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Gary Oldman’s tackling Beckett, Strictly winner Chris McCausland is on a huge standup tour – and mods can rev their scooters to a dance Quadrophenia
Brie Larson joins the growing fleet of American A-listers making their West End theatre debuts as she swaps celluloid superheroism for the Sophoclean tragedy about a daughter’s struggle for justice and desire for vengeance. This promising adaptation uses the translation by acclaimed poet Anne Carson and is directed by Daniel Fish, who made waves with his radically respun Oklahoma!
Theatre Royal Brighton, 13-18 January, and Duke of York’s theatre, London, 24 January-12 April
Set in 1940s Nigeria and based on a true story, Nobel prize-winner Wole Soyinka’s 1975 drama follows Elesin, the king’s horseman, who has an inner crisis after he is tasked to perform a sacred ritual upon the death of the monarch. Directed by Mojisola Kareem, the production features the music, dance and spirituality of the Yoruba people.
Crucible, Sheffield, 3-8 February
Shakespeare’s tragedy of lovestruck teenagers is set to hiphop, soul and R&B in the Begrade’s co-production with Bristol Old Vic and the Hackney Empire, in collaboration with music company That’s a Rap. Mixing Elizabethan and modern English, it sounds, on paper, a little like Jamie Lloyd’s beat-boxing Cyrano de Bergerac. Can it yield the same sensational results?
Belgrade, Coventry, 21 February-8 March
This Chekhovian revival sees Cate Blanchett return to the stage to play Arkadina, alongside Tom Burke and Emma Corrin. Despite her starry screen status, Blanchett’s roots lie in theatre: she is a former artistic director of Sydney Theatre Company and was recently announced as a board member at the National Theatre. This is a newly adapted version of the play by Duncan Macmillan and Thomas Ostermeier.
Barbican, London, 26 February-5 April
An adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 spy thriller seems a perfect match for Emma Rice, who has something of a Midas touch for innovative reworkings. It promises the same high-wire imagination as her recent musical adaptation of The Buddha of Suburbia, bringing extra humour, with six performers spinning many plates alongside a 1950s soundtrack.
York Theatre Royal, 18 March-5 April. Then touring
Almost three years ago, the Almeida staged a stupendous version of Eugène Ionesco’s tragic farce The Chairs starring husband-and-wife duo Kathryn Hunter and Marcello Magni. Now comes Ionesco’s absurdist story about a French town whose residents keep morphing into rhinoceroses, once again translated and directed by Omar Elerian.
Almeida, London, 25 March-26 April
In 2010, two days after he was released from Durham prison, Raoul Moat went on a horrifying shooting spree across north-east England, leading to the biggest manhunt in modern British history. Acclaimed writer-director Robert Icke turns his hand to this true crime story, following his sensationally updated West End production of Oedipus.
Royal Court, London, 28 March-3 May
Billed as a story about the greatest literary hoax of all time, and performed in Scots with Gaelic songs, this drama revisits an ancient epic poem about Highland history, translated (or composed) by James Macpherson in the 18th century, to explore whether the work was built on a deception. Scottish poet Martin O’Connor’s show raises questions of cultural identity, myth and authenticity.
Melrose Corn Exchange, 1-2 April. Then touring
Having conquered Hollywood, Gary Oldman is returning to the theatre where he had his first professional acting job, to play the maudlin character in Samuel Beckett’s one-man tragicomedy about ageing, the slippery nature of memory and loneliness. Oldman is also directing and designing the production. Clearly a labour of love, it will be one not to miss for Oldman’s many fans.
York Theatre Royal, 14 April–17 May
Stephen Sondheim’s final musical, revolving around a brunch gathering, premiered in 2023 in New York, two years after his death. Inspired by two films by the surrealist Luis Buñuel, it now makes its UK debut. With a book by David Ives, and directed by two-time Tony award-winner Joe Mantello, this marks an important moment for aficionados of musical theatre.
National Theatre, London, 23 April–28 June
The blockbuster Bollywood musical romance Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (The Brave-Hearted Will Take the Bride) broke records when it was released in 1995. Here, it is turned into an east-meets-west extravaganza by its original director, Aditya Chopra. The plot features a young woman on a last big adventure before an arranged marriage in India.
Manchester Opera House, 29 May-21 June
Sarah Kane’s final play was interpreted by many as a theatrical suicide note when it was posthumously staged. Featuring a protagonist debating the reasons to live or die, this RSC co-production will be directed by James Macdonald, with Daniel Evans, Jo McInnes and Madeleine Potter reprising their original roles, 25 years later.
Royal Court theatre, London, 12 June-5 July and the Other Place, Stratford-Upon-Avon, 10-27 July
Anna Jordan, a writer on Succession and Killing Eve, joins forces with Frantic Assembly for this drama about a couple’s love story, filled with highs, lows and many imagined futures. The show marks the company’s 30th anniversary, and is directed by Scott Graham. Staged at Leicester’s Curve and Lyric Hammersmith among other venues.
Touring from September
Chris Ashworth-Bennion’s bar-room comedy is about a notorious 19th-century Welsh jail-breaker and thief, John Jones, who was given the nickname Coch Bach y Bala (Little Redhead of Bala), and regarded as something of a Welsh Houdini for his multiple escapes from Ruthin Gaol.
Theatr Clwyd, Mold, 3-22 November
The breakout star of this year’s Strictly hits the road in 2025, and stays on it for a very long time. Touring until May 2026, McCausland will have ample chance to demonstrate what TV dance fans already know – that’s he’s every bit as sharp of wit as he is twinkly of toe.
Winchester Theatre Royal, 13-14 January. Then touring
One half of northern sketch duo the Delightful Sausage and a former best newcomer nominee, Hull-born Gledhill swiped the main Edinburgh award in 2024 with a show majoring in undignified bawdy comedy, and minoring in reflections on her own body image.
Soho theatre, London, 27 January-8 February
“Something old, something new, something butchered and something … boo!” That’s how Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton describe the first stage outing for their cult horror-comedy show Inside No 9. Judging by the consistently high quality of the telly version, we can expect chills, chuckles and brilliance in equal measures.
Wyndham’s theatre, London, 16 January-5 April
A new tour from Lou Sanders is always something for standup fans to cherish. Expect them now to be joined by fans of TV (where Sanders co-hosts the shame-based panel show Unforgivable) and autobiography (after the publication of acclaimed tell-all memoir What’s That Lady Doing?). Back-up for more lurid candour as she hits the road.
Folkestone Quarterhouse, 20 February. Then touring
The last man you’d ever expect to deliver a musical delivered one – of sorts – at the 2024 Edinburgh fringe. Fontanelle is experimental comic Brookes’s off-off-off-off-Broadway reckoning with the movie Titanic: a twisted standup hour interspersed with song-and-dance, exploring troubled masculinity and the relationship between tragedy and entertainment.
Soho theatre, London, 13 February-1 March
His unlike-anything-else TV hits Fantasmas and Los Espookys have made Julio Torres hot property stateside – if the multiple Emmys nods for writing SNL hadn’t done so already. Now the Salvadorian American brings his out-there live comedy to London for a limited, hot-ticket run.
Soho theatre, London, 12-17 May
Rosalie Minnitt’s alter ego Clementine just goes from strength to strength, embarking on a maiden tour after wildly successful Edinburgh and London stints. An eye-popping mashup of Jane Austen-style femininity and 21st-century neurosis, Minnitt’s frilly-bonneted character act couldn’t be funnier or more inspired.
Shakespeare North Playhouse, Prescot, 8 March. Then touring
Diffident or brilliant? Jamali Maddix’s last show, King Crud, was an unresolved affair delivered by a comic dismissive of the pieties of the age, and of his own mental health too. Disconcerting? A little. But there is no denying the excitement when this loose cannon, and shrewd chronicler of contemporary mores, steps on a standup stage.
Brighton Dome, 5 March. Then touring
Botis Seva won an Olivier award for his piece Blkdog, which was made six years ago and has been touring just about ever since. Now it’s time for something new. Until We Sleep follows the journey of a lone nomad, with the movement grounded in hip hop, and Seva’s low-lit worlds full of darkness, unease and mystery.
Lowry, Salford, 18 January. Then touring
This is a major new prize for dance, with £40,000 for the winner and another £15,000 for an upcoming artist. US choreographer Kyle Abraham is among the four nominees whose works will be performed at Sadler’s Wells. This comes just before the opening of a new venue, Sadler’s Wells East, in London’s Olympic Park.
Sadler’s Wells, London, 29 January-8 February
A new dance-circus show from long-running company Motionhouse, who make energetic, easy-to-watch spectacle that often touches on social or environmental themes. Hidden is about conflict – within ourselves and society – but director Kevin Finnan, who has choreographed opening ceremonies and outdoor events around the world, always has one eye on entertainment.
Warwick Arts Centre, 6-9 February. Then touring
Terry Riley’s seminal 1964 composition In C is the basis for this performance by German choreographer Sasha Waltz. It’s the latest iteration of an ever-evolving project that has been running since 2021, when Waltz developed a movement score that could be danced by anyone. This UK premiere is performed by Waltz’s own dancers.
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, 29-30 April
A revival of Matthew Bourne’s 2021 show, it’s an uncharacteristically bleak world for the choreographer, being set in the seedy, boozy Soho drawn by Patrick Hamilton in his novels of the 1920s and 30s. But it’s all the better for the grit of the gutter.
Everyman theatre, Cheltenham, 15-17 May. Then touring
There was plenty of dancing in the film Quadrophenia, based on the Who’s 1973 rock-opera album, but it wasn’t like this. Out with the purple hearts, in with the “mod ballet” choreographed by Paul Roberts, best known for his work with the Spice Girls and One Direction, but also the BalletBoyz.
Plymouth Theatre Royal, 28 May-1 June. Then touring
A premiere from Scottish Ballet showing us Mary, Queen of Scots in the final hours of her life, and retelling her past through her relationship with her cousin, Elizabeth I. It’s a centuries-old story given a contemporary look, with choreography by Sophie Laplane and music from the same composing team as Scottish Ballet’s hit Coppélia.
Edinburgh festival, August. Then touring
A major exhibition revolving around the work of choreographer Wayne McGregor. Full details are still to come but it’s billed as an immersive show featuring McGregor’s choreographic installations – perhaps a return of 2012’s Rain Room? – and new commissions, delving into his fascinations with interdisciplinary collaboration, new technologies and bodily intelligence.
Somerset House, London, 24 October-22 February 2026
Chills, chuckles and Cate Blanchett in Chekhov: the best theatre, dance and comedy coming in 2025
