Welsh National Theatre. He’ll star in its first production, a revival of Thornton Wilder’s metatheatrical masterpiece Our Town, which transfers to London after touring Wales.

Where is it? Rose Theatre Kingston.

How much is it? £6.50-£86.50.

Why book? Wilder’s ahead of its time 1938 play about the lives and – slight spoiler – afterlives of the citizens of the US small town of Grover’s Corner is a classic that’s always welcome. But clearly Sheen himself is the secret ingredient here: who doesn’t want to see him on stage?

What is it? Rebecca Lucy Taylor - aka sardonic pop star Self Esteem – will follow in Helen Mirren’s footsteps to star in David Hare’s classic 1975 play about Maggie Frisbee, an embittered, alcoholic rock star left raging and washed up at the end of the ’60s.

Where is it? Duke of York’s Theatre.

How much is it? £25-£150.

Why book? Clearly this is going to do the business with the large number of Self Esteem fans out there. But for anyone else Taylor surely remains a genuine curiousity, and moreover without her this ultra-rare revival of a classic David Hare play would be unlikely to have got off the ground.

What is it? As part of its seventieth birthday season the Royal Court has bagged the UK debut of Kimberley Belflower’s US smash John Protcor is the Villain, a very playful post-#MeToo riff on Arthur Miller’s landmark The Crucible.

Where is it? Royal Court Theatre.

How much is it? £15-£74.50. 

Why book? It’s a wholesale transfer of Danya Taymor’s hugely praised, multi-award Broadway smash production. We don’t know if original US star Sadie Sink will return, but heavyweight co-producers Sonia Friedman and Wessex Grove suggests we should get a decent cast and West End aspirations. 

What is it? Brit auteur Robert Icke returns to the West End with a new take on Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, starring Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink in her UK stage debut (as Juliet) and A Quiet Place’s Noah Jupe as Romeo.

Where is it? Harold Pinter Theatre.

How much is it? £15-£150.

Why book? There is, of course, a very strong chance you want to see big name Sink. And good news: despite still being in her early twenties, she’s a Broadway vet. Really, though, the exciting news is always Icke: one of our greatest directors, who always finds new depths in classic texts.

What is it? The mighty Marianne Elliott returns to her old haunt the National Theatre to direct this deluxe revival of Christopher Hampton’s classic stage adaptation of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos sexy epistolary novel. Starring big names Lesley Manville and Aidan Turner as scheming artistocrats turned bitter rivals.

Why book? It’s a great play and with a superlative cast and director it's undeniably the jewel in the crown of the NT’s spring season, with a much longer run than anything else.

Where is it? National Theatre, Lyttelton.

How much is it? TBC.

The first major London revival for the stage version of Ken Kesey’s countercultural classic in over 20 years comes this spring, as Clint Dyer directs Aaron Pierre and Giles Terera as two inmates of a hellish psychiatric ward. Published in 1962, Kesey’s darkly comic satire on psychiatry and institutionalisation was quickly adapted into a 1963 play that starred Kirk Douglas as Randall P McMurphy, a rebellious prisoner who makes the mistake of faking insanity, believing he’ll have an easier time of it in a mental hospital (Jack Nicholson famously starred in the 1975 film as Douglas was too old old for the role by the time it finally got made).

Pierre – best known for his role in Netflix hit Rebel Ridge – will star as McMurphy, with Olivier winner Giles Terera as his fellow inmade Dale Harding. The rest of the casting is TBC, though it’s interesting Dyer has cast two Black actors as inmates and that he’s said he wants to pick up on the novel’s ‘conversation on colonialism and identity’. There are certainly plenty of juicy roles up for grabs, notably the vile Nurse Ratched.

What is it? Ralph Fiennes has been beavering away busily over at Theatre Royal Bath this last year. Transferring from it, Fiennes and Miranda Raison will star as the great Victorian actors Henry Irving and Ellen Terry in Grace Pervades, the approximately millionth (well, thirty-second) play from the great David Hare (curiously it’ll run in the West End at the same time as a revival of his very early play Teeth ‘N’ Smiles). 

Where is it? Theatre Royal Haymarket.

How much is it? £30-£199.

Why book? It got great reviews in Bath and is by all accounts a fascinating drama about one of the great acting dynasties, driven by a typically powerhouse performance from Fiennes.

What is it? Ava Pickett’s superb debut play follows three young women who meet at the outskirts of an Essex village to discuss love, life and Anne Boleyn’s execution. A hit for the Almeida, it transfers to the West End in 2026.

Where is it? Ambassadors Theatre.

How much is it? £30-£150.

Why go? It’s a brilliant, bold debut play: original, funny and bleakly astute in its observations on the power dynamics between men and women that go considerably beyond the Early Modern Period. A well deserved hit from a writer really going places.

What is it? Technically known as Beetlejuice The Musical. The Musical. The Musical, this massive scale Broadway adaptation of the classic Tim Burton comedy horror movie has been a big hit in the States. It follows a couple who die and enlist the services of a mad ‘bio-exorcist’ to get rid of the odious new owners of their beloved home.

Where is it? Prince Edward Theatre.

How much is it? £20-£153.50.

Why book? Because you enjoyed the film and you like massive spectacular big budget Broadway shows of the sort we only get once every few years.

What is it? Gary Oldman designs, directs and (of course) stars in this production of Samuel Beckett’s high concept elegy for youthful ambition.

Where is it? Royal Court Theatre.

How much is it? £15-£74.50.

Why book? Beckett’s play about an old man listening back with mounting horror to the megalomaniacal tapes he recorded on previous birthdays is an all-time classic, and this production received great reviews when it debuted in York in 2025. Plus of course there’s the allure of seeing Oldman on stage again after an enormous 37-year absence.

What is it? A big coup for Hampstead Theatre here, as it bags the UK premiere of the wildly acclaimed US indie musical Kimberley Akimbo. Created by composer Jeanine Tesori and writer David Lindsay-Abaire, it follows a 16-year-old girl afflicted by a rare disease that makes her age four times faster than usual, meaning she has the appearance of an elderly woman while essentially being a teen.

Where is it? Hampstead Theatre.

How much is it? TBC.

Why book? It’s a fasincating premise but frankly the froth mouthed reviews from Broadway are more than enough for us. 

What is it? A revival for Stephen Unwin’s original UK production of Manfred Karge’s hallucinatory solo play about a widow who assumes her late husband’s job and identity in inter-war Germany had its UK premiere at Edinburgh Traverse Theatre in 1987 before transferring to the Court the following year. It provided a breakthrough for an androgynous young actor named Tilda Swinton – whp reprises her role here. 

Where is it? Royal Court Theatre.

How much is it? £15-£74.50.

Why book? It’s a good, weird play, but clearly the attraction is the chance to see huge cult star Tilda Swinton on a British stage for the first time since the ’80s.