‘Oh, Mary!’
Cole Escola’s dizzying comedy about a bid for cabaret stardom by the onetime first lady Mary Todd Lincoln might owe much to the queer culture of Lower Manhattan, where the show began, but it’s been a West End hit. Sam Pinkleton’s relentlessly funny production won the Olivier Award in April for best entertainment or comedy play and is now charging into the summer with the venerable British comic actress Catherine Tate in the starring role.
The Broadway production has survived many cast changes, and Tate — who succeeded the terrific Mason Alexander Park in the title role in London — will be followed later in the summer by Escola, the show’s Tony-winning author, for a monthlong run.
Catherine Tate plays Mary through July 18 at the Trafalgar Theater, and Cole Escola takes over the role from July 20 to Aug. 15.
‘End of the Rainbow’
The original London production of this play took its British star, Tracie Bennett, to Broadway. This time around, the Broadway name Jinkx Monsoon (previously of “Oh, Mary!” and “Pirates”) has come to London to headline a revival directed by Rupert Hands. It’s the story about the sad last days of Judy Garland, here played by Monsoon, a much-admired American drag artist.
Another show by the “End of the Rainbow” playwright, Peter Quilter, follows on its heels: a comedy-with-music, “Allegra,” starring Maureen Lipman and starting July 8 at the Harold Pinter Theater.
“End of the Rainbow” runs through June 21 at Soho Walthamstow.
‘Care’
The wonderful Linda Bassett, 76, has been acting onstage for a half-century or so, often in the plays of Caryl Churchill. She can now be seen as the dying Joan in the writer-director Alexander Zeldin’s merciless play “Care,” which chronicles life in a care home where Joan’s family has placed her after a fall.
The production runs 2 hours 10 minutes, with no intermission, and Bassett makes every riveting second count. First seen in Paris in 2022, the play is receiving its English-language premiere here.
Through July 11 at the Young Vic.
‘1536’
This play by Ava Pickett, set during the year of the title around the time of the beheading of Henry VIII’s wife Anne Boleyn, has caused a stir since it won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize in 2024 — the longest-running award for female playwrights.
After an Almeida Theater premiere last year, it’s now selling out a commercial transfer that boasts Margot Robbie as a co-producer. Pickett is also penning an eight-part TV adaptation.
Onstage, Liv Hill, Tanya Reynolds and Siena Kelly play three ordinary women reacting to the extraordinary events swirling around them, and let’s hope these fine actresses are kept onboard for the screen version to come.
Through Aug. 1 at the Ambassadors Theater.
‘Glengarry Glen Ross’
David Mamet’s 1984 Pulitzer prize-winner is probably not the first play you’d expect to be cast entirely with women, given its unbridled portrait of male machismo at its most competitive. But here it is with an all-female cast headed by Rosa Salazar and Indira Varma inheriting the roles played in the 1992 film adaptation by Al Pacino and Jack Lemmon.
The production’s director, Patrick Marber, was responsible for the (all-male) revival of this same play last season in New York.
June 4 to July 18 at the Old Vic.
‘The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind’
Uplifting tales are rarely as singular as the 2009 memoir of William Kamkwamba, a self-educated Malawian teenager who built a windmill and brought power to a community blighted by famine and drought.
A 2019 film adaptation has been followed by this heart-tugging stage musical, which casts Alistair Nwachukwu as William, who is now 38. Tim Sutton composed the musically wide-ranging score, and the protean Lynette Linton directs.
Through July 18 at @sohoplace.
‘High Society’
This stage musical adaptation of the 1956 Grace Kelly/Frank Sinatra film gets regularly revived in London, but rarely with the star power of this latest airing from the director Rachel Kavanaugh.
Helen George, from the TV show “Call the Midwife,” plays the socialite Tracy Lord, who finds herself juggling multiple men in the run-up to her wedding. Those suitors include the silken-voiced Julian Ovenden (“South Pacific,” “Merrily We Roll Along”) and Freddie Fox, a TV name from “Slow Horses” and “House of the Dragon” here marking his musical theater debut. The venerable Felicity Kendal plays Mother Lord, aka Tracy’s mom.
The production at the Barbican Theater will be followed by the world premiere of “Death Note: The Musical,” the new show from Frank Wildhorn, of “The Scarlet Pimpernel” and “Jekyll & Hyde” fame.
“High Society” runs through July 11 at the Barbican Center.
‘Sinatra: The Musical’
Various London shows have paid tribute over the years to Frank Sinatra, but rarely with the Broadway know-how that has been brought to bear on this one. In it, the Tony-winning New York creatives Kathleen Marshall (“Kiss Me, Kate”) and Joe DiPietro (“Memphis”) join forces with the English performer Joel Harper-Jackson (“Cock,” “Standing at the Sky’s Edge”) in the title role. It’s Harper-Jackson’s biggest West End role to date, as “Ol’ Blue Eyes” — and, yes, the actor’s eyes are blue.
The supporting cast includes Phoebe Panaretos as Frank’s first wife, Nancy, and Ana Villafañe as the screen legend Ava Gardner, the second of the singer’s four wives.
Open-ended run starts June 3 at the Aldwych Theater.
‘Pride’
Matthew Warchus’ lovely 2014 film tells the moving true-life story of a group of gay and lesbian supporters of the Welsh miners’ strike in 1984. Hopes are therefore high for this stage musical adaptation, with a score by Christopher Nightingale, Josh Cohen and D.J. Walde, and book and lyrics by Stephen Beresford, who wrote the movie. The two-time Tony nominee Samuel Barnett heads the cast.
“Pride” had a tryout run this spring in the Welsh capital, Cardiff, and looks poised to be the prestige musical event of the summer.
June 11 to Sept. 12 at the National Theater.
‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ and ‘Cats’
Andrew Lloyd Webber seems to be the man of the hour once again, with Jamie Lloyd’s electrifying West End revival of “Evita” headed to Broadway and “Cats: The Jellicle Ball” up for nine Tony Awards on June 7.
That’s before an acclaimed London revival of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” first seen outdoors in 2016, moves inside for a London summer run starring the singer-songwriter Sam Ryder in his musical theater debut.
The show is choreographed by Drew McOnie, who is also directing a fresh revival of “Cats” that will get its own alfresco perch in Regent’s Park later in the season.
“Jesus Christ Superstar” runs June 20 to Sept. 5 at the London Palladium.
“Cats” runs July 25 to Sept. 19 at the Open Air Theater, Regent’s Park.
‘Grace Pervades’
David Hare’s 32nd full-length play casts a backward glance at the glory days of the English theater by focusing on two Victorian-era stage legends: Ellen Terry and Henry Irving, played byMiranda Raison and Ralph Fiennes.
Fiennes is a bona fide film name, but his commitment to the stage is worth noting, as is the fact that Fiennes played Hare himself in the Covid-themed solo show “Beat the Devil.”
Through July 11 at Theater Royal, Haymarket.
‘Midnight at the Never Get’
Ben Platt is a Broadway star, so it’s something of a coup for the intimate Menier Chocolate Factory that he will headline its production of Mark Sonnenblick’s curiously titled gay-themed musical.
Platt will be appearing in London at the same time as his husband, Noah Galvin, who is at the Soho Theater in Jonathan Caren’s two-character play, “Hit Machine,” opposite Josh Radnor.
“Midnight at the Never Get” runs July 11 to Sept. 12 at the Menier Chocolate Factory.
‘Springwood’
The British actor Robert Lindsay won a 1987 Tony for his Broadway debut in “Me and My Girl” and has continued to be an invaluable stage presence in London, across roles like Cyrano, Richard III, Fagin in “Oliver!” and Moonface Martin in the musical “Anything Goes.”
He will be soon be playing Franklin D. Roosevelt in a new historical drama about a 1939 meeting between the American president and King George VI of England (played here by Andrew Havill) from the pen of the American writer-director Richard Nelson.
June 19 to July 25 at the Hampstead Theater.
Familiar — and Refreshed
‘Equus’ and ‘Black Comedy’
The playwright Peter Shaffer was born 100 years ago this year and is being honored with a pair of London revivals.
Lindsay Posner’s scorching take on Shaffer’s 1973 “Equus” pairs a rumpled Toby Stephens with a dynamic newcomer, Noah Valentine, as the play’s anguished stableboy. Across town, Caroline Steinbeis directs Shaffer’s 1965 farce, “Black Comedy,” which plays games with darkness and light across 75 minutes, no intermission.
“Equus” runs through July 4 at the Menier Chocolate Factory.
“Black Comedy” runs through July 11 at the Orange Tree Theater.
‘Arcadia’
Carrie Cracknell’s gorgeous revival of Tom Stoppard’s crowning achievement has been the highlight of my London playgoing year so far and is transferring from the Old Vic for a summer run at the Duke of York’s.
Onboard once again are the brilliant double-act of Seamus Dillane and the 2026 Olivier nominee Isis Hainsworth as the tutor Septimus and his brilliant teenage protégée Thomasina. New recruits this time include Nikki Amuka-Bird and the delightful Oliver Chris as two rival academics grappling with the past in a production whose passion and immediacy make this 1993 masterwork live anew.
June 20 to Sept. 12 at the Duke of York’s Theater.
‘The Oresteia’ and ‘Electra/Persona’
Greek tragedy is a mighty source twice over in coming months, on both occasions reconceived by Australian theater-makers who reshape classical texts.
First up is Simon Stone’s contemporary reimagining of Aeschylus’s “The Oresteia,” which brings the two-time Tony winner Mary-Louise Parker to the Bridge Theater. Then comes the writer-director Benedict Andrews’ play drawing on Sophocles and a masterly 1966 film from Ingmar Bergman; his cast brings together the stars of the movie “Tár,” Cate Blanchett and Nina Hoss, in one of the hottest tickets of the season.
“The Oresteia” runs July 2 to Sept. 19 at the Bridge Theater.
“Electra/Persona” runs Aug. 19 to Oct. 10 at the National Theater.
‘Cyrano de Bergerac’ and ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’
Some characters need no introduction. That’s certainly true of that eternal poet Cyrano de Bergerac, whose nose is as large as his heart. Adrian Lester has the role this time around, and Simon Evans directs.
On offer just next door will be the latest West End outing for “To Kill a Mockingbird,” with Richard Coyle on hand as the crusading lawyer Atticus Finch, whose unwavering moral probity feels as inspirational as ever.
“Cyrano de Bergerac” runs June 13 to Sept. 5 at the Noël Coward Theater.
“To Kill a Mockingbird” runs June 25 to Sept. 12 at Wyndham’s Theater.
Something for the Kids
‘Arthur’
This new play-with-music, for children aged 6 to 12, takes place in both the year 526 and the present day. It tells of an alliance that develops between the teenage Grace (Gurjot Dhaliwal), who is in the emergency room with a piece of Lego stuck up her nose, and Merlin (Rose Wardlaw), who transports her back to the heroic sixth-century world of Arthurian legend. Nel Crouch directs, and the original songs are by Harry Blake.
June 20 to Aug. 9 at the Polka Theater.
