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Hello there: I’m the theatre editor of Time Out and people often ask me what theatre shows they should see, a query that inevitably reduces me to a state of total, blank-brained panic. So here, for my reference as much as yours are the six London theatre shows I’m most looking forward to seeing this autumn – with the caveat that I am a firm believer that ‘autumn’ runs until December 20 (November is a quiet month for London theatre – October and December are crazy).
And if you can’t be bothered to wait and just want my October recommendations, check out all 11 of them here.
1. Oedipus
Six years ago I heard that Robert Icke – one of my very favourite theatre directors – had adapted the incest-tactic Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex… in Dutch. I idly thought about going to Amsterdam to see it, but a general rule of thumb with theatre is that everything good comes to London in the end anyway if you wait long enough, and in 2020 it was announced that Icke’s Oedipus would soon have its English language premiere in London, with no less than Helen Mirren starring as Jocasta, wife to the eponymous heroic statesman and also it turns out his mother. Covid royally screwed that one up, but long story short it’s finally opening with Mark Strong as Oedipus and Lesley Manville as Jocasta – you can read my interview with eternal wunderkind Icke here.
Wyndham’s Theatre, Oct 4-Jan 4. Buy tickets here.
2. The Buddha of Suburbia
Another of my favourite Brit auteur directors is Emma Rice, the whimsical genius behind the legendary Kneehigh Theatre, who did two astonishing seasons in charge of the Globe before she was sacked for using too many electric lights in Shakespeare plays (that is pretty much true). The first show of hers I saw was Nights at the Circus, an adaptation of an unadaptable Angela Carter novel, and ecstatic word from Stratford-upon-Avon (where this RSC collaboration premiered) is that she’s worked her magic once again with The Buddha of Suburbia, Hanif Kureishi’s classic novel about a young mixed race man’s coming of age in suburban London.
Barbican Centre, Oct 22-Nov 16. Buy tickets here.
3. The Producers
The original stage production of Mel Brooks’ landmark musical comedy The Producers was such a big deal – the biggest show of the century until Hamilton came along – that it almost seems wrong that there’s going to be a new production. Well, I say that: I didn’t actually see it myself so actually hooray for tiny-but-influential theatre the Menier, which has somehow bagged the rights to the revival, with Patrick Marber directing what I believe is his first ever musical. If you’re genuinely unaware of what it’s about, it follows an unscrupulous director who stages an appalling taste musical about Hitler for tax write off purposes and is horrified when it actually becomes a hit.
Menier Chocolate Factory, Nov 26-Mar 1.
4. Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812
In 2013, jet lagged out of my mind, I sat in a large tent in the middle of Manhattan drinking shots of vodka the table over from Neil Patrick Harris. We were both there to see Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, Dave Malloy's gorgeous, audacious adaptation of about 70 pages of Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Defying my previously stated ‘everything good eventually comes to London’ rule, Rachel Chavkin’s original production never came to London, which is a total bummer, but at last somebody else is going to be allowed to do it – new Donmar Warehouse boss Timothy Sheader won instant brownie points (from me) for announcing it as the centrepiece of his first season, where I’m very much looking forward to seeing it sans jetlag.
Donmar Warehouse, Dec 7-Feb 8.
5. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
The Almeida is my favourite theatre in London, with its punchy mix of classic revivals given to brave directors, gutsy new writing, and general air of mild audacity. In house director Rebecca Frecknall made her name a few years back with a sensational revival of Tennessee Williams’s largely forgotten Summer and Smoke; she followed up a couple of Christmases ago with an excellent production of Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire starring Paul Mescal; and this Christmas she turns to his Normal People castmate Daisy Edgar Rice for another of the ‘big’ Williams plays - she’ll star opposite recent Time Out cover star Kingsley Ben-Adir in stormy family tragedy Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Almeida Theatre, Dec 10-Feb 1.
6. The Tempest
I’m definitely excited about seeing Sigourney Weaver make her rather belated UK stage debut in Shakespeare’s The Tempest in a kind of ‘oh, that’ll be cool’ type way. I daresay she speaks the verse beautifully! But because I am very sad, what I am really excited about is the prospect of seeing a Shakespeare play in the gargantuan 2,000-capacity Theatre Royal Drury Lane, which hasn’t hosted anything that’s not a musical in decades, and no Shakespeare play since 1958 (The Tempest, naturally). I’m also thrilled that the director of this giga-spectacle is Jamie Lloyd, whose alluring mix of minimalism and razzle-dazzle just keeps getting better – his Sunset Boulevard was my favourite show of last year.
Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Dec 7-Feb 1.
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