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It’s always celebrity month in London theatre to some degree, but there’s no denying that February 2025 is bringing the A-listers: Jonathan Bailey, Brie Larson, Tom Hiddleston, Hayley Atwell, Rami Malek, Nicola Walker and Brian Cox will all be treading the boards this month.
If celebrity vehicles dominate, they’re far from chintzy, predictable outings, running the gamut from a dance theatre take on Sophocles starring an Oscar-winning US actor to, er, a punk rock take on Sophocles starring an Oscar-winning US actor. You know what I mean. Probably.
1. Richard II
Yes, Shakespeare’s arrogant, fragile king is a great role for Jonathan Bailey to get his teeth into for his first stage outing post-Wicked. But Nicholas Hytner’s production of Richard II is as exciting for where it is as who is in it. It’s the first new show to run at the Bridge Theatre since the hitherto bustling production house was given over indefinitely to Hytner’s landmark production of Guys & Dolls at the start of 2023. Bailey is a superb actor and Hytner is pretty damn close to infallible as a director of Shakespeare, but in some way the most exciting thing about this show is that we’re finally getting the Bridge back, and can presumably look forward to several more shows there this year.
Bridge Theatre, Feb 10-May 10.
2. Elektra
Marvel star Brie Larson is an incredibly striking lead for the first London revival of the Sophocles mummy-issues classic in aeons. Word on the streets is it’s pretty nuts, which certainly gels with it being directed by experimental US director Daniel Fish, and also the formerly blonde-tressed Oscar winner Larson having hacked her way down to a severe crop. It looks likely to be pretty divisive, but that’s pretty thrilling in and of itself – of the many Sophocles revivals this season, this would seem to be the punky one.
Duke of York’s Theatre, until Apr 12. Buy tickets here.
3. Much Ado About Nothing
Jamie Lloyd’s recent revival of The Tempest was a rare misfire from the Brit director of the moment. That said, it was a misfire with a relatively simple issue at its heart: star Sigourney Weaver just wasn’t up to the job of a demanding lead Shakespeare role. There should be no such issue with the production of Much Ado that follows it into Drury Lane: it retains the (excellent) supporting cast of The Tempest, but adds seasoned Shakespearean slebs Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell to the mix as bickering will they-won’t they leads Benedick and Beatrice.
Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Feb 10-Apr 5. Buy tickets here.
4. Oedipus
He may have died some 2,400 years ago, but Sophocles really is having a moment right now: the Greek theatre colossus has two major West End openings in two days this February, with the Brie Larsen-starring Elektra coming the night after the Old Vic’s Oedipus, which is itself just a few months after Robert Icke’s West End Oedipus. They’re all pretty different to each other, though: apparently there’s a lot of dance in this revival, which isn’t really a surprise as Old Vic boss Matthew Warchus co-directs with the great choreographer Hofesh Shechter. Whatever the case, Oscar-winner Rami Malek and our own Indira Varma are formidable leads.
Old Vic, until Mar 29. Buy tickets here.
5. Alterations
A bold revival at the NT this month as Rufus Norris’s final year running the National Theatre gets underway. Alterations is a revival of a relatively obscure 1978 play by the pioneering Black British playwright Michael Abbensetts that concerns Walker Holt, a tailor faced with a seemingly impossible order that he must complete in 24 hours. Arinzé Kene makes his NT debut to star as Walker in a production directed by the ever-reliable Lynette Linton, outgoing boss of the Bush Theatre.
National Theatre, Feb 20-Apr 5. Buy tickets here.
6. Unicorn
With his newie Unicorn, Mike Bartlett joins that circle of rare contemporary playwrights whose works go straight into the West End. It stars Nicola Walker and Stephen Mangan as happily married couple Polly and Nick who decide to open up their marriage to a third: Erich Doherty’s Kate. Although the premise sounds potentially a bit naff, Bartlett’s more intimate, relationship-based dramas – notably Cock and Bull – have been some of his best: sly, subversive and probing. James Macdonald directs.
Garrick Theatre, Feb 4-Apr 26. Buy tickets here.
7. More Life/A Knock on the Roof
A couple of great-looking shows at the Royal Court this month: first up, More Life is an intriguing new work from the excellent Kandinsky Theatre, of whom new Court artistic director Davod Byrne has long been a fan. More Life is a horror about a woman brought back as an AI 15 years after her death. Also topical and horrifying – albeit in a very different way – is A Knock On the Roof by Syrian-Palestinian writer and performer Khawla Ibraheem, which concerns a mother dealing with the everyday challenge of life in Gaza. It predates the most recent conflict, but reviews from last summer’s Edinburgh Fringe suggest it feels no less topical for it.
Royal Court Theatre
More Life: Feb 6-Mar 8, buy tickets here.
A Knock on the Roof: Feb 21-Mar 8, buy tickets here.
8. Otherland
Chris Bush is a prolific and mercurial playwright: her last London show was the joyously anti-capitalist seasonal outing Robin Hood and the Christmas Heist; before that the hit West End Richard Hawley musical Standing at the Sky’s Edge. Her solo Almeida debut – she co-wrote the theatre’s inter-pandemic show Nine Lessons and Carols – sounds like a more intimate affair, following two women’s changing lives as they extricate each other from their relationship.
Almeida Theatre, Feb 12-Mar 15.
9. Backstroke
After the razzle-dazzle opening one-two of new Donmar boss Timothy Sheader’s first two bits of programming – the Adrien Brody-starring The Fear of 13 and the cult musical Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 – show number three is something little more intimate. Anna Mackmin directs Tamsin Greig and Celia Imrie in her own play about a harassed single mother whose world is rocked when her own mum has a stroke.
Donmar Warehouse, Feb 12-Apr 12.
10. The Score
Brian Cox truly has not wasted time in getting back down to theatre work post-Succession. Last year he led a West End run of Eugene O’Neil’s opus Long Day’s Journey Into Night; this summer he’ll star in James Graham’s latest Make It Happen; but first you can catch him in The Score, which debuted in Bath last year and now transfers to London. He stars as the great composer JS Bach, attempting to negotiate the lethal pitfalls of the Prussian court, in a drama written by Oliver Cotton and directed by Trevor Nunn.
Haymarket Theatre Royal, Feb 25-Apr 26. Buy tickets here.
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