The 10 best new London theatre openings in May 2025
May is here and with it the London open air theatre season gets into full swing. The Globe kicks things off with a cowboy-themed Romeo and Juliet followed shortly thereafter with a rare revival for a modern play – Arthur Miller's peerless The Crucible. Over in Regent's Park and new theatre boss Drew McOnie gets his tenure off with a bang as he bags the much anticipated UK premiere of Broadway comedy musical Shucked. But it's another musical that's the month's big talking point: the National Theatre will host the UK premiere of the late great Stephen Sondheim's final musical.
The best London theatre openings in May 2025
What is it? Here We Are is the final work by the greatest composer of musical theatre in history – that is to say, Stephen Sondheim. It is, plot wise, a mash up of two surreal class satire Luis Buñuel films: The Exterminating Angel and The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoise. Joe Mantello's premiere production played a season off-Broadway already and now transfers here with a starry new cast.
Why go? Because it's Sondheim. When is the next time you're going to the premiere run of a Sondheim musical? Never, that's when. New York reviews were warm – FWIW the main fault cited is that he didn't quite write enough songs before he passed away – and the cast is insane, including the likes of Rory Kinnear, Jane Krakowski and Martha Plimpton.
National Theatre, now until Jun 28.
2.
What is it? One of the more unexpected musical theatre success stories of the last few years, Robert Horn, Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally's Shucked announced itself on Broadway with an ad campaign that solely revolved around puns about corn. It went on to be a rip-roaring success and is now a spectacularly impressive get for the first season from new Regent's Park Open Air Theatre boss Drew McOnie.
Why go? By all accounts it's incredibly funny, probably the first great US comedy musical since The Book of Mormon. Although the plot is notionally meant to be hidden under a veil of corn puns, it basically concerns a corn-obsessed rural community that has no contact with the outside world. But when their crop starts to fail, they must send two representatives to the big city to try and work out what the hell is going on.
Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, May 10-Jun 14. Buy tickets here.
3. Shakespeare's Globe: Romeo and Juliet / The Crucible
What is it? Sun's out, guns out, Globe's open: the iconic outside theatre's summer season is upon us and the first two shows open this month. It begins with Sean Holmes's take on Romeo and Juliet; next out of the traps is Ola Ince directing The Crucible, a very rare opportunity to see a classic modern play at the iconic theatre.
Why go? Because the Globe has never been about boring trad Shakespeare and this looks like a thrilling couple of shows. Holmes's take on Romeo and Juliet is Wild West themed – we literally need say no more. Meanwhile Arthur Miller's awesome Salem Witch Trials/Red Scare allegory is one of the greatest American plays ever written and getting to see it at the stunning Globe should be a real treat.
Shakespeare's Globe; Romeo and Juliet now until Aug 2, buy tickets here; The Crucible May 8-Jul 12, buy tickets here.
4. 1536
What is it? Ava Pickett's award-winning drama is set in – you guessed it – 1536, and parallels the lives of its three female protagonists with that of Anne Boleyn, the queen of England who will meet her violent end that year.
Why go? Although Pickett is mostly known as a TV writer, the fact is that the Almeida rarely misses when it comes to new plays, and the crack team behind 1536 is hugely promising, with big name Lyndsey Turner directing a cast of the excellent Liv Hill, Siena Kelly and Tanya Reynolds.
Almeida Theatre, May 6-Jun 7.
5. Mrs Warren's Profession
What is it? A now pretty rare revival for George Bernard Shaw's classic morality play about an aspiring young female lawyer who attempts to befriend her estranged mother, unaware of her past as a prostitute and present as a brothel madam.
Why go? Two words: Imelda Staunton. The national treasure has starred in two excellent Dominic Cook-directed musicals recently – Follies at the NT and last year's Hello, Dolly! – and this time they join forces for a third time and their first straight up drama. She'll play Mrs Warren; her own daughter Bessie Carter will play daughter Vivie. It'll be interesting to see if the play stands up still, but if anyone's going to sell it to us, it's Staunton.
Garrick Theatre, May 10-Aug 16, buy tickets here.
6. Giant
What is it? The biggest new British play of last year, Mark Rosenblatt's morally knotty Roald Dahl drama triumphantly transfers from the Royal Court to the West End. Why go? It's a slightly old fashioned but brilliantly written play that examines Dahl's public flirtation with antisemitism in the early '80s and comes away with no easy answers. The headline event is John Lithgow as the charming, cantankerous, slippery Dahl, reprising the role that just won him an Olivier.
Harold Pinter Theatre, until Aug 2, buy tickets here.
7. An Oak Tree
What is it? The last show at the Young Vic for a while should be a good 'un: it's the twentieth anniversary revival for Tim Crouch's seminal performance piece An Oak Tree, the work with which the one-time jobbing actor reinvented himself as a metatheatrical provocateur par excellence. Why go? It's an unsettling classic that remains fresh on stage because one of the performers has never done it before: a different guest each night is cast in the role of a grieving parent who has decided to track down the end-of-the-pier hypnotist who killed their child in a car crash three months earlier. It is a complicated and powerful work that's as much about Crouch's right to create this sad drama as it is about the drama itself.
Young Vic, May 7-24, buy tickets here.
8. The Fifth Step
What is it? Provocative writer David Ireland's Alcoholics Anonymous satire debuted at the Edinburgh International Festival last year, giving a striking return-to-the-stage role to its star Jack Lowden. Now it's back for a West End run with Martin Freeman providing some heavyweight backup: he stars as recovering alcoholic James, the deeply flawed sponsor to Lowden's new-to-the-programme Luka.
Why go? That's a pretty damn tasty celebrity cast and if you like Ireland's scabrous comedies – or are in the mood for something decided non-PC – then you'll probably have fun. Maybe not one for AA devotees, though.
@sohoplace, May 10-Jul 26.
9. The Deep Blue Sea
What is it? Terence Rattigan's masterpiece about Hester, a suicidal woman who has left her stultifyingly old-fashioned husband and must now decide if she wants to live or die. Why go? It's a deeply haunting and beautiful play, dealing with themes far darker and sadder than Rattigan's frothy reputation suggests. This Lindsay Posner-directed production transfers from Theatre Royal Bath, where it attracted great notices for Tamsin Greig's performance as Hester.
Theatre Royal Haymarket, May 7-Jun 21, buy tickets here.
10. The Comedy About Spies
What is it? The hit factory that is Mischief theatre – best known for long-running West End hit The Play That Goes Wrong – pumps out another surefire smash with this '60s-set spy farce.
Why go? Mischief are as edgy as sponge, but if you like a good old fashioned English farce with proper jokes, proper laughs and zero smut then get yourself down.
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Time Out
2 days ago
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Ncuti Gatwa regenerates into Olly Alexander as the NT's ‘Importance of Being Earnest' transfers to London's West End
Ncuti Gatwa's time on Doctor Who proved to be pretty brief. But he didn't put his feet up in the gap between his two seasons – theatre was his first love and he got straight back on that stage last Christmas to star in the National Theatre's hallucinogenically camp take on Oscar Wilde's classic 'The Importance of Being Earnest', the first the NT had staged since the '80s. The Max Webster-directed production was a roaring great hit and now it's set to transfer to the West End, replacing Mischief Theatre's ' The Comedy About Spies ' at the Noël Coward Theatre. Gatwa's not coming along though: whether he'd have been up for it is a moot point, as he's already busy starring in the RSC's new West End play Born with Teeth. However, a fine replacement has been found for the role of young 'bachelor' about town Algernon Montcrieff: it's Olly Alexander, who hasn't been in Doctor Who but did make his name as actor in ' It's A Sin ', another show by Russell T Davies. Wilde's play is very much an ensemble affair and there is no news on further casting at this stage, though we dare to dream that the mighty Sharon D Clarke will return as the formidable Lady Bracknell. If you want to know a little more about what the production was like last time, then read our four-star review here. The best new London theatre shows to book for in 2025.
BBC News
2 days ago
- BBC News
Olly Alexander lands West End role in The Importance of Being Earnest
Singer and actor Olly Alexander has said he has "come into a different space in my life", as he announced a new West End stage role after recently parting ways with his record star will appear in the National Theatre's production of The Importance of Being Earnest when it transfers to the West End in will be his first acting role since It's A Sin, Channel 4's acclaimed 2021 drama about the Aids crisis, for which he was nominated for a Bafta Award."I'd recently been thinking that I'd love to act again," he told BBC News. "I'd come to the end of my record contract, and I have a bit more breathing space to try a few different things and not feel, oh, well I have to deliver an album to my record label." Alexander will take over from Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa, who starred in The Importance of Being Earnest when it opened at the National Theatre in 2024. He will play Algernon when the production transfers to the Noel Coward Theatre in London."What's not to love?" Alexander asked. "It's such a brilliant play, Oscar Wilde's most celebrated comedy. I saw the National production and thought it was fantastic, and this opportunity came along and I jumped at the chance." Alexander shot to fame when his band Years & Years won the BBC Sound of 2015 poll and went on to have hits such as King and Shine, and score a number one later went solo, although continued to perform as Years & Years, and scored another top-charting album in 2021. He has performed with Sir Elton John and Kylie Minogue, and was the UK's Eurovision entrant last after his most recent album Polari, released in February, reached number 17, Alexander announced his departure from his record label."They aren't dropping me, they just aren't renewing my contract," he explained at the time. "It's OK and honestly for the best. I've been on a pretty terrible deal for 10 years. It's time I do something new. But I'll still make music in the future."Reflecting on his first decade as a pop star, Alexander told the BBC: "With music, there's an intensity to the way I've been working and putting albums out, promoting and touring. I definitely want to take the foot off the gas in terms of that intensity." He still occasionally works on music, but has "not been putting pressure on myself... I just do what feels good and feel very lucky that I have this other strand of acting that I'm able to explore".Alexander said he felt he had "learned so much" over the last decade about the way he likes to work. "But for me," he continued, "a lot of the reason I think the [music] industry has changed so much is that it's set on this model which is very antiquated now, and it's not kept pace with the times. "Lots of artists have this direct link with their audience via social media. They want their music out quickly. 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The farcical comedy unfolds with mistaken identities and makes generous use of clever wordplay."In a nutshell, it's a comedy about two quite ridiculous young men and the double lives they lead," Alexander explained. "They do that to avoid their social obligations, and they both invent these aliases called Ernest, while they try and woo and marry these two young women. "But really, it's a comedy that skewers society's expectations, makes fun of class and what society expects of us, and what roles we're expected to perform." 'Delightful mischief' The previous production of the show, starring Gatwa, received a positive reception from critics. "There is an elegance to the nudge-wink references and it is a production with just the right amount of delightful mischief," wrote the Guardian's Arifa Akbar in a four-star Daily Mail's Patrick Marmion awarded five stars, describing the "sparkling new production" as a "witty reboot"."Yes, liberties are taken," he said. 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The Guardian
3 days ago
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Dominic Cooke has been appointed as the new artistic director of the Almeida theatre in London, succeeding Rupert Goold in 2026. Cooke ran the Royal Court for several years and is an in-demand director with recent hits in the West End and at the National Theatre. 'Twelve years after leaving the Royal Court, I couldn't be more excited to be returning as an artistic director and to be taking the reins of this unique theatre,' he said. He described Goold's Almeida as 'a beacon of quality and innovation' and added: 'I'm hugely grateful to him and his team to be handed an organisation in such good health. I look forward to building on this legacy and to future adventures in this magical space.' A specialist in musicals, Cooke staged a celebrated revival of Stephen Sondheim's Follies at the National in 2017 and reunited with one of its stars, Imelda Staunton, on an admired revival of Hello, Dolly! at the London Palladium last summer. His production of George Bernard Shaw's Mrs Warren's Profession, starring Staunton and her daughter Bessie Carter, opened at the Palladium last month. Other West End productions directed by Cooke include Medea with Sophie Okonedo and Good with David Tennant. During his time at the Royal Court he directed plays by Caryl Churchill, Tarell Alvin McCraney and Bruce Norris. He has also directed two feature films, The Courier (starring Benedict Cumberbatch) and On Chesil Beach (adapted from Ian McEwan's novel), as well as three episodes of The Hollow Crown for television. The chair of the Almeida board Tamara Ingram said Cooke is 'celebrated around the world and brings a wealth of experience both of running a theatre and as a consistently acclaimed, award-winning artist. We are greatly looking forward to what lies ahead and to seeing how his leadership defines the next chapter of the Almeida.' Goold called it a 'wonderful appointment' and said that Cooke's tenure at the Royal Court brimmed 'with confidence and new voices'. He added that Cooke 'will bring his many talents to bear on continuing the rich story of our great theatre'. It was announced last year that Goold will leave the Almeida to run the Old Vic, replacing Matthew Warchus. The Almeida's executive director Denise Wood is also standing down to pursue freelance projects. Recruitment for Wood's successor will begin shortly.
