There's a feast of theatrical delights heading this way over the next 12 months. London's the best for theatre, bar none. The treats in store this year are testament to the incredible talent, versatility and resilience of the city's performance scene – and this is only what's been announced so far...
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00:00 I'm Nancy Darren, I'm the Culture Editor of The Evening Standard.
00:02 And I'm Nick Clark, the Deputy Culture Editor.
00:04 We're the co-hosts too of the Standard Theatre Podcast,
00:06 and these are our theatre picks for 2024.
00:09 Well, let's jump right in.
00:11 January, the big E is Plaza Suite.
00:13 Oh my god, it's huge.
00:15 So this is Sex and the Cities,
00:17 Sarah Jessica Parker and her husband Matthew Broderick,
00:19 like also quite famous, I think.
00:22 Well, fans of Ferris Bueller, there are still some around.
00:25 Yeah, very excited about this one.
00:26 And they're playing three separate couples, I think,
00:28 in this take on love and marriage,
00:31 which did really, really well on Broadway.
00:33 That's coming to the Savoy Theatre in, well, in a few days, I think.
00:37 And if you can get tickets, that is, they are going fast.
00:39 Yeah, and they're going for quite a lot of money,
00:41 but you can still get them for about, I don't know,
00:43 like, I think 95 quid, some of them, probably starting.
00:45 So give it a go.
00:46 I'm very excited about this, The Hills of California,
00:51 which is a new play by Jez Butterworth,
00:53 who wrote The Ferryman and Jerusalem.
00:56 It's always a big event for British theatre,
00:58 and also what's even more exciting is that The Ferryman director,
01:01 Sam Mendes, is back on board to direct.
01:04 This story about, well, it's not about California.
01:08 It's about Blackpool.
01:09 Yes.
01:09 And a family in the, I think, late '60s or possibly '70s,
01:14 and in which, no doubt, there will be much psychodrama,
01:18 much familial disputes.
01:20 Possibly some sort of slightly weird kind of folky stuff, conceivably.
01:24 It's probably going to be pretty good.
01:26 I think it's going to be really, really good.
01:28 I'm also super excited about this new production of The Picture of Dorian Gray,
01:33 which is basically going to be done entirely by one person,
01:36 and that person is Sarah Snook of Succession fame.
01:39 She's going to be playing all the characters,
01:41 which, I mean, to be honest, I've no idea how it's going to work.
01:44 Well, it was out in Australia beforehand, not with Sarah Snook,
01:47 but it was, it paid huge acclaim out there.
01:50 So she is such a brilliant actor.
01:52 Yeah, that's true.
01:53 You know, fans of Succession know her as Shiv, of course.
01:57 And I think there will be a scramble to get tickets for that as well.
02:00 Yeah, exactly.
02:01 That one's at the Royal Theatre Haymarket from February the 6th.
02:04 And then there's an anime of the people.
02:09 Yeah, so fans of Matt Smith, and I hear there are quite a few of those,
02:13 former Doctor Who and The Crown star is appearing in this Ibsen classic,
02:17 but it is not going to be like a staid, normal Ibsen production,
02:21 because it is directed by Thomas Ostermeyer,
02:24 the sort of famed German auteur who has brought this production
02:28 to the UK before, about 10 years ago.
02:31 Oh yeah, it was at the Barbican, wasn't it?
02:32 Exactly, they loved it.
02:34 And now with Matt Smith in there,
02:36 you can't imagine anything but an absolute hit.
02:38 Now, another one that is going to be so brilliant,
02:42 our first musical on the list is Opening Night,
02:45 which is a musical adaptation of John Cassavetes' film.
02:49 It's going to have Sheridan Smith in it,
02:51 which is frankly enough reason to go and see pretty much anything.
02:54 And it's directed by Ivo van Hove,
02:57 and it has music and lyrics by Rufus Wainwright.
02:59 So I really don't think there's anything not to like in that one.
03:02 Well, and Sheridan Smith recently seen in Shirley Valentine,
03:05 and pretty much every single ticket was sold.
03:07 So it shows that she has real star power in the West End.
03:10 Oh, she really does. Yeah, so that's at the Gielgud.
03:11 We have a returning favourite of ours,
03:15 which is for black boys who have considered suicide
03:17 when the hue gets too heavy.
03:18 It's an amazing show.
03:19 It started in the tiny new diorama, went to the Royal Court,
03:22 last year hit the Apollo Theatre in the West End.
03:25 And if you didn't see it, you are in for a treat,
03:27 and it's so lucky that it's coming back.
03:29 Book tickets now.
03:30 Yeah, it's brilliant.
03:31 That's at the Garrick Theatre from February the 29th.
03:34 Ian McKellen is back again.
03:38 I don't know why I always say he's back,
03:39 because he's always there.
03:41 But he's going to be playing Falstaff,
03:42 which is one of the few Shakespeare roles he hasn't played,
03:45 in Player Kings,
03:46 which is a sort of mash-up of Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2,
03:50 by the visionary director Robert Eich.
03:53 His Oresteia was one of the best things
03:56 I have ever seen in a theatre.
03:57 He's really incredible.
03:58 So that one is going to be brilliant.
04:01 I'm kind of coping that they're going to cut out
04:03 all the really boring bits of those two plays.
04:06 But since it's Robert Eich,
04:08 I think that's probably what's going to happen.
04:09 That's at the Noel Coward Theatre from April the 1st.
04:14 Then, after that, we have Mean Girls the Musical.
04:17 So's that.
04:18 I'm glad you said that.
04:20 Yeah, so this is the Broadway adaptation of the Tina Fey film,
04:25 which itself is being made into a film again.
04:29 Yes.
04:30 And now it's coming to England in the West End as the Broadway...
04:34 I don't know, I'm getting confused with the whole thing.
04:36 It's a Broadway musical of Mean Girls.
04:38 It's going to be popular.
04:39 It's going to be brilliant.
04:40 You know what Mean Girls is.
04:41 It's at the Savoy.
04:42 Book your tickets now.
04:43 One of the things I'm super excited about is Waiting for Godot with Lucien...
04:49 Couldn't be further away from Mean Girls the Musical.
04:51 No, that's so true.
04:53 But this is going to have Lucien and Samarti,
04:55 who people will know if they have watched his Dark Materials
04:59 and also Gangs of London.
05:01 And Ben Whishaw.
05:02 I just think the charisma coming off that stage is going to be unbelievable.
05:07 Book tickets now before it's too late.
05:09 And that's at the Theatre Royal Haymarket from September.
05:12 And the last one we've got of the year is another film to stage adaptation.
05:17 Yep.
05:18 The Devil Wears Prada.
05:21 It ought to be brilliant.
05:23 I mean, it should be.
05:26 Will they get Marilyn to do it?
05:27 Well, yeah, I mean, that would be ideal, wouldn't it?
05:29 But they do have Elton John doing music and lyrics by Shaina Taub.
05:33 It's doing the lyrics and, I mean, it just ought to be really fun, don't you think?
05:40 That's at the Dominion coming in November.
05:42 Worth booking now, though, probably, even though it's massive,
05:45 because I think that one's going to be a good one.
05:48 That's all of our top 10 theatre picks for 2024.
05:52 Get booking!
05:53 And for many, many more, go to standard.co.uk, where there is a much expanded list.
05:59 [music]