Summer Theatre in London
Our Town
Photo: Feast Creative
London's stages play host to award-winning theatre shows all year round but the warmer months bring another realm of opportunities, with the streets and the parks becoming the stage. Read on to discover the best al fresco theatre in London this summer.
Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning play opens this year's Open Air Theatre season.
Our Town
Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park,
Inner Circle, Regent's Park London, NW1 4NR
Theatre
Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park, Inner Circle, Regent's Park, London, NW1 4NR
Tube: Regent's Park Station
Dates: 16th May - 08th June 2019
Opening the 2019 season, Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Our Town, comes to the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre this May. Directed by Ellen McDougall - artistic director of the Gate Theatre with previous credits including Ivan and the Dogs and Othello - the play celebrates what it means to be human, looking at the bonds that hold communities together through the ordinary lives of families in small town America over a period of 12 years. Francesca Henry, who recently made her professional debut in The Wolves at Stratford East, plays the role of Emily Webb, the central character who asks the pertinent question, "Do human beings ever realise life while they live it?"
Nicholas Hytner directs Shakespeare's comedy when it comes to the London Bridge Theatre.
Bridge Theatre, 3 Potters Fields Park, London, SE1 2SG
Tube: London Bridge Station
Dates: 03rd June - 31st August 2019
Reuniting the creative team who presented Julius Caesar at the Bridge in 2018, an immersive production of A Midsummer Night's Dream comes to the Tower Bridge theatre in summer 2019. Nicholas Hytner directs Shakespeare's comedy which plunges its audience into the heart of an enchanted forest, a place of change and infinite possibility. In the Bridge's immersive production, you sit close up to the action, or follow it on foot into a dream world of feuding fairies and uncontrollable desire. With designs by Bunny Christie, costumes by Christina Cunningham, lighting by Bruno Poet, sound by Paul Arditti and music by Grant Olding.
John Malkovich returns to the West End stage to star in David Mamet's new play.
Bitter Wheat
Garrick Theatre,
2 Charing Cross Road London, WC2H 0HH
Theatre
Garrick Theatre, 2 Charing Cross Road, London, WC2H 0HH
Tube: Leicester Square Station
, Charing Cross Station, Covent Garden Station, Piccadilly Circus Station, Embankment Underground Station
Dates: 07th June - 28th August 2019
Money. Sex. Power. You only need one of them according to Bitter Wheat, David Mamet's new play about a depraved Hollywood mogul. John Malkovich returns to the West End stage, appearing at the Garrick Theatre, after nearly 30 years to play Barney Fein, a top producer and bloated monster - a studio head, who, like his predecessor, the minotaur, devours the young he has lured to his cave. Yes, Harvey Weinstein was the "starting point" for the play. Billed as a comedy - "funnier than The Iceman Cometh, more chaos than Richard III" and written by David Mamet "in a good mood." - the play Doon Mackichan (as Sondra) and newcomer Ioanna Kimbook who plays Yung Kim Li along withMalkovich, who recently played Hercule Poirot in the BBC's Agatha Christie adaptation.
The outdoor theatre is the perfect setting for this enchanted forest-based fairy tale.
Hansel and Gretel
Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park,
Inner Circle, Regent's Park London, NW1 4NR
Theatre
Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park, Inner Circle, Regent's Park, London, NW1 4NR
Tube: Regent's Park Station
Dates: 14th - 22nd June 2019
After the success of The Turn of the Screw last year, the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre continues its collaboration with English National Opera in 2019 with a staging of Engelbert Humperdinck's operatic adaptation of Hansel and Gretel. Telling the story of two children who get lost in an enchanted forest, the atmospheric outdoor theatre will be the perfect setting for the production. Audiences will be fully immersed in the dark fairy tale, watching on as the children stumble upon a house made of cake, unable to resist taking a bite. Timothy Sheader directs the production, which will be re-told and sung in English.
Jason Donovan and Sheridan Smith star in this new production.
London Palladium, 8 Argyll Street, London, W1F 7TF
Tube: Oxford Circus Station
Dates: 27th June - 08th September 2019
Jason Donovan and Sheridan Smith star as the Pharaoh and The Narrator while 21-year-old newcomer Jac Yarrow takes the lead role in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat as the new production comes to the London Palladium this summer. Jac makes his professional stage debut as Joseph - a plum role that's previously been played by Jason Donovan, Phillip Schofield, Lee Mead, Joe McElderry and Donny Osmond. So Jac, who got the role while still at drama school, has big shoes as well as a colourful coat to fill. Told entirely through song with the help of the Narrator, Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's biblical musical features catchy songs like Any Dream Will Do, Close Every Door To Me and Jacob and Sons. It follows the story of Jacob's favourite son Joseph who is sold into slavery by his brothers. He finds favour with Egyptian noble Potiphar but ends up in jail after refusing the advances of Potiphar's wife. While imprisoned, Joseph discovers his ability to interpret dreams, and he soon finds himself in front of the mighty Pharaoh.
The Open Air Theatre is the perfect setting for Shakespeare's tale of desire and confusion.
Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park, Inner Circle, Regent's Park, London, NW1 4NR
Tube: Regent's Park Station
Dates: 28th June - 27th July 2019
Get fully immersed in Shakespeare's mythical forest this summer with A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre - the perfect al fresco setting for the tale of desire, confusion, jealousy and growing up. Audiences will be able to journey into the woods and enjoy an evening of live music, playful adventure and physical invention in this new production directed by Dominic Hill. Amber James, Kieran Hill, Myra McFadyen, Gabrielle Brooks and Susan Wokoma are among the cast members.
Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's seminal musical transfers from the Open Air Theatre to the Barbican.
Barbican Theatre, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS
Tube: Barbican Station
, Moorgate Station
Dates: 04th July - 24th August 2019
Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's seminal musical comes to the Barbican following two sell-out seasons at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. "A gorgeous, thrilling, heavenly musical" ran The Guardian headline above its four-star review back in 2015 and it has proved just as popular ever since. Over 45 years after Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar was first staged, Timothy Sheader's new production introduces a new generation to legendary hits like I Don't Know How to Love Him, Gethsemane and Superstar. This time it's reimagined as a rock festival under the musical direction of Tom Deering with choreography by Drew McOnie and Tom Scutt's "rusty, rough and ready set, with its cruciform walkway".
Clive Owen, Lia Williams, Anna Gunn and Julian Glover star in this new production.
Noel Coward Theatre, St Martin's Lane, London, WC2N 4AU
Tube: Leicester Square Station
, Covent Garden Station, Charing Cross Station, Piccadilly Circus Station
Dates: 06th July - 28th September 2019
Clive Owen returns to the West End for the first time in 18 years to play the Rev. T. Lawrence Shannon in The Night of the Iguana, in a new production directed by James Macdonald, whose recent successes include The Father and Glengarry Glen Ross. The actor, who made his name in films like Closer, Close My Eyes and Croupier, stars as a defrocked priest turned tourist guide alongside Lia Williams (Wallis Simpson in The Crown) as Hannah Jelkes, Anna Gunn (Breaking Bad) as Maxine Faulk and Game of Thrones star Julian Glover who plays Nonno. This group of lost souls meet in a dilapidated hotel in a rainforest above the west coast of Mexico. The verbal battle that ensues is heightened by the arrival of a tropical rain-storm.
Jamie Lloyd directs Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita.
Evita
Barbican Theatre,
Silk Street London, EC2Y 8DS
Theatre
Barbican Theatre, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS
Tube: Barbican Station
, Moorgate Station
Dates: 27th June - 22nd August 2020
Jamie Lloyd directs Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita as the musical comes to Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, concluding the 2019 season. The musical premiered in the West End in 1978 and features a chart-topping score including Don't Cry For Me Argentina, Oh! What A Circus, Another Suitcase in Another Hall, and the Academy Award-winning You Must Love Me, originally performed by Madonna in the Oscar-winning 1996film. As Artistic Director of The Jamie Lloyd Company, Jamie recently produced and directed the starry Pinter at the Pinter, a season of Harold Pinter's short plays in the West End with Tom Hiddleston, Lee Evans and a string of celebrities among the cast.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge performs the critically-acclaimed show one last time.
Fleabag
Wyndham's Theatre,
Charing Cross Road London, WC2H 0DA
Theatre
Wyndham's Theatre, Charing Cross Road, London, WC2H 0DA
Tube: Leicester Square Station
, Covent Garden Station, Charing Cross Station, Piccadilly Circus Station
Dates: 20th August - 14th September 2019
After making the nation cry with laughter and sadness with the critically-acclaimed season two on BBC Three, Phoebe Waller-Bridge brings her much-loved Fleabag back to its origins with a strictly-limited West End season of the one-woman show. Taking to the stage at the Wyndham's Theatre for just four weeks, the homecoming run will be the last time that Waller-Bridge will perform the piece. Having originally previewed at Soho Theatre, the production then premiered at Edinburgh Festival in 2013 and went on to tour the UK, South Korea and Australia before being given an off-Broadway run in New York. The stage production was nominated for an Olivier Award and Evening Standard Award while the BBC Three adaptation earned Waller-Bridge a BAFTA for Best Female Comedy Performance. Taking audiences on a journey through one woman's tumultuous life and sexual antics, Fleabag is an emotional rollercoaster, and Phoebe has perfected the art of transitioning from laugh-out-loud moments to tear-jerking scenes in the blink of an eye.
A four-storey building in central London is transformed into a 1990s New York setting.
Secret Location, , London, XX1 0LL
Tube:
Dates: 19th September - 19th January 2020
For anyone who watched Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street and dreamed of joining in on the hedonistic, money-fuelled action, the dream is about to become reality with The Wolf of Wall Street: The Immersive Experience. Based on Jordan Belfort's infamous memoir, as depicted in the Oscar-winning movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio, the show has been adapted and directed by Alexander Wright, who worked on The Great Gatsby, and will transform a four-storey building in central London into an iconic 1990s New York setting complete with trader schemes, supercars and full-service restaurants and bars. Guests can choose whether to trade with Jordan or work with the FBI, but either way they can expect 'the outrageous, the spectacular and the downright ridiculous'.