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Douglas Adams's satirical sci-fi masterpiece about a lone, confused human named Arthur Dent who survives the random total destruction of the planet Earth – demolished to make way for an intergalactic bypass – certainly feels like it’s due a revival as humanity continues to generally disgrace itself. There were rumblings until quite recently of a big budget US TV series, though that seems to have been cancelled.
But good news for London, as a large scale immersive adaptation of the original Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy story – originally a radio series in 1978, later a hugely successful book and TV show – takes over Riverside Studios, for a production that will see you traverse the entirety of the arts complex as you follow Arthur from pub to space and beyond as his alien pal Ford Prefect helps him escape the ravages of planet-demolishing bores the Vogons and journey further into an eccentric and callous universe.
It’s definitely a tricky one to carry off, and it’ll be interesting to see what ‘immersive’ really means in this instance (ie are we interacting with the characters or just moving between an ambitious series of sets) but it’s admirably bold. It’s also co-created Adams’s former protégé Arvind Ethan David, who has been the driving force behind various adaptations of Adams’s other big series Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, and now turns his sights on the big one.
Fittingly for something that started life as a radio play, there’s a top notch celebrity voice cast (pre-recorded) for this one, including Sanjeev Bhaskar, Lenora Crichlow and Tamsin Greig, who will serve as the voice of the titular Guide, which represents a bizarre and highly subjective attempt to catalogue everything in the universe. They’ll supplement live actors who’ll serve as the likes of Arthur, Ford and Marvin the Paranoid Android.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is at Riverside Studios, Nov 15-Feb 15 2026. Buy tickets here.
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