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Rufus Norris has announced his final season as artistic director of the National Theatre before he hands over to successor Indhu Rubasingham, and he’s going out with a bang.
The really big news is the UK premiere of ‘Here We Are’, the final musical from the legendary Stephen Sondheim. ‘Here We Are’ (Apr 23-Jun 28) is a sort of mash-up of two of the seminal surrealist filmmaker Luis Buñuel’s iconic films. It played to solid notices in New York last year, but will be restaged for the NT by its original director Joe Mantello.
That’ll play in the NT’s ‘middle’ theatre the Lyttelton: before that Arinzé Kene will make his NT debut in the Lynette Linton-directed ‘Alterations’ (Feb 20-Apr 5), a ‘lost’ play by the pioneering Black British playwright Michael Abbensetts that follows tailor Walker Holt as he strives to satisfy a client at any cost.
Rounding out Norris’s final Lyttelton season is ‘Inter Alia’ (dates tbc), which sees the writer and director of the Jodie Comer hit ‘Prima Facia’ reunite for another monologue about the legal system. Here, the great Rosamund Pike will make her NT debut as a High Court Judge forced to reckon her personal and professional life.
Over at the Olivier there are three major revivals. As previously announced, James Graham’s Gareth Southgate opus ‘Dear England’ (Mar 10-May 24) will be returning, followed by Alecky Blythe and Adam Cook’s magnum opus verbatim musical ‘London Road’, about the impact of a series of deaths on a Norfolk community. Finally, Michael Sheen will return with a fresh run for Tim Price’s surreal Nye Bevan drama ‘Nye’ (Jul 3-Aug 16).
The small Dorfman will be shut for a chunk of 2025 for refurbishment. It’ll reopen with the school-directed Connections Festival in June and then a series of shows have been announced, though they don’t have hard dates yet. First will come a debut play by Shaan Sahota called ‘The Estate’. Directed by Daniel Raggett, it will star Adeel Akhtar as an ambitious politician rocked by his father’s death. Following that there will be a new play from former Young Vic boss David Lan called ‘The Land of the Living’ that will follow the displaced children of World War 2, directed by Stephen Daldry. That will be followed by the final part of David Eldridge’s trilogy of plays: ‘End’ will follow ‘Beginning’ and ‘Middle’ and while there’s no official synopsis yet it would seem reasonable to say that it’s likely to follow a couple at either the end of a relationship or the end of their lives or, indeed, both.
Farewell RuNo! And what a high to leave on.
Tickets for ‘Alterations’, ‘Here We Are’, ‘London Road’ and ‘Nye’ will go on sale Wed Oct 16.
‘Dear England’ is already on sale.
‘Inter Alia’, ‘The Estate’, ‘The Land of the Living’ and ‘End’ will go on sale at a later date.
The best new London theatre shows to book for in 2024 and 2025.
The Almeida Theatre has announced its spring 2025 season.
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