Lick your lips: the new London theater season is here and it’s sure to make your mouth water. There’s heavyweight modern drama, intriguing new writing, classical works reinvented and American musical favorites reworked — something, in fact, to please every palate.
So let’s begin by sinking our teeth into a big, tasty slice of pie. Or rather, two slices — since Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd” is enjoying a pair of major London productions. The first is a fringe theater pop-up that began life in Harrington’s Pie and Mash Shop, established in Tooting in 1908 and still boasting its original Victorian decor. Theatrical punters gathered at a nearby barber’s shop, before moving to Harrington’s, where those able to stomach it could purchase a pie to enjoy before the site-specific performance, presented by Tooting Arts Club (tootingartsclub.co.uk). The venue is now undergoing refurbishment — but in the meantime, the production has relocated to a diminutive former restaurant on Shaftesbury Avenue. The interior of Harrington’s has been recreated there — and director Bill Buckhurst’s production runs through May 30.
It does, though, have competition from a bigger, more conventional and starrier staging, just a brisk walk away at English National Opera’s home, the London Coliseum (eno.org). Bryn Terfel as the murderous barber and Emma Thompson as his besotted accomplice Mrs. Lovett lead the cast in director Lonny Price’s semi-staged production, which was first seen at New York’s Lincoln Center last year; also in the cast are the terrific Rosalie Craig — who in recent years has won accolades in productions of “Ragtime,” “City of Angels” and in the title role of the Tori Amos musical “The Light Princess” — and musical-stage veteran Philip Quast. Seats are selling like hot cakes; if you’re not lucky enough to grab one, head for the West End Harrington’s and you won’t be disappointed.
If that’s sharpened your appetite for a barnstorming show, then you won’t want to miss Imelda Staunton’s stunning turn in “Gypsy.” Director Jonathan Kent’s production of the musical by Arthur Laurents, Jule Styne and Sondheim was met with rapturous reviews in Chichester last year. It opens at London’s Savoy Theatre on April 15 (gypsythemusical.uk), with Lara Pulver reprising the role of Louise and British television star Peter Davison joining the cast as Herbie. Staunton proves herself an incomparable talent of the musical theater stage, imbuing her portrayal of Momma Rose, the mother of all stage mothers, with devastating psychological nuance.
For sheer sparkle, though, Cole Porter and Arthur Kopit’s “High Society” (oldvictheatre.com) should be hard to beat. Maria Friedman — an outstanding musical performer herself, who made such dazzling work of Sondheim’s “Merrily We Roll Along” in her award-winning directorial debut at the Menier Chocolate Factory and in the West End — helms the production. Kate Fleetwood, a fine actor better known for Shakespearean roles, plays the socialite Tracy Lord, with Jamie Parker as tabloid reporter Mike Connor. The show opens May 14.
More Top Picks How To Write A Parent Input Letter For An Iep
Fleetwood is, as it happens, married to Rupert Goold, the artistic director of North London’s Almeida Theatre (almeida.co.uk), which has just announced a pungently gore-soaked new season. “Almeida Greeks,” beginning in May, explores classical Greek drama in a series of readings, talks and events. First up among the plays themselves is a new version of Aeschylus” “Oresteia” by Robert Icke, the wunderkind director and adapter who has previously given us a terrifying take on George Orwell’s “1984”; Lia Williams stars as Klytemnestra. Next there’s Euripides” “Bakkhai,” freshly adapted by the classicist Anne Carson. James Macdonald’s production has an enticing cast, including Ben Whishaw and Bertie Carvel. Then Goold himself directs Euripides’ “Medea,” adapted by the British novelist Rachel Cusk, with Fleetwood in the title role. “Oresteia” begins preview May 29. And before that, acclaimed playwright Simon Stephens and director Michael Longhurst — who last collaborated on Stephens’ hit play “Constellations” — are reunited for “Carmen Disruption,” a fractured urban love story set in a nameless European city. The production opens April 17.
For more classical fare, head over to Shakespeare’s Globe (shakespearesglobe.com), where you can catch Jonathan Pryce as Shylock in “The Merchant of Venice,” or Michelle Terry as Rosalind in “As You Like It” staged by Blanche McIntyre, who is one of the UK’s most intelligent and exciting young directors; her production opens May 15, “Merchant” on April 23.
Meanwhile, Nicholas Hytner’s regime as artistic director of the National Theatre (nationaltheatre.org.uk) has come to a triumphant end, and Rufus Norris steps up as his replacement. The first production Norris will himself direct in his new job will be “Everyman,” the 15th-century morality play, reconceived by poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor. It opens on April 29 in the National’s Olivier Theatre, as part of an inaugural season whose early months also include Caryl Churchill’s English civil war drama, “Light Shining in Buckinghamshire”; “Old Red Lion,” Patrick Marber’s new play about the British passion for football; Farquhar’s “The Beaux’ Stratagem” directed by Simon Godwin, and the UK premiere of Stephen Adly Guirgis’s 2011 Broadway hit “The Motherf***er with the Hat.”
The Royal Shakespeare Company’s (rsc.org.uk) production of “Oppenheimer,” a critical success when it opened at the company’s Stratford-upon-Avon home earlier this year, has just blasted into the West End. Tom Morton-Smith’s epic play about the Manhattan Project is currently playing at the Vaudeville Theatre. And if you missed “Golem” (http://www.19-27.co.uk), a brilliantly funny, visually extraordinary and distinctly disturbing exploration of our relationship with technology by the inspired young company 1927, which played at the Young Vic over Christmas, then you can catch up with it in its transfer to Trafalgar Studios from 14 April to 22 May.
If the big musical openings this spring are shows from across the Atlantic, there are also some great American straight plays on offer. The Young Vic (youngvic.org) — whose Ivo van Hove production of Arthur Miller’s “A View From the Bridge” is reaching the end of its sell-out limited West End season — offers a rare UK revival of Eugene O’Neill’s family drama “Ah, Wilderness!,” starring Janie Dee and directed by Natalie Abrahami; it opens on April 21. And a blockbuster cast — Damian Lewis, John Goodman and Tom Sturridge — star in David Mamet’s “American Buffalo,” directed by Daniel Evans, at Wyndham’s Theatre, opening April 27 (americanbuffalotheplay.com). Londoners get to check out Scott Ellis’ production of Bernard Pomerance’s “The Elephant Man” from May 19, with the American cast led by Bradley Cooper, Patricia Clarkson and Alessandro Nivola. The staging started life at the Williamstown Festival before transferring to Broadway, and will open in the West End at the Haymarket Theatre (elephantmanlondon.com).
Finally, if you like your comedy cut-glass, there’s luxuriously cast Coward and Oscar Wilde, with Felicity Kendal in director Lindsay Posner’s production of “Hay Fever,” and David Suchet dragging up to play Lady Bracknell in director Adrian Noble’s “The Importance of Being Earnest.” “Hay Fever” is at the Duke of York’s from 29 April; “Earnest” at the Vaudeville June 24. And it seems we still can’t get enough of the Royals — director Stephen Daldry’s production of Peter Morgan’s play “The Audience,” currently also playing on Broadway, returns to the West End April 21 (theaudienceplay.com), with Kristin Scott Thomas stepping into Helen Mirren’s sensible, shiny shoes as the Queen. It opens on May 5 at the Apollo Theatre.
So whether your taste is for blue blood or strong meat, you can look forward to a new season full of flavor.