Andrzej Lukowski

Greetings of the season. Well, I'm actually writing this in early September. But then, how long is Christmas theatre season in London exactly? Certainly it’s in full swing by late November, with virtually every pantomime and kids’ show in the city up and running way before Advent, with most of them running until the new year. London's best family Christmas shows at a glance: Best cartoon spin off: Bluey’s Big Play, Royal Festival Hall Best immersive show for kids: Fireside Tales, Punchdrunk Enrichment Stores Best musical for all the family: Top Hat, Queen Elizabeth Hall Best returning Christmas classic: A Chistmas Carol, Old Vic Best for babies: Scrunch, Unicorn Theatre and Univers, Barbican I’m Time Out’s theatre editor, and I have seen more pantos and Julia Donaldson adaptations than any human being should. But also it’s always an exciting time of year: Christmas is the best time to take children to the theatre because there are such a dizzying array of options, for all ages. This list is an attempt to try and put some order on the gargantuan breadth of children’s and family friendly theatre across the city during the season. It doesn’t include long running West End shows – you know about The Lion King, right – but is an attempt to compile as many festive shows for young audiences as possible, at theatres big and small. We’ve divided our list into family-friendly Christmas shows – that is to say, shows suitable for children, but that you could easily visit without – and

Hello – I'm Time Out’s theatre editor and also a parent, something that has a lot of overlap in London, a city with three dedicated kids theatres and where pretty much every other theatre might stage a child-friendly show. London's kids theatre shows at a glance: Best musical: Matilda the Musical, Cambridge Theatre Best for teens: The Hunger Games: On Stage, Troubadour Canary Wharf Theatre Biggest new show for 2025: Paddington the Musical, Savoy Theatre  Quirkiest show for tweens: Dweeb-A-Mania, Polka Theatre  Best pantomimes: see here – there are so many we have a dedicated page. This round up focusses on the flagship shows at London’s kids theatres – that’s the Little Angel, the Unicorn and Polka – plus other major shows aimed at or suitable for youngsters. On the whole, pre-school and primary children are the age groups best served specifically, because secondary school aged teenagers can generally see adult theatre perfectly well (and will indeed often be made to do so!). So while the odd teen focussed show will make it in here, if you’re looking for something to do with teens why not consult our reviews page or what to book list. Our London kids’ theatre page normally contains information for all the main children’s shows running in London theatres this month and next month, and is broken down into three categories. Theatre for all the family is suitable for any age, including adults without children. Theatre for older children is specifically aimed at school-age chil

If any city in the world were oversaturated with hotels, it’d be Paris. So a list of the ‘best hotels in Paris’ is casting a pretty wide net. The city has over 1,600 hotels in total, ranging from tiny new boutiques to grand historic hotels charging £25,000 a night – and we wanted to make sure every kind of hotel was represented on this list: the luxurious, the downright cheap, and everything in between. Whatever your vibe in the City of Light, you’ll find a hotel for you here. In this guide What is the best area to stay in Paris? + − As will surprise no one, the ‘best’ area to stay in Paris is pretty subjective across its 20 arrondissements and 80 or so neighbourhoods. But we do have some pointers. If it’s your first time in the city, you’ll probably want to be as close to the city centre as possible to tick off those major attractions, so anywhere near the 1st arrondissement – Tuileries, the Marais, St-Germain – would be a good bet. If you’re on a budget, however, you’ll find that cheaper options are usually further out in the 15th, 18th, 19th, 20th – and even on the outskirts of the city. Don’t worry, you’ll still be in on the action – this is where the locals hang out, anyway. For the full rundown, here’s our ultimate guide to where to stay in Paris. Which hotels do celebrities stay in in Paris? + − There is absolutely no reason you should book a stay based on whether or not a famous person has stayed there, but hey, it’s fun to know anyway. It’s pretty fun t

Paris: the food, the fashion, the fromage, the fantasy. No matter how many times we visit the French capital, its charms never ever grow old. And we’re not alone in thinking that. Paris is a major tourist destination that attracts thousands upon thousands of enthusiastic travellers with heads filled with images of Breton jumpers, tiny dogs, and decadent pastries - the kind you can dip in your hot chocolate. But how do you enjoy this gorgeous city without just succumbing to the age-old clichés (as much as we do love all of them)? We’ve compiled a list of the 51 best attractions in Paris, from the big-name ‘must-see’ paris attractions to something a little bit more bespoke and treasured locally. So whether you’re looking for lesser-known museums, late-night live music, or the best places for shopping, we’ve got plenty of ideas - and they’re all as tasty as a Ladurée macaron. Time Out tip: If you want avoid taxing, RATP App and Citymapper will be essential for getting around Paris like a local.  RECOMMENDED: 🇫🇷See our full guide to the best things to do in Paris🥖Check out the best food tours in Paris📍Here's where to head for the best tours in Paris🛏 Stay in the best airbnbs in Paris🚍The best Paris bus tours This article includes affiliate links. These links have no influence on our editorial content. For more information, click here.

There are over a hundred theatres of all shapes and sizes throughout London, from tiny fringe venues above pubs to iconic internationally famous institutions like the National Theatre. And at the heart of it is the West End, aka Theatreland. What is a West End theatre? Unlike Broadway, where there are strict definitions based upon capacity, there is no hard and fast definition of a West End theatre. However, West End theatres are all commercial theatres – that is to say, they receive no government funding – and on the whole they are receiving houses, that is to say they don’t have in house artistic teams creating the work that they show (although often theatre owners like Andrew Lloyd Webber or Nica Burns may commission or even create the work). London's best West End shows at a glance: Best musical: Hamilton, Victoria Palace Theatre Best for families: My Neighbour Totoro, Gillian Lynne Theatre Best ’80s classic: Les Miserables, His Majesty’s Theatre Funniest show: Operation Mincemeat, Fortune Theatre  Hippest hit: Hadestown, Lyric Theatre They are mostly based in the West End of London, although it’s not a hard and fast rule, with two major ‘West End’ theatres at Victoria. Most West End theatres are Victorian or Edwardian, although Theatre Royal Drury Land and Theatre Royal Haymarket have roots a couple of centuries before that, while @sohoplace is the newest (it opened in 2022). Capacity is similarly all over the shop: the 2,359-set London Coliseum is the biggest; the sm

Hello, and welcome to the Time Out theatre reviews round up. From huge star vehicles and massive West End musical to hip fringe shows and more, this is a compliation of all the latest London reviews from the Time Out theatre team, which is me plus our team of freelance critics. August is a fairly quiet month for London theatre openings so we’ll be posting relatively little here until things get busy again in September. But if you’d like to see reviews of work that’s likely to be coming to London in the near future, then do check out our coverage of this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The best new London theatre shows to book for in 2025. A-Z of West End shows.

There’s perhaps nothing more magical than seeing a play or musical in the open air, and London is absolutely the city for it. In defiance of the weather gods, our outdoor theatre season now stretches from March to late October: we’re are just that tough. Or at least, optimistic about the weather. Substantially it revolves around a few key theatres, notably Shakespeare’s Globe – open March to October and generally boasting a cheeky outdoor Christmas production – and the delightful Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, which is open late spring to the very end of summer. The former specialises in Shakespeare plays, while the latter has a musical theatre focus. Althoiugh the summer is now basically over, the open air season continues for quite a while, especially at the Globe, where the main outdor theatre remains open until the end of October, and reopens in December for this year’s Christmas show Pinocchio. Not sure what you'll need for an open-air theatre trip? Then don’t miss our guide to practical open-air theatre info.  If you’re interested in taking in some outdoor cinema this summer, head to our dedicated page.

To say that William Shakespeare bestrides our culture like a colossus is to undersell him. Over 400 years since his death, the playwright is uncontested as the greatest writer of English who has ever lived. Even if you’re not a fan of sixteenth century blank verse – and if not, why not? – his influence over our culture goes far beyond that of any other writer. He invented words, phrases, plots, characters, stories that are still vividly alive today; his history plays utterly shaped our understanding of our own past as a nation. London Shakespeare plays at a glance: Best for Christmas: Twelfth Night, Barbican Best celebrity cast: Othello, Theatre Royal Haymarket Best weird: The Tempest, Shakespeare’s Globe And unsurpisingly he is inescapable in London. The iconic Elizabethan recreation Shakespeare’s Globe theatre is his temple, with a year-round programme that’s about three-quarters his works. Although based in Stratford-upon-Avon, the Royal Shakespeare Company regularly visit the capital, most frequently the Barbican Centre. And Shakespeare plays can be found… almost anywhere else, from the National Theatre – where they invariably run in the huge Olivier venue – to tiny fringe productions and outdoor version that pop up everywhere come the warmer months.  This page is simple: we tell you what Shakespeare plays are on in town this month (the answer is pretty much always ‘at least one’). We we tell you which of his works you can see coming up in the future. No other playwrig

For many people, musical theatre basically is theatre, and certainly there are a hell of a lot of musicals running in London at any given time, from decades-long classics like Les Misérables and The Phantom of the Opera to short-run fringe obscurities, plus all manner of new shows launched every year hoping for long-running glory. London's best musicals at a glance: Hippest musical: Hadestown, Lyric Theatre Best of the oldies: Les Miserables, Sondheim Theatre Best for families: Matilda the Musical, Cambridge Theatre The next big thing: Paddington the Musical, Savoy Theatre  Funniest musical: Operation Mincemeat, Fortune Theatre Here Time Out rounds up every West End musical currently running or coming soon, plus fringe and off-West End shows that we’ve reviewed – all presented in fabulous alphabetical order. SEE ALSO: How to get cheap and last-minute theatre tickets in London.

What is immersive theatre? A glib buzzword? A specific description of a specific type of theatre? A phrase that has become so diluted that it’s lost all meaning? Whether you call it immersive, interactive or site-specific, London is bursting with plays and experiences which welcome you into a real-life adventure that you can wander around and play the hero in. London's best immersive shows at a glance: Best for dinner theatre: Faulty Towers the Dining Experience, President Hotel Best for Trekkies: Bridge Command, Vauxhall Arches Coolest: Lander 23, Carriageworks Best for kids: Fireside Tales, Punchdrunk Enrichment Stores  Best for thrillseekers: Squid Game: The Experience, ImmerseLDN I’m Andrzej Łukowski, Time Out’s theatre editor, and I have run the immersive gamut, from a show where I had to take my clothes off in a darkened shipping container, to successfully bagging tickets to the six-hour Punchdrunk odyssey there were only ever a couple of hundred tickets for, to quite a lot of theatre productions where the set goes into the audience a bit and apparently that counts as immersive. There is a lot of immersive work in London, some of which is definitely theatre, some of which definitely isn’t, some of which is borderline, some of which is but doesn’t want to say it is because some some people are just horrified of the word ‘theatre’.  This page has been around for a while now and gone through various schools of thought, but the one we’ve settled on for now is that the ma

Hello! I'm Andrzej, the theatre editor of Time Out London, and me and my freelancers review a heck of a lot of theatre. This page is an attempt to distil the shows that are on right now into something like a best of the best based upon our actual reviews, as opposed to my predictions, which determine our longer range what to book for list. London's critics’ choice shows to book for at a glance: Best musical: Hamilton, Victoria Palace Theatre Best star casting: The Weir, Harold Pinter Theatre Best for kids: My Neighbour Totoro, Gillian Lynne Theatre Best old classic: Les Miserables, Sondheim Theatre  Best for something a bit different: The Maids, Donmar Warehouse It isn’t a scientific process, and you’ll definitely see shows that got four stars above ones that got five – this is generally because the five star show is probably going to be on for years to come (hello, Hamilton) and I'm trying to draw your attention to one that’s only running for a couple more weeks. Or sometimes, we just like to shake things up a bit. It’s also deliberately light on the longer-running West End hits simply because I don’t think you need to know what I think about Les Mis before you book it (it’s fine!). So please enjoy the best shows in London, as recommended by us, having actually seen them.

Even by London’s standards, November is an eclectic month for comedy, with our most anticipated shows including Joe Kent-Waters’ hell-set Frankie Monroe DEAD!!! (Good Fun Time), an evening of Vaudeville with beloved US actor John C Reilly, and the return of the ever gloriously baffling Tim Key. There are far, far too many one-off, multi-performer comedy nights in London for us to compile a single coherent page with our favouites on, which is entirely to London’s credit. So do check individual bills of comedy clubs online for that sort of thing. But if you’re looking for an individual comedian with a full headline show then this page is here to compile the Time Out editorial team’s top choices, often with our reviews from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The best comedy clubs in London.The best new theatre shows to book for in London.

After a slow start, Hannah Doran’s drama about small-time tragedy among immigrant Americans in the age of Trump finds its feet in an explosive second half.  It’s set in Cafarelli & Sons, an NYC butcher’s shop that’s been in the family of owner Paula (Jackie Clune) for decades. She’s a badass with a heart of gold and has a benign tendency to hire staff with criminal records who other employers wouldn’t touch. Business is struggling, though, and only one of staff members JD (Marcello Cruz) and Billy (Ash Hunter) will be hired permanently at the end of the summer. There’s a lot of leisurely preamble before the story kicks in - I couldn’t shake off the sense that in this debut play, Anglo-Irish writer Hannah Doran felt like she had to compensate for her distance from this world by overly setting the scene, taking too much time to introduce her five characters. There is also a distracting initial similarity to Lynn Nottage superlative Clyde’s (about ex prisoners working in a sandwich shop). Finally, though, we get down to it. JD is enthusiastic about the job and a shoo in for the role, but is deeply nervous about getting it. Billy has been bumming around the shop for years without getting taken on permanently - but he needs the money to look after his desperately ill mother. Caught between them is T (Mithra Malek), Billy’s cousin, a young woman who has served time and is now working a temporary summer role at the shop. JD takes a shine to her; Billy leans on her to help him sabota

Though it would be pushing it to say Tom Morris directs Othello as a comedy, he certainly wrings more laughs than usual out of Shakespeare’s great tragedy. To be fair I don’t think I’d appreciated the extent to which other productions must try to avoid audience giggles every time a character describes the villainous Iago –  the greatest snake in English literature – as ‘honest’. Morris just cheerily milks it, and the result is a lighter-than-usual take on the play. Not out-and-out hilarious, but with a glossiness that speaks of a desire to go easy on a West End audience.  The title role is played by David Harewood, who returns to the part 28 years after he was the first Black actor to star as the doomed Moorish general at the National Theatre. His new Othello is a precise, confident, seemingly unflappable man who shows little sign of jealousy or doubt for a long time. But his extreme rationalism proves his downfall: once Toby Jones’s Iago presents ‘proof’ of Othello’s wife Desdemona (Caitlin FitzGerald) being unfaithful, her husband simply accepts it, something that speaks as much of misogyny as insecurity or insanity.  Jones is a thoroughly entertaining Iago, who tackles Shakespeare's elegant verse with a coarse vigour that helps explain why the other characters like him so much: he comes across as plainspoken, dowe to earth, and funny.  Why does he want to destroy Othello? Being overlooked for a promotion in favour of Luke Treadway’s dashing Cassio is the initial impetus. B

This review is from January 2022. The friend who was supposed to come with me to ‘Moulin Rouge! The Musical’ dropped out because of a migraine, and honestly, hard relate: director Alex Timbers’s dementedly maximalist ‘remix’ of Baz Luhrmann’s smash 2001 film is pure sensory overload. Frequently I found myself cackling hysterically at it, on my own, for no particularly good reason, other than how *much* it all is. If you can remember any of the 2001 film’s music beyond ‘Lady Marmalade’ (here present and correct as show opener, complete with sassy, snappy choreography from Sonya Tayeh) you’ll remember that the soundtrack largely consists of medleys of other people’s songs. So we have ‘Sparkling Diamonds’, aka ‘Diamonds are Forever’ smushed into ‘Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend’ or the semi-infamous ‘Elephant Love Medley’, a wilfully preposterous amalgam of the cheesiest lines from myriad famous pop tunes, a veritable one-track sex mix. You have to think that it’s essentially this that drew Timbers and music supervisor Justin Levine to ‘Moulin Rouge!’, as they’ve gone absolutely nuts with the idea, pumping the story full of pop songs old and new, fragmented and whole. Like a glittery cow jacked up with some fabulous experimental growth hormone, ‘Moulin Rouge!’ is now bulked into a veritable behemoth of millennial pop bangers. There are the ones that were in the film. There are some that were around when the film was made but weren’t included (‘Torn’; no kidding, the theme from

This review is from the 2025 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Joe Kent-Waters’s second show is exactly what I wanted it to be, which is to say that it’s basically a bigger budget remake of his first show.  In case you missed it, Kent-Waters made a huge impression at last year’s Fringe – winning the Best Newcomer award – with his creation Frankie Monroe, a hulking, gravelly-voiced, white-faced men’s club owner and self-declared ‘biggest bastard in Yorkshire’. The improbable longevity of his anachronistic Rotherham working men’s club was the result of a pact Frankie had signed with the Devil 25 years previously – and in debut show Joe-Kent Waters is Frankie Monroe: LIVE!!! the Devil came to collect, the show culminating in him being dragged to Hell, ‘by the balls’. Joe Kent-Waters is Frankie Monroe: DEAD!!! (Good Fun Time) is the direct sequel: it begins in Hell, where Frankie is essentially practising almost exactly the same schtick to the souls of the damned as he was to the men of Rotherham (who I’m sure are two very different groups of people). The jokes are different, but it’s the same character doing the same shtick in a similar way – an audience member is picked on to a remarkable extent; a puppet dog is deployed. And it’s brilliant, the best show I’ve seen at the Fringe this year. Sometimes it’s death to return to what you did last time out, but it was exactly the right decision for Kent-Waters. Most crucially, the joke is still funny. Frankie – a sort of monstrous amalgam of

There are no wild directorial flourishes or big awards-bait performances in director Michael Grandage and playwright Jack Holden’s stage adaptation of Alan Hollinghurst’s seminal novel of the ‘80s. The wheel is at no point reinvented. But, by Thatcher’s ghost, it does a tremendous job of cutting Hollinghurst’s period odyssey into a gripping, flab-free two-and-a-half hours of theatre. It is, above all, a great piece of storytelling.  If you’re not familiar, The Line of Beauty concerns Nick Guest (here played by Jasper Talbot), a young gay man who in 1983 moves into the ultra fancy home of his uni mate Toby Fedden’s parents as a lodger. ‘Welcome to Kensington Park Garden,’ intones Nick’s mother Rachel (Claudia Harrison), as she introduces Nick to the house she shares with her newly elected Tory MP husband Gerald (Charles Edward) and depressive daughter Catherine. The story charts his journey through the decade: adjacent to the ruling classes but not a member of them, he is further removed from the mainstream by his sexuality, which he is entirely open about, but also othered by. A relationship with Leo (Alistair Nwachukwu), a Black councillor (one assumes for Labour) is largely conducted on the down-low. Though nominally invited in, Nick is wary of bringing Leo into the circle of the Feddens for a multitude of reasons. Some are clearly self-interested: the pointedly ‘apolitical” Nick is aware Leo is unlikely to get on with his Tory benefactors. Others are more self-preservation

The little brother in question in Eoin McAndrew’s Verity Bargate Award-winning dramedy is Niall (Cormac McAlinden), who at the beginning of the story phones up his big sister Brigid (Catherine Rees) at 3am and tries to make inane smalltalk with her. She is, nonetheless, patient with him and they agree to go for a walk together at the weekend. Then he sets fire to his hand, an incident that understandably reverberates throughout the play.  Which sounds a bit bleak – and indeed is bleak – but Little Brother has a very definite comedic tone, as evidenced by the second scene in which Brigid is at the hospital discussing Niall’s injury with a wildly eccentric nurse (Laura Dos Santos) who burbles on about Northern Ireland’s abnormally high numbers of self-immolations and also how great the hospital water is. The meat of the play’s story concerns the vulnerable Niall coming to live with Brigid while he tries to get his life back together. Despite being busy with work, she has a sweet dedication to her brother that’s touching, if occasionally absurd. The nurse asks her to hide every potential source of flame in the house, which she does, but Brigid is aghast to come home one night and discover her brother is watching The Wicker Man. Compilations arise in the shape of Conor O’Donnell’s Michael Doran. Insisting on going by his whole name, he’s Brigid’s boyfriend, who she initially tries to conceal from Niall before introducing him gently. A big, awkward, childishly self-interested man,

Aussie director Kip Williams made a splash over here last year with his ultra techy, video-centric take on The Picture of Dorian Gray, which used a multitude of crafty camera tricks to create a universe of characters out of one Sarah Snook. Next year, he’ll be doing something similar with a Dracula in which Cynthia Erivo tackles 23 different roles.  Those shows originated in Australia and were part of a specific trilogy of one-woman, camera-based Victorian horror adaptations (there’s a Jekyll & Hyde too). This Donmar adaptation of Jean Genet’s 1947 classic The Maids is his first original UK production. And the question begged is: are all Kip Williams’s shows ‘like that’, in a visual sense? The answer would seem to be ‘basically, yes’. While there are no camera operators (there’s no room), Williams’s take on The Maids makes copious use of live streaming from iPhones, not to mention an absolute ton of filters. Here, maids and sisters Claire (Lydia Wilson) and Solange (Phia Saban) use them to construct a lurid fantasy world in which they viciously roleplay their similarly filter-addicted Madame (Yerin Ha), who would appear to be some sort of nepo-baby influencer who in turn roleplays a version of her own life for her 24 million online followers. Visually it’s loud, garish and kind of basic. Which is a good thing! Even when Jamie Lloyd does it, live video in theatre tends to have an arthouse vibe. But actually live video is one of the more dominant means of communication on the p

The review is from the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It transfers to the Park Theatre in November 2025. This drama from playwright Isley Lynn and actor Libby Rodliffe is a dark comedy about Bea (Rodliffe), a young millennial who it rapidly transpires is working three jobs, plus dog sitting for the (off travelling) pal whose flat she is staying in for free. Much of the early humour simply comes from the eye watering logistical details of how Bea pulls off the balancing act of holding down a full time PA job while also working as the concierge for a dodgy block of luxury flats while also needing to pick up her friend’s dog by 7pm every night (she also does some out of hours data entry).  The cleverest thing about Lynn and Rodliffe’s script is how it only slowly sneaks up on you to why Bea is actually doing all this. One’s immediate assumption is, cossie lives: Bea is a young(ish) person trying to get by in London, London is very expensive, look at the exaggerated lengths she’s gone to in order to get by, hahaha, not especially imaginative.  But of course somebody paying no rent doesn’t need three jobs, and over the course of ‘Jobsworth’ we discover how detached Bea has become from her friends, who are living normal lives without her. It transpires that she has done something very foolish in order to bail out somebody who has done something wildly irresponsible, and Bea has taken the absurd gamble that she can make it all better by working three jobs and not paying rent. To so

This review is from Christmas 2024. Ballet Shoes returns for Christmas 2025 with a new cast headed by Sienna Arif-Knights as Petrova Fossil, Nina Cassells as Pauline Fossil and Scarlett Monahan as Posy Fossil an Anoushka Lucas as Sylvia. The National Theatre’s big family Christmas show is a sumptuous adaptation of Noel Streatfeild’s classic 1936 children’s novel Ballet Shoes. It’s slick, classy and meticulously directed by Katy Rudd. But ultimately it lacks dramatic punch. The story follows the eccentric household initially headed by Justin Salinger’s Great Uncle Matthew (aka GUM), a paleontologist in the old-school explorer vein. A confirmed bachelor, he is initially aghast when he is abruptly made legal guardian of his 11-year-old niece Sylvia (Pearl Mackie). But he soon changes his tune when freak circumstances lead to him taking in three baby girls: Petrova (Yanexi Enriquez), Pauline (Grace Self) and Posy (Daisy Sequerra), each of whom he found orphaned while out on an expedition. But then he disappears on one of his trips; the meat of the story is about his three daughters growing up in the unconventional, almost entirely female household headed by Sylvia and their redoubtable housekeeper Miss Guthridge (Jenny Galloway). Each girl’s life is defined by seemingly having a calling that they are simply born with: Pauline to be an actor, Petrova to be a mechanic, and Posy to be a dancer, spurred on by the titular ballet shoes left to her by her mother.   To be honest… that’s

Nicola Walker is a brilliant TV actor: her sullen, sarcastic charisma brings an edge to sundry MOR terrestrial Brit dramas – we’re talking Spooks, Last Tango in Halifax, River, The Split, Annika – in which her career has flourished. But even though she has done some great stuff on stage – notably her excellent turn in Ivo van Hove’s landmark production of A View from the Bridge – I’m not sure Nicola Walker has ever truly successfully brought her innate Nicola Walkerness to bear in a theatre role. Until now.  Nick Payne’s new Royal Court play The Unbelievers isn’t the instant classic his last one (2012’s Constellations) was. But its star gives a turn that is absolutely, magnificently, unfettered Nicola Walker. Her unique gift for proper nuanced acting filtered via an unshakeable deadpan grumpiness is harnessed to perfection as she plays a grieving mother whose sorrow and grief at the unexplained disappearance of her son has curdled into something darker and more disturbing. The play is set in three timelines, albeit heavily jumbled up and somewhat blurred. There’s the immediate aftermath of Oscar’s disappearance, when Walker’s Miriam is terse and snappy but fundamentally reasonable in both her grief and her burning desire to make progress on the case. There’s one year on, where things are beginning to slip with her. The play opens with a scene from this timeline in which a somewhat out of it Miriam is tending to a wounded hand which has arisen from a complicated series of even

Though you can buy all of Michael Bond’s books in the gift shop, let’s be clear here: the Paddington Bear Experience has very little to do with the first 50 or so years of the marmalade-loving ursine’s existence. Rather, the lavish new central London immersive experience makes no bones about fact it’s a live extension of the world of the two (soon to be three) StudioCanal movies. Theoretically I suppose that’s a shame. Debuting in print in 1958, Paddington has a rich history and London’s first proper attraction dedicated to him doesn’t explore it at all. But who are we kidding here? The Paul King films are modern masterpieces, and Paddington would be left as a beloved but past-his-prime nostalgia character if it weren’t for them. He’d have his little statue at the station. But nothing like this. You don’t absolutely need to have seen the films, but there are countless callbacks to them in this gentle adventure, which essentially an immersive theatre show. As we begin by waiting at a small recreation of Paddington Station to board our train to Windsor Gardens, we’re serenaded by a pre-recorded version of the band from the films playing ‘London is the Place for Me’; when we make it to Windsor Gardens for this year’s Marmalade Day Festival, designer Rebecca Brower has faithfully recreated the entire downstairs of the Brown’s boho Notting Hill pad. And then of course there’s Paddington himself - constantly teased as just out of full sight, his prerecorded voice would seem to be t

This review is from Inter Alia’s National Theatre premiere in July 2025. In March 2026 it will transfer to the West End, with Pike again leading the cast. Playwrights usually want to flex their range after their first big hit. But it’s to the credit of Suzie Miller that she cares so much about the issues explored in her smash Prima Facie that she’s come up with a follow up that you have to at least describe as ‘a companion piece’.  Both Prima Facie and Inter Alia are named after legal terms, both are about high-achieving female members of the legal profession, and while Prima Facie was a monologue and Inter Alia is a three-hander, both have a huge-scale female role at their centre that makes them the perfect vehicle for a screen star looking to scratch the stage itch. And so both have had Justin Martin-directed UK premieres starring major celebrities: Jodie Comer made her stage debut in Prima Facie, while Rosamund Pike treads the boards for the first time in years in Inter Alia. The most crucial similarity, however, is not entirely apparent from the first half hour or so of Inter Alia, which is basically an extended sequence of Pike’s high court judge Jessica frenziedly girlbossing as she juggles her extremely high-powered job with a busy social life and being a mum to vulnerable teen Harry (Jasper Talbot). It’s a breathless performance from Pike, who crests and surges from neuroticism to icy confidence. It’s draining: there’s barely room for us or her to breathe, and a sequ

Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton’s excellent play Stage/Fright ran at Wyndham’s Theatre earlier this year, and felt like a loving coda to Inside No. 9, the duo’s long-running comedy horror anthology series, which recently wrapped up after nine seasons.  Stage/Fright has been a long goodbye, heading out on UK tour after its West End run, but now its creators have declared they’re done with it for good – and potentially Inside No 9 as a concept – after one final run of shows. And they’re coming around soon: presumably in order to accommodate busy schedules, Stage/Fright will run for six shows only in early January at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith. It’s a big venue, but considering it previously sold out a three-month West End run entirely in advance, it seems likely these tickets are going to fly. Inevitably a lot of those tickets will probably go to hardcore Inside No. 9 fans who have already see it, but if that’s not you, you should still give it a go: the play is an inventive black comedy that’s as much a celebration of theatre as it is the show itself – you don’t actually need to have seen the TV series to have a good time. Inside No. 9’s Stage/Fright is at the Eventim Apollo, Jan 2-6 2026. Tickets go on sale Nov 13 at noon from here. The best new London theatre openings to book for in 2025 and 2026. Plus: Jesus Christ Superstar returns to London with Sam Ryder in the lead role. Get the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke – from news and reviews to events and tr

So-called ‘immersive’ exhibitions have become big business in London in recent time, with shows dedicated to Tutankhamun, the Titanic and Pompeii all playing in 2025, the vaunted ‘immersion’ achieved via a mix of factors ranging from interactive sets to films to VR sections. Now here comes a brand new immersive exhibition for north London, and while all the above mentioned shows were essentially tricked out historical exhibitions, this one’s a little different. As you might expect, the Mundo Pixar Experience is based around the films of the pioneering kids’ animation studio Pixar, and rather than a dry affair made up of stills and concept sketches, it’s basically a journey through a series of 14 rooms, one for each ‘universe’ in the Pixar filmography.  So we shrink down to toy size in Andy’s Room from Toy Story, explore the Monster, Inc Scare Floor, race into Flo’s Café from Cars to meet Lightning McQueen, visit the Headquarters of Riley’s emotions from Inside Out 2, and journey from Coco’s Land of the Living to the Land of the Dead. We’re promised each are will have immaculate vibes via beautiful design, exquisite ambient sound, and intriguingly ‘specially crafted scents’ to ensure each area smells just so (!). The show has played Brazil, Mexico, Belgium and Spain on a world tour on which it’s won praise for the beauty of its its sets and generally being an all round great photo opportunity, even if there has been some grumbles that there isn’t necessarily a huge amount to d

This is not a good time to be an Andrew Lloyd Webber hater, with the musical theatre legend on track to be almost as popular as he was in the ’80s. Jamie Lloyd’s Rachel Zegler-starring Evita revival was the year’s most talked about show, a first ever UK revival of Cats was announced to much anticipation; over in New York Lloyd’s Sunset Boulevard revival took the Tonys by storm and critics were wowed by hipster off-Broadway Cats revival The Jellicle Ball. He’s even buried the hatchet with his old writing partner Tim Rice long enough for the duo to pen some new songs for this year’s Birmingham Rep Christmas show. And today it’s been announced that another of his classics will follow Evita into the Palladium, running throughout next summer. It’s not just any revival of 1971’s Jesus Christ Superstar, but rather a fresh outing for current Donmar boss Tim Sheader’s excellent 2016 Open Air Theatre production, which transferred to the Barbican three years later. Bombastic and grungy with a very cool set by Tom Scutt it will be a treat to see it again on an even larger stage (though worth saying Lloyd’s Evita also came from the Open Air Theatre and he completely changed it for the Palladium - Sheader may do the same). If you’re unfamiliar, the musical – by Webber and Rice – is essentially a surprisingly fun rock concert adaptation of the story of the Last Supper and Crucifixion. The lead role is in a very literal sense Jesus Christ and playing him will be musician, social media person

Avenue Q was one of the classic ’00s musicals, a subversive comedy that mixed gritty realism – or a parody of it – with adorable Sesame Street-style puppets. The brainchild of Jeff Marx and Book of Mormon co-writer Robert Lopez , it was one of the defining musicals of its time, running for five years here and a walloping 16 years on and off-Broadway, all told.  And now it’s coming back, with the original Broadway puppets crossing over for a limited but fairly lengthy 2026 revival that will be helmed by the show’s original director Jason Moore, with a few new UK tweaks.  For those unfamiliar – and it’s been 15 year since it wrapped up its original West End run – the musical centres on Princeton, a young puppet who has just graduated with a BA in English and must now attempt to find a job in a far-flung ‘outer outer borough’ of New York. He eventually settles upon the rundown, eccentric Avenue Q, where his new friends include Kate Monster, Lucy the Slut and the Bad Idea Bears, plus the former child actor Gary Coleman, who now begrudgingly works as the superintendent in Princeton’s building. Classic songs include ‘Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist’ and ‘What Do You Do with a BA in English?’. It’s silly, rude, funny and there’s not really been anything else like it in the years since it closed. Whether it’s dated is to be seen, but a limited return is a welcome thing and if you’re in the market for an outrageous comedy musical that isn’t The Book of Mormon again, this could be right

A musical adaptation of hit 2014 Britflick Pride has been in the world for a while – which is not surprising, as its director Matthew Warchus – the outgoing Old Vic boss – is a heavyweight director of stage musicals, notably Matilda and Lord of the Rings.  A fictionalised account of real life events, the 1984-set film follows a group of lesbian and gay activists who realise that the reason the police have stopped harassing them is because they’ve instead set their sights on the striking miners. They therefore decide to raise money in solidarity with the strike, overcoming the initial bemusement – and in some case homophobia – of the miners to get in motion a sequence of events that would end with rights for gays and lesbians being adopted to the Labour Party programme.  The musical adaptation will be directed by Warchus and written by the film’s screenwriter Stephen Beresford, who’ll handle lyrics as well as the script, while the music comes from Christopher Nightingale, Josh Cohen and DJ Walde – the latter two are best known for work with hip-hop dance company ZooNation, which suggests the songs could go down a non-showtune route. There’s no work on casting yet, though there are lots of good roles, including the lead one of gay rights activist Mark Ashton, founder of LGSM (aka Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners). Substantially set in Wales, the musical will officially preview at the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff, before transferring to the National Theatre’s small Dorfman The

No other word to describe it: November 2025 is a blockbuster month for London theatre, with the two biggest shows of the year opening within it in the form of the musical adaptation of Paddington, and Conor McPherson’s stage adaptation of The Hunger Games. It’s such famous source material that there’s little more to be said beyond ‘if they’re not good, heads will roll’, so let’s move swiftly on to point out that in addition to that there are stonking big celebrity-heavy takes on Arthur Miller and Shakespeare coming to the West End. And if you can see past the massive shows – well looky here, pantomime season gets underway in the second half of the month: oh yes it does! The best new London theatre openings in November 2025 Photo: Oliver Rosser 1. All My Sons Ivo van Hove’s stupendous 2014 production of A View from the Bridge could reasonably be argued to be the greatest ever staging of Arthur Miller’s landmark play. Which certainly sets the bar high for his second stab at Miller on these shores, and we should probably manage expectations somewhat here. However, the omens are pretty damn good: All My Sons is an all-timer, and there’s a wonderful cast including Hayley Squires, Paapa Essiedu, Marianne Jean-Baptiste and American superstar Bryan Cranston as Joe Keller, the upright American businessman with questions about his past. Wyndham’s Theatre, Nov 14-Mar 7 2026. Buy tickets here. Photo: Isha Shah 2. Paddington the Musical Really big British musicals are few and far bet

For months it’s been the biggest theatre mystery in London. When the ‘full’ cast to the hugely anticipated new Paddington musical was announced several months ago, there was one very conspicuous omission: the eponymous bear himself.  Speculation abounded, from ‘a puppet’ to ‘something to do with Ben Whishaw’ to who knows what else (a very well trained live bear?), but with the show now having started its previews, all has been revealed. Paddington will in fact be played by two people: the diminutive Arti Shah will don a costume to play his body, and James Hameed is credited as the ‘off-stage performer’ and will do both his voice and – as we understand it – remotely control his facial expressions. Photo: Johan Persson It’s an intriguing mix of the very modern and the very old school – a remotely controlled all-singing lead in a musical is surely not something that’s been done much before, but at the same time it is also a small lady in a bear costume. The stills do make Paddington simply look like a large toy bear frozen in a variety of poses, but that’s kind of the point really, and early word of mouth on Paddington the Musical actually suggests it’s pretty damn spectacular, like having the marmalade-loving bear in the room with you. The show is in previews until the very end of the month – you’ll have to wait until November 30 for our review – but things are clearly going pretty well as the show has also just extended its booking period until next October. Paddington the M

The Royal Court Theatre today announces a pretty damn spectacular seventieth birthday season, that mixes its traditional new writing with a couple of extremely tasty revivals from its back catalogue. The really, really big news is the return of Tilda Swinton to the British stage after literally decades away, as she reprises her role in German playwright Manfred Karge’s Man to Man (Sep 5-Oct 24 2026). Set between the wars, the one-woman show concerns Ella Gericke, a German woman who adopts her late husband’s identity in order to hold on to his decently-paying job as a crane operator. Tilda Swinton was just 27 when it debuted at Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre in 1987 (it transferred to the Court the following year), and her extraordinary, gender-bending performance cued her up cult big screen career. Following on from this year’s superb Court revival of the original production of Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis, this is another case of getting the old gang back together – director Stephen Unwin will take the helm for what is literally a reprisal of the original production. Photo: Royal Court TheatreGary Oldman, Krapp’s Last Tape The other big celebrity name is Gary Oldman, who has been absent from the stage for even longer than Swinton – a whopping 37 years. Or he was until earlier in 2025, when he performed, directed and starred in Beckett’s high concept elegy Krapp’s Last Tape at Theatre Royal York. That gets a transfer to the Court (May 8-30 2026), which would be a good get unde

Tom Fletcher is best known as one quarter of millennial guitar-pop sensations McFly, though parents may be at least as familiar with his other guise as the author of a hugely successful array of children’s books including the, erm, seminal The Dinosaur that Pooped… series. And now he’s been tapped to write the songs and lyrics for the biggest Brit musical of the decade: Paddington. That one word says all you need to know. An exemplary group of talent – director Luke Sheppard, playwright Jessica Swale, super-producer Sonia Friedman – have spent five years devising the first modern stage outing for the marmalade-loving Peruvian bear. There is a veil of secrecy behind exactly what they’ve cooked up – especially in terms of how Paddington himself well be portrayed – but all will be revealed when it starts its run next month. Photo: Jay BrooksThe (bear-free) cast publicity photo for ‘Paddington the Musical’ How did Paddington figure in your childhood? ‘I compare him to my experience with the Beatles. I don’t remember the first time I heard the Beatles. I just seemed to have absorbed their music and at some point realised I could sing almost every Beatles song. I don’t remember the first time I saw Paddington, but it always seems to have been there, although I think a lot of people from my generation remember the stop-motion cartoon.’ Somebody who only knows you for McFly might not appreciate that you have written a lot of children’s books. ‘Yeah, I think I’ve written about 30.

Suzie Miller’s Inter Alia was the jewel in the crown of the National Theatre's summer season, a follow up to the Australian playwright’s West End smash Prima Facie – once again directed by Justin Martin – that scored great reviews (including four stars from Time Out). It was a hit, and in this it didn’t hurt that it boasted a similarly big name to the Jodie Comer-starring Prima Facie: for Inter Alia it was Rosamund Pike making her NT debut as another troubled female member of the legal profession (this seems to be Aussie playwright Miller’s ‘thing’). And now it’s transferring to the West End for 2026, with Pike returning in the lead role of Jessica Parks, a high flying, fun loving High Court judge, whose feminist ideals are severely compromised when her teenage son is accused of rape.  We can presumably blame the unfortunate cancellation of Pike’s Amazon show The Wheel of Time for her availability for a chunk of 2026, but it’s being billed as a strictly limited run, and given the Gone Girl/Saltburn actor’s general busyness, that’s probably true (as opposed to a theatre euphemism for ‘unless we sell more tickets than we expect to’). Although the show is dominated by Jessica/Pike, there are a couple of male roles: her son Harry and husband Michael. Jamie Glover will return as Michael with casting for Harry TBC. Inter Alia transfers to Wyndham’s Theatre, Mar 19-Jun 20 2026. Tickets go on sale Oct 24 at noon. The best new London theatre to book for in 2025 and 2026. The best Chri

Australian theatre auteur Simon Stone is still riding high on his current smash hit for the Bridge Theatre, his own stage adaptation of Ibsen’s The Lady from the Sea, with a superstar cast headed by Alicia Vikander and Andrew Lincoln. He’s clearly having a jolly good time as the Bridge – which admittedly has a slightly freewheeling approach towards programming – has just announced that he’s coming back next year, with another freewheeling adaptation of a classic play and another big name Hollywood celebrity as its lead. The play is Ivanov, which is one of Chekhov’s lesser known works – ie it’s not one of the ‘big four’ that are staged almost constantly – but it does get a major revival every now and again (the National Theatre did it in 2016). And in the title role of the mournful Ivanov – a man whose life has hit a rut, and is now looking mournfully back at past glories – is none other than Chris Pine, the US actor best known for his role as Captain Kirk in the rebooted Star Trek films, plus sundry other roles including the Wonder Woman films. He’s no stranger to the stage, having actually acted on stage for 15 years before his screen career took off. Stone is a singular writer-director and we undoubtedly know roughly what to expect from his update: it’s going to be modern dress, with modern language, and probably have a lot of swearing in it. But it’ll probably be pretty damn moving too. Further casting is TBA, but Stone is bringing back the creative team behind The Lady fr

The gargantuan Beckenham Place Park is an icon of London’s deep southeast, a vast space that dwarfs Hyde Park and has had some serious investment put into it in recent years by Lewisham council. It’s played host to events for years now, and in a typical year you’ll probably get circuses, funfairs and the odd music festival. Nothing, though, quite so big as the Winter Gardens, a huge new seasonal event – dare we call it the Winter Wonderland of Zone 4 – that brings together a thrilling array of fun festive things into Beckenham Place Park’s vastness. The Gardens will include: Lewisham’s first covered ice rink; performances from regular BPP winter visitors the Revel Puck Circus; a Christmas market and Christmas tree vendor; a Christmas-themed crazy golf; plus bars, games areas and various food options. Entry will be free although inevitably the ice skating, golf and circus are all ticketed (and can be booked for online in advance). There are, on the whole, probably slightly more magical festive sights than Lewisham in the winter – but the Winter Gardens should give it that bit of extra sparkle. The Winter Gardens are at Beckenham Place Park, Nov 15-Jan 4 2026. Book tickets for the ice rink, golf and circus here. The best pantomimes in London this Christmas. Plus: the top London Christmas activities for kids. Get the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke – from news and reviews to events and trends. Just follow our Time Out London WhatsApp channel. Stay in the loop: sign up t