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Best new theatre shows: London, September 2023

By Holly O'Mahony on 31/8/2023

From Andrew Scott in a one-man classic to pop star Nicole Scherzinger in an Andrew Lloyd Webber revival, September's stages are looking mighty starry. Here are the theatre shows you won't want to miss.

Andrew Scott stars in Vanya. Photo: Oliver Rosser Feast Creative

Andrew Scott in Vanya, Duke of York's Theatre

Andrew Scott is starring in a one-man version of Chekhov's classic masterpiece, Uncle Vanya. (If you had to read that sentence twice, so did we.) Yes, the formidable, wildly versatile actor, who's brought to life a spine-chilling villain in Sherlock's Moriarty and a sex symbol as Fleabag's Hot Priest, is now attempting to single-handedly conjure the ennui felt on the play's rural estate, slipping into the skin of each of its characters.

WHEN

Friday 15 September – Saturday 21 October. Previews at Richmond Theatre from Monday 28 August to Saturday 2 September, then running at the Duke of York's Theatre from 15 September - 21 October

WHERE

Duke of York's Theatre, St Martin's Lane, London WC2N 4BG

Sunset Boulevard, Savoy Theatre

The Jamie Lloyd Company brings Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Sunset Boulevard to a new generation with a production starring pop star Nicole Scherzinger.

WHEN

Thursday 21 September – Saturday 6 January 2024, 7:30pm–10pm

WHERE

Savoy Theatre, Savoy Court, Strand, London WC2R 0ET

Pygmalion, Old Vic Theatre

Patsy Ferran (A Streetcar Named Desire, Summer and Smoke) plays Eliza Doolittle, the Covent Garden flower girl turned prim and proper lady, not in the more frequently staged musical My Fair Lady, but a revival of the play that inspired it, Pygmalion. Opposite her is the equally revered Bertie Carvel (Ink), playing bachelor about town Professor Henry Higgins, who bets his friend Colonel Pickering he can turn Eliza into a lady.

WHEN

Wednesday 6 September – Saturday 28 October, 7:30pm–10pm

WHERE

The Old Vic, The Cut, London, SE1 8NB

Ian McKellen and Roger Allam in Frank and Percy. Photo: Jack Merriman

Frank and Percy, The Other Palace Theatre

It's undoubtedly the star billing that makes Ben Weatherill's play about two elderly gentlemen whose friendship blossoms into romance over long dog walks on Hampstead Heath such an enticing prospect. The indomitable Ian McKellen plays Percy, the proudly single, openly gay half of the duo. Roger Allam (The Moderate Soprano, Rutherford and Son) plays the widowed Frank, who before meeting Percy identified as straight.

WHEN

Friday 8 September – Sunday 3 December, 7:30pm–9.45pm

WHERE

The Other Palace Theatre, 12 Palace Street, London SW1E 5JA

Ajani Cabey (Hamnet) and Alex Jarrett (Judith). Credit: Manuel Harlan

Hamnet, Garrick Theatre

Lolita Chakrabarti's (Life of Pi, Hymn) adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s best-selling novel Hamnet comes to the West End, following an initial run at the Royal Shakespeare Company's Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. Set in Warwickshire, 1582, the play charts the death of Shakespeare's 11-year-old son Hamnet – an event that eventually led to the Bard writing his famous tragedy Hamlet in his son's memory.

WHEN

Saturday 30 September – Saturday 6 January 2024, 7:30pm–10pm

WHERE

Garrick Theatre, 2 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0HH

Death of England: Closing Time, National Theatre

Clint Dyer and Roy Williams are back at the National with the fourth and final instalment to their Death of England series, an exploration of race and identity in working-class Britain. Introducing female characters for the first time, it focuses on Denise (Jo Martin) and Carly (Hayley Squires), the wife and girlfriend of Delroy, who was the focus of part two.

WHEN

Wednesday 13 September – Saturday 11 November

WHERE

National Theatre, Upper Ground, London SE1 9PX

Mlima's Tale, Kiln Theatre

A chance to see work by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage (The Secret Life of Bees, Sweat) is always an exciting prospect. This one, about an elephant who haunts those connected to his death after he's murdered for his tusks, is a mythical-sounding tale doubling as a warning cry about the inhumane ivory trade. It premiered in the US back in 2018, and now it's getting its first UK outing at the Kiln. Miranda Cromwell (Death of a Salesman) directs.

WHEN

Thursday 14 September – Saturday 21 October

WHERE

Kiln Theatre, 269 Kilburn High Road, London NW6 7JR

King Stakh's Wild Hunt, Barbican Theatre

Last year saw Belarus Free Theatre storm the Barbican Theatre stage with their raucous if batty show Dogs of Europe, based on a novel by Alhierd Bacharevic. This autumn, the company – exiled from their own country for speaking out against their government and Russia's through their work – are back with another adaptation: Uladzimir Karatkievich's folklore-inspired King Stakh's Wild Hunt. A 'gothic noir', the story follows an eerie hunt to save a young heiress from a wicked curse. Expect a fusion of opera, theatre, live music and multimedia from the show, which is being performed by both Belarusian and Ukrainian actors.

WHEN

Thursday 14 – Saturday 16 September

WHERE

Barbican Theatre, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS

Untitled F**k M*ss S**gon Play, Young Vic

Transferring to the Young Vic after a raved-about run at Manchester International Festival earlier this year, Kimber Lee's stereotype-smashing play calls out hundreds of years of narratives that tell all-too-familiar stories about Asian women and the white men who breeze in and out of their lives – cue references to Madama Butterfly, South Pacific, M*A*S*H and The King and I. Can Kim claw her way out of these cyclical narratives before it's too late? The intensely watchable Mei Mac (My Neighbour Totoro) stars.

WHEN

Monday 18 September – Saturday 4 November

WHERE

Young Vic Theatre, 66 The Cut, Waterloo, London SE1 8LZ

Red Pitch, Bush Theatre

Tyrell Williams' gentrification-shaming play about three friends hoping to save their south London football pitches from developers returns to the Bush Theatre following a sold-out run last year.

WHEN

Thursday 7 – Saturday 30 September

WHERE

Bush Theatre, 7 Uxbridge Road, London W12 8LJ

Derren Brown's Unbelievable, Criterion Theatre

Derren Brown's supreme skills as a magician not only make for cracking TV, but his shows, which have seen punters do all sorts of things in the name of hypnosis, have also now inspired a theatre-cum-magic show all of their own. The man himself doesn't star, mind, but the experience has been masterminded by his own team of backstage puppeteers. With audience participation essential to the show, no two performances will be entirely the same.

WHEN

Tuesday 19 September – Thursday 29 February 2024

WHERE

Criterion Theatre, 218-223 Piccadilly, St James's, London W1J 9HR

The Little Big Things, @sohoplace

Sportsman Henry Fraser's life was changed forever when a diving accident left him using a wheelchair. Based on his best-selling autobiography, this new musical from Joe White (book), Nick Butcher (music and lyrics) and Tom Ling (Lyrics) sets his remarkable story to an uplifting quasi-pop soundtrack.

WHEN

Saturday 2 September – Saturday 25 November

WHERE

@sohoplace, 2 Soho Place, London W1D 3BG

Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends, Gielgud Theatre

Cast your minds back to 2022 when, to mark the passing of legendary musical composer Stephen Sondheim (in late 2021), big-shot producer Cameron Mackintosh invited an esteemed line-up of performers to stage a tribute concert, featuring many of Sondheim's greatest musical hits. Now that concert is being remounted as a song-heavy theatre production with a four-month run, with Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga leading the cast.

WHEN

Saturday 16 September – Saturday 6 January 2024

WHERE

Gielgud Theatre, 35 Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1D 6AR

Best new theatre shows: London, September 2023

From Andrew Scott in a one-man classic to pop star Nicole Scherzinger in an Andrew Lloyd Webber revival, September's stages are looking mighty starry. Here are the theatre shows you won't want to miss.

Andrew Scott in Vanya, Duke of York's Theatre

Sunset Boulevard, Savoy Theatre

Pygmalion, Old Vic Theatre

Frank and Percy, The Other Palace Theatre

Hamnet, Garrick Theatre

Death of England: Closing Time, National Theatre

Mlima's Tale, Kiln Theatre

King Stakh's Wild Hunt, Barbican Theatre

Untitled F**k M*ss S**gon Play, Young Vic

Red Pitch, Bush Theatre

Derren Brown's Unbelievable, Criterion Theatre

The Little Big Things, @sohoplace

Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends, Gielgud Theatre

theatre

west end

off west end

new writing

revival

Andrew Scott

London Theatre Guide: best plays on now in London, 2023

RSC Hamnet, Garrick Theatre review ★★★★★

Dear England, Prince Edward Theatre

The Motive and the Cue, Noel Coward Theatre

Private Lives, Ambassadors Theatre review ★★★★★

Lyonesse, Harold Pinter Theatre review ★★★★★