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Best new theatre shows: London, March 2023

By Holly O'Mahony on 6/3/2023

From award-winning revivals to fresh work from Complicité and a new musical pitched as 'Evita on acid', we round up the best new theatre opening in London this month.

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, Barbican Theatre

Leading surrealist theatre company Complicité (The Encounter) is back at the Barbican to present the London premiere of its show Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, an adaptation of Olga Tokarczuk’s Nobel Prize-winning novel. Set on a remote Polish mountainside, it follows an eccentric environmentalist, Janina, convinced there’s something suspicious in the air when men are dying in mysterious circumstances and the local animals are acting strangely. Complicité's Simon McBurney directs the production, which stars Olivier Award-winning actress and long-standing company member Kathryn Hunter.

WHEN

Wednesday 15 March–Saturday 1 April

WHERE

Barbican Theatre, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS

Guys and Dolls, Bridge Theatre

It has staged immersive Shakespeare and transformed its stage into a flooded Oxford for its adaptation of Philip Pullman’s La Belle Sauvage, and now the Bridge Theatre is putting on its first musical, running with a Golden Age classic: Frank Loesser, Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows’ 1950 hit, Guys and Dolls.

WHEN

Until Saturday 2 September, 7:30pm–10pm

WHERE

Bridge Theatre, 3 Potters Fields Park, London SE1 2SG

Further than the Furthest Thing, Young Vic

Zinnie Harris’s award-winning play about islanders living peacefully until their way of life is threatened by the arrival of a modern outsider is being revived at the Young Vic. Director Jennifer Tang heads up this new ‘visionary interpretation’ of the story, which stars Jenna Russell, Archie Madekwe and Cyril Nri among its cast. The ever-brilliant Soutra Gilmour (Macbeth) is in charge of design.

WHEN

Thursday 9 March–Saturday 29 April

WHERE

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

Berlusconi: A New Musical, Southwark Playhouse Elephant

Fleabag and Baby Reindeer producer Francesca Moody is working with writers Ricky Simmonds and Simon Vaughan (who met as child actors on Grange Hill) to tell the 'almost true' story of three-time Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi – as a musical. Pitched as 'Evita on acid' and a 'modern-day cautionary tale', it tells the story of the populist leader through the eyes of various women in his life including his second wife, the magistrate who investigated him, and a journalist.

WHEN

Saturday 25 March–Saturday 29 April

WHERE

Southwark Playhouse Elephant, Dante Place, 80 Newington Butts, London SE11 4FL

Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Lyric Hammersmith

A chance to see Dario Fo’s acclaimed 1970 classic on the London stage, this adaptation of Accidental Death of an Anarchist comes from comedy actor Tom Basden and relocates the action from Milan to London. When the titular anarchist plunges to his death from a police-station window, questions arise as to whether he jumped or was pushed. A suspect, ‘the Maniac’ (Daniel Rigby), is brought in for questioning, but he soon has the police running round in circles in this sharp, absurdist satire.

WHEN

Monday 13 March–Saturday 8 April

WHERE

Lyric Hammersmith, Lyric Square, King Street, London W6 0QL

Marjorie Prime, Menier Chocolate Factory

US playwright Jordan Harrison’s Pulitzer Prize nominated play about an elderly woman using an AI assistant to help with her memory loss comes to London in a production directed by former Globe boss Dominic Dromgoole. Nancy Carroll, Richard Fleeshman, Tony Jayawardena and Anne Reid star.

WHEN

Until Saturday 6 May

WHERE

Menier Chocolate Factory, 53 Southwark Street, London SE1 1RU

A Streetcar Named Desire. Paul Mescal and Patsy Ferran. Photo: Marc Brenner

A Streetcar Named Desire, Phoenix Theatre

Following a sell-out run at the Almeida and a steady stream of rave reviews, Rebecca Frecknall's expressionistic take on Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire transfers to the West End – offering punters another chance to see TV-turned-film-star Paul Mescal on stage.

WHEN

Monday 20 March–Saturday 29 April, 7:30pm–10:15pm

WHERE

Phoenix Theatre, 110 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0JP

A Little Life, Harold Pinter Theatre

Belgian director Ivo van Hove helms the first English-language stage adaptation of Hanya Yanagihara’s best-selling novel A Little Life. The production stars James Norton (Happy Valley, Grantchester) as the story’s troubled hero Jude, with Bridgerton's Luke Thompson, It's a Sin's Omari Douglas and The Witcher's Zach Wyatt playing his close friends Willem, JB and Malcolm.

WHEN

Saturday 25 March–Sunday 18 June, 7pm. Run time TBC

WHERE

Harold Pinter Theatre, Panton Street, London SW1Y 4DN

Operation Mincemeat, Fortune Theatre

At long last! A West End run for SpitLip's musical comedy about the real WWII operation that helped the Brits deceive Hitler and successfully invade Sicily. This smart, high-speed, song-filled show is a wickedly entertaining riot that’s grown something of a cult following since it first played the New Diorama in 2019. Having honed its humour, steadily filling bigger and bigger venues, Operation Mincemeat arrives at the Fortune Theatre to blow away the cobwebs of recently departed horror, The Woman in Black.

WHEN

Wednesday 29 March–Saturday 8 July

WHERE

Fortune Theatre, Russell Street, London WC2B 5HH

Best new theatre shows: London, March 2023

From award-winning revivals to fresh work from Complicité and a new musical pitched as 'Evita on acid', we round up the best new theatre opening in London this month.

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, Barbican Theatre

Guys and Dolls, Bridge Theatre

Further than the Furthest Thing, Young Vic

Berlusconi: A New Musical, Southwark Playhouse Elephant

Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Lyric Hammersmith

Marjorie Prime, Menier Chocolate Factory

A Streetcar Named Desire, Phoenix Theatre

A Little Life, Harold Pinter Theatre

Operation Mincemeat, Fortune Theatre

theatre

West End

off West End

new writing

March 2023

Standing at the Sky’s Edge, Gillian Lynne Theatre review ★★★★★

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

A Streetcar Named Desire, Phoenix Theatre