Comedies and tragedies, adaptations and original works — as well as some of the finest stage actors in the world, jockeying for our attention — yes, it looks like being a bumper year for plays.
Here, the Mail’s Theatre Critic, Patrick Marmion, suggests some dates for your diary…
WITHAIL & I
Paul McGann (left) and Richard E. Grant (right) in Withnail and I
Without question, the show I’m looking forward to most in 2024 is Bruce Robinson’s stage adaptation of his bittersweet 1987 cult film.
But can any actors come close to Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann as the down-at-heel thesps struggling for work at the fag-end of the 1960s? And who dares fill the enormous trousers of Richard Griffiths’ Uncle Monty?
Thank God it’s Robinson writing the adaptation, and comedy maestro Sean Foley directing. Pray that they retain the soundtrack, and wish luck to those charged with firing off some of the finest zingers ever (‘We’ve gone on holiday by mistake!’).
May 3-25, Rep Theatre, Birmingham; birmingham-rep.co.uk
PLAZA SUITE
Sarah Jessica Parker makes her West End debut alongside her husband Matthew Broderick in Plaza Suite
The first big-name American actors out of the blocks this year are Sarah Jessica Parker (making her West End debut) and her husband Matthew Broderick in the Neil Simon comedy classic, Plaza Suite.
The pair play three couples occupying the titular hotel rooms: a crabby husband and wife, high school sweethearts, and an older couple whose daughter has locked herself in the loo ahead of her wedding.
January 17-March 30, Savoy Theatre, Strand, London; plaza suiteuk.com
DORIAN GRAY
Hot on the heels of Parker and Broderick, Sarah Snook — aka scheming Shiv Roy from TV’s Succession — pops up in the West End in a solo show in which she plays all 26 roles.
It’s a modern version of Oscar Wilde’s fable where a young party animal keeps a picture in the attic to age for him, so he doesn’t have to.
The Australian actress will be reprising a performance first seen in Sydney, 2020.
n February 6-May 11, Theatre Royal Haymarket, London; doriangrayplay.com
AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE
Matt Smith, former maverick Doctor Who, plays a different doctor in Henrik Ibsen’s great social drama.
As physician Dr Stockmann, he discovers that the ‘healing’ waters of his spa town are dangerously polluted. What to do? Directed by another maverick, German showman Thomas Ostermeier, do not expect anything conventional.
February 6-April 6, Duke of York’s Theatre, London; anenemyofthepeople.co.uk
THE HILLS OF CALIFORNIA
Jez Butterworth, author of the Mark Rylance hit play Jerusalem, returns to the West End with director Sam Mendes. Their last joint effort was the Irish drama The Ferryman.
This one is about four sisters — played by Laura Donnelly (one of the stars of The Ferryman), Leanne Best, Ophelia Lovibond and Helena Wilson — who head home to a parched Blackpool in the summer of 1976 to attend their dying mother.
January 27-June 15, Harold Pinter Theatre, London; hillsofcaliforniaplay.com
LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT
Brian Cox (pictured with Sarah Snook) stars as the flawed father of the dysfunctional Tyrone family in Long Day’s Journey into Night
Having overseen one epic tale of family breakdown on TV, in Succession, as monstrous patriarch Logan Roy, Brian Cox takes on Eugene O’Neill’s Pulitzer Prize-winning tale of family breakdown on stage. This time he plays the flawed father of the dysfunctional Irish-American Tyrone family, knocking lumps out of each other over one long hot day in August 1912.
Patricia Clarkson plays his opium-addicted wife, with Alex Lawther and Daryl McCormack as their warring, wastrel sons.
March 19-June 8, Wyndham’s Theatre, London; longdays journeylondon.com
NYE
Michael Sheen stars as Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan, in Tim Price’s homage to the great Welsh Labour Party leader who never was. Instead, as Minister of Health, he oversaw the creation of the NHS in Clement Attlee’s post-war government.
Looking back from Bevan’s deathbed in 1960, it’s directed by Rufus Norris, and is likely to be one of his last productions at the National Theatre before he steps down in 2025.
February 24-May 11, Olivier Theatre, National Theatre; nationaltheatre.org.uk
1979 (Finborough Theatre, London)
Verdict: Hung drama
You’ll need a clear head, an interest in post-war Canadian politics, and a reasonable grasp of that great nation’s socio-economic geography to get the most out of the feisty Finborough theatre’s new play 1979. But Michael Healey’s drama-doc is not without interest to the rest of us.
The action follows the fortunes of 39-year-old Joe Clark, the unexpected winner of the 1979 election as leader of the country’s Progressive Conservative Party (a title cunningly hedging its bets inside a covert oxymoron).
Seated at the PM’s desk, Clark must survive a vote of confidence before prosecuting an unpopular budget in what turns out to be his government’s two-stage dissolution.
Also in his in-tray is the task of getting a set of forged passports for US hostages in Iran.
You’ll need a clear head, an interest in post-war Canadian politics, and a reasonable grasp of that great nation’s socio-economic geography to get the most out of the feisty Finborough theatre’s new play 1979
There is much highly intelligent and pleasingly sardonic political rumination, with one of Healey’s characters noting that ‘passion is a liability for a politician’.
However, the playwright packs too much arcane information into his 75-minute sketch, which requires an overhead projector to supply electoral stats and explain some of the gags.
Jimmy Walters’ otherwise lively production, which I caught in a very early preview, is similarly over-condensed: using just three actors to play ten characters (including an anachronistic appearance from a young future PM, Stephen Harper).
Moreover, realist historical political dramas do not lend themselves to gender blind casting (as here), and Healey might better have rewritten it as an all-out pantomime.
Despite being performed around the dramatic millstone of a giant leather topped desk, I admired the chutzpah of the threesome taking on this improbable task.
Joseph May makes a good fist of Clark, who remains loyal to a brown corduroy suit which he knows designates him as a hapless dullard.
As the previous PM, Pierre Trudeau (Ian Porter), says: there’s less to Clark than meets the eye.
Nor does Samantha Coughlan as his wife, Maureen McTeer, rate Clark as a politician — none of which makes him a very promising protagonist. And yet, despite an unprepossessing habit of mopping his face with his rolled-up jacket, May is almost charismatically laid back as he falls into the historical abyss.
PATRICK MARMION
Tim Burton’s dark fairy tale dances into life…
Edward Scissorhands (Sadler’s Wells, then touring)
Verdict: A cut above
The inspiration for Matthew Bourne’s show is Tim Burton’s wonderful 1990 film, reinvented as a magical musical. The style is cartoonish, colourful and fun; the emotional impact moving and tender — but neither the dancing nor the music quite blows you away.
This is the story, beautifully told, of a freakish outsider: a gentle creature with unique talent, but inherently dangerous, in spite of his better nature.
A prologue provides an explanation for Edward’s mysterious origins. A boy carrying scissors is fatally struck by lightning. (Schoolboy error.)
In a fantastic Gothic studio, his Frankenstein-like father runs up a rudimentary replacement ‘son’ on his sewing machine, foolishly giving him scissors as fingers. (Lesson number two.)
Matthew Bourne’s Edward Scissorhands is based on Tim Burton’s 1990 film
The style is cartoonish, colourful and fun; the emotional impact moving and tender — but neither the dancing nor the music quite blows you away.
Cut to 1950s American suburbia and Hope Springs, all boxy bungalows and neat gardens. Everyone is out and about: the skittish gay couple with their baby, the luscious vamp and her dumpy husband, the Bible-bashing vicar, and the wholesome Boggs family.
Embraced by Mrs Boggs, oddball Edward blossoms, discovers a natural genius for topiary and a flair for hilarious hairstyling. And falls in love with her daughter Kim, a pony-tailed cheerleader. In a glorious sequence, he and Kim twirl in a wonderworld of dancing topiary figures. But it’s a dream.
Back to reality, he charms his beloved with the sculpture he carves of her as a glistening ice-angel, ponytail and all. At the Christmas party, Edward joins in with the jiving, his blades lifting and caressing Kim as gently as feathers. Gorgeous.
Lez Brotherston’s 1950s designs and costumes are a joy; Terry Davies’s score, played by a live orchestra, a vibrant delight. And real snow falls on the audience. All that’s missing is a take-home tune, footwork which takes flight — and, for me, a happy ending.
For tour dates, visit new-adventures.net.
GEORGINA BROWN
Now that’s what I call a swell party!
High Society (Mill at Sonning, Reading)
Verdict: Honey for king Cole
Cole Porter’s swanky musical, High Society, is another feather in the cap for Sally Hughes’s ambitious, boutique Berkshire theatre, the Mill at Sonning — the venue that offers a buffet supper ahead of its shows.
It’s no easy matter to remake the rom-com based on the 1940 movie Philadelphia Story, which starred Katherine Hepburn as the New York socialite Tracy Lord: torn between her dull new fiancé, her charming ex (Cary Grant) and a feisty young journalist (James Stewart). But to make matters worse those roles were then played by Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra in the retitled 1956 musical.
Unencumbered by weight of expectation, the cast of 15 and four band members make light work of the show in Joe Pitcher’s fleet-footed production.
A cast of 15 and four band members make light work of the show in Joe Pitcher’s fleet-footed production High Society
Porter’s music and songs are brought to sparkling life on Jason Denvir’s gorgeous terrace stage-set
Porter’s music and songs are brought to sparkling life on Jason Denvir’s gorgeous terrace stage-set overlooking a huge projection of the yachts in Oyster Bay, Long Island.
And the swell party the night before Tracy’s wedding goes with a swing, as the sea view gives way to a glittering moonlit harbour.
Talking of swing, that toe-tapping musical genre merges dreamily with jazz and calypso in a score that includes Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, She’s Got That Thing, Swell Party and Let’s Misbehave. And the music is played on everything from piano and sax, to accordion and spoons.
Pitcher’s slick, stylish production is fitted with great wigs and costumes too — and what the young cast lack in experience they make up for in vitality and exuberance. Victoria Serra has a lovely warble as the at-first stuffy Tracy who trades in her cold smiles and gets all saucy in the second half.
As Tracy’s doting ex, Dexter, Matt Blaker looks like a beefy version of Tom Cruise, with the added benefit of being able to sing. And while Matthew Jeans’s alternative love interest, Mike Connor, damn-near swallows himself up in a Sinatra-style drawl, he croons and moves with the best of them.
This Much I Know (Hampstead TheatreDownstairs)
Verdict: Historical sudoku
This Much I Know is a sudoku puzzle of a play about an American psychology professor whose wife leaves him unexpectedly to research her family history after discovering her Russian grandmother was the daughter of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
And to keep us scratching our heads, there’s a subplot about the US prof leading a white supremacist student into the sunlit uplands of multi-cultural liberalism.
The writer, Jonathan Spector, was the author of a feeble satire of wokery, Eureka Day, starring Helen Hunt at the Old Vic in 2022.
This Much I Know draws on interesting ideas about human behaviour, taken heavily from a book by psychologist Daniel Kahneman
But what’s fun about this one is that it forces you to join the dots of its story, darting all over the world in time and place with three actors playing multiple roles. And the play teems with interesting ideas about human behaviour, drawn heavily from a book by psychologist Daniel Kahneman about the human aptitude for self-delusion.
Chelsea Walker’s rookie direction could do more to pull the strands together on Blythe Brett’s broad lecture hall set which uses TVs to bring us historical characters including Stalin himself. The acting, however, is always engrossing with Esh Alladi making a very affable professor, cheerfully explaining our species’ shortcomings, and Natalie Klamar providing a sense of need and urgency as his unsettled wife. Oscar Adams fills out some stereotypical ideas about the young white nationalist.
PATRICK MARMION