A Six follow-up, an LA clown … and War Horse rides again: theatre, comedy and dance autumn preview

Theatre

Why Am I So Single?

Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss are the dynamic duo behind the fringe-to-West End musical shooting star that became Six. Here is their follow-up musical comedy, about a pair of eternally single besties who can’t understand why they are single. In a self-referential stroke reminiscent of A Strange Loop , the friends are figuring out the story of their next musical.
• Garrick theatre, London, 27 August-13 February 2025

The Fear of 13

Adrien Brody is an Oscar winner with a track record for charisma on screen but now he makes his London stage debut as the lead in this true-life drama, written by Lindsey Ferrentino. It tells the story of Nick Yarris, whose wrongful conviction for murder led him to spend more than two decades on death row.
• Donmar Warehouse, London, 4 October-30 November

The Tempest

Jamie Lloyd follows up his noirish take on Romeo & Juliet with a dedicated season of Shakespeare plays in the West End. If Tom Holland caused a stir as one half of the star-cross’d couple, the wattage is arguably even more blinding with Sigourney Weaver cast as Prospero, making her London stage debut. No doubt, Lloyd will put his own unpredictable spin on this classic. Brace yourself.
• Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London, 19 December-1 February 2025

Juno and the Paycock

It is always a treat to see Mark Rylance tread the boards but this production of Seán O’Casey’s 1922 drama also features Succession actor J Smith-Cameron opposite him, and is directed by Matthew Warchus. Famously adapted for screen by Alfred Hitchcock, the story dramatises a family living in 1922 Dublin, within the turbulence of the Irish civil war.
• Gielgud theatre, London, 21 September-23 November

A Raisin in the Sun

Lorraine Hansberry’s groundbreaking American classic about family, racist discrimination and assimilation, was the first play by a Black female playwright to be staged on Broadway in 1959. It is revived by Headlong theatre company, known for innovation, and directed by Tinuke Craig who bills it as a “relevant, fresh new production for today”.
• Leeds Playhouse and touring to Lyric Hammersmith, Oxford Playhouse, Nottingham Playhouse, 13 September-2 October

Becoming Nancy

A new musical based on a coming-of-age novel by Terry Ronald. The story is set in 1979 and revolves around a sixth-former with a sensational singing voice who is given the female lead in his school play (Oliver!), which causes scandal among parents and classmates. Directed and choreographed by the Tony award-winning Jerry Mitchell.
• Birmingham Rep, 2 October-2 November

The History Boys

Eight bright students at a Sheffield grammar have their sights set on Oxbridge, but their teachers can’t agree on the best pedagogic style to get them there. Alan Bennett’s 2004 play won multiple awards on its first outing. This 20th-anniversary production will tour across nine venues in England and Scotland after opening at Theatre Royal Bath in late August.
• UK tour, 3 September–2 November

War Horse

This internationally acclaimed phenomenon has become the most successful play in the history of the National Theatre since its original run, scooping more than 25 awards. It also inspired a generation of children, adults and theatre-makers with its spectacular puppetry. Nick Stafford’s adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s wartime story of heroism and sacrifice now returns, dramatising the tender friendship between a boy and his horse, Joey, and travelling from rural Devon to the trenches of the great war.
• UK and Ireland tour, 5 September to 8 November 2025

Odyssey ’84

This new drama telling the story of the 1984 miners’ strike is inspired by Homer’s Odyssey. It follows a married couple embroiled in the strike, and shines a light on the women who played a key role in the stand-off with the British government as well as the international support of the miners.
• Sherman theatre, Cardiff, 11-26 October

Enough of Him

Based on a true story dramatising the life of an enslaved African, Joseph Knight, who was brought to Perthshire by a plantation owner and became the centre of a landmark legal battle, May Sumbwanyambe’s play won great acclaim when it premiered in 2022. This remount is a National Theatre of Scotland and Pitlochry Festival theatre co-production with a new cast.
• Traverse theatre, Edinburgh, 22-26 October at Traverse and then touring in Scotland and UK

Comedy

Ben Elton

When Ben Elton last toured the UK, it was his first stab at standup for 15 years. Happily, the eminence grise of alternative comedy still had what it takes, and the show was a success. So, in shorter order this time, Motormouth is back, with a new show: Authentic Stupidity.
• Barbican, York, 1 September, then touring

Mo Gilligan

The affable Peckham man spent this spring touring the US, where he has his sights set on superstardom. That status has been secured, and double quick too, in the UK – to which Gilligan now returns with a tour of his new set, In the Moment.
• Grand theatre, Leeds, 5 September, then touring

Nish Kumar

Climate collapse, income inequality, Gaza … “My standup setlists look like a catalogue of human misery,” says former Mash Report man Kumar. But if anyone can make the state of the nation furiously funny, with a much-needed dose of dyspeptic political comedy, it’s him.
• Oxford Playhouse, 6 September, then touring

Ania Magliano

One of UK comedy’s most noteworthy up-and-comers, Magliano has made her name with a trio of Edinburgh fringe hours combining emotional significance, lightly worn with intelligent and spry standup. Her latest, Forgive Me, Father, about her commitment-phobia, now tours.
• Soho Theatre, London, 14-26 October, then touring

Natalie Palamides

No name in world comedy comes with a greater guarantee of excitement, of something new and unexpected happening, than Palamides. The LA clown broke out with her gender-crossing Netflix special Nate in 2020. She now returns with her outrageous romcom pastiche, Weer, in which she plays both halves of a relationship.
• Soho theatre, London, 6-30 November

Dance

The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady

A welcome return for Clod Ensemble’s fantastic fusion of music and dance, with the Nu Civilisation Orchestra playing Charles Mingus’s 1963 album The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady and the audience invited up to dance alongside professionals. A rare instance of audience participation that isn’t awkward, just joyous.
• Barbican, London, 19-21 September

Luna

A world premiere from Birmingham Royal Ballet, the final part of a trilogy of ballets drawing on Brummie history and culture (the most recent being Black Sabbath: The Ballet ). Luna celebrates great women of Birmingham, from Mary Lee Berners-Lee to Malala Yousafzai, made by an all-female creative team including choreographers Seeta Patel and Arielle Smith.
• Birmingham Hippodrome, 3-5 October; Sadler’s Wells, London, 22-23 October

BalletLorent: Snow White

Choreographer Liv Lorent takes a fairytale and creates two different versions, one a family-friendly show to take the kids to, the other delving into the more complex, adult themes in this story of an ageing woman, the wicked queen, seeing her power fade as her beauty does.
• Northern Stage, Newcastle, 31 October-3 November

Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake

An extensive tour (till June 2025) marking the 30th anniversary of Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake, the show that made Bourne’s career. The twist is that the swans are all men, wild birds instead of dainty maidens, and while there’s the comedy Bourne’s known for, he plunges into the darkness too.
• Theatre Royal Plymouth, 11-16 November, then touring

MaddAddam

The Royal Ballet presents the UK premiere of Wayne McGregor’s MaddAddam (originally danced by the National Ballet of Canada), inspired by novelist Margaret Atwood’s post-apocalyptic trilogy – Atwood herself was a creative consultant. Not one for literal narratives, McGregor picks up some of her themes: extinction, invention, activism.
• Royal Opera House, London, 14-30 November