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While it’s traditional for September on the London stage to be busy after the lull of the summer, it’s hard to remember a year so stacked with massive sleb-led productions as this one. Tilda Swinton, Cate Blanchett, Letitia Wright, Gillian Anderson, Josh O’Connor, Mark Rylance and indeed Sting are all starring in different projects this month – madness.
If you’re averse to famous people (or their ticket prices) then there’s still plenty of fun to be had, notably a couple of quirky new musicals – Thelma & Louise is an all-singing stage spin on the classic feminist road movie with songs by alt-folk icon Neko Case, staged at the ever-hip Young Vic; Kimberly Akimbo is the UK premiere for the five-Tony winning Broadway musical about a schoolgirl who ages freakishly quickly. Plus the chance to see rising star Ava Pickett’s follow up this summer’s most talked-about play, 1536.
The best new London theatre shows in September 2026
1. Man to Man
Although Tilda Swinton still often pops up at European theatre festivals with performance art-style shows that are probably easiest described as ‘very Tilda Swinton’, the legendary actor essentially said goodbye to a conventional stage career by the time she’d hit 30. Her extraordinary 1987 solo performance in Manfred Karge’s one-woman-show Man to Man as a woman who takes on her late husband’s identity in order to secure work in inter-war Germany is regarded as her key stage work on the way to cinematic greatness.
Good news: she’s bringing it back, opening it at the Royal Court followed by Edinburgh’s Traverse, the two venues it played originally. Bad news: did you expect there to be any tickets left? However, this is the Royal Court, and it withholds all Monday tickets from sale until 9am on the day, online only. It’l be tough to get them but there are seven Mondays across the decent-length run. And every performance bar press night includes eight 10p standing tickets which are released for sale 90 minutes before curtain up, in person only.
Royal Court, Sep 5-Oct 24.
2. Electra/Persona and The Story
It’s testament to the dementedly stacked month that is September 2026 that not only does Cate Blanchett have to settle for second place, but her big National Theatre production is going to have to share with the other big National Theatre production opening the same week. In the Lyttelton, Blanchett will reunite with her Tár co-star Nina Hoss for Electra/Persona (pictured), director Benedict Andrews’ new mash up of Sophocles’ Electra and Ingmar Bergman’s film Persona. Meanwhile in the Olivier, Black Panther star Letitia Wright will play an ambitious young journalist who crosses an ethical line in the UK premiere of Tracey Scott Wilson’s hit American play The Story.
Electra/Persona: National Theatre, Lyttelton, until Oct 10. Buy tickets here.
The Story: National Theatre, Olivier, Aug 21-Oct 24. Buy tickets here.
3. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
More massive names as Gillian Anderson takes on the role she was born to play as venomous professor’s wife Martha – opposite Billy Crudup’s George – in Edward Albee’s masterpiece about the sadistic game-playing duo and the young couple that falls into their toxic orbit. Directed by the great Marianne Elliott, it will be staged in the intimate @sohoplace theatre, which is great news if you have a ticket, though the run is now largely sold out beyond the odd pricey stall ticket.
@sohoplace, Sep 21-Dec 19.
4. Golden Boy
Josh O’Connor’s first attempt to make a big ‘ta da!’ return to the stage post his success in The Crown was a National Theatre production of Romeo & Juliet that got derailed by the pandemic. Here he is again, finally back with something very different and (dare I say it) quite a lot more interesting. Golden Boy is a great American tragedy by Clifford Odets, an important playwright who now doesn’t get staged that much. It follows a sensitive young Italian American man named Joe who dreams of becoming a violinist but finds himself dragged reluctantly into the world of prize fighting. O’Connor will play Joe, with a splendid supporting cast including Daniel Mays and Hayley Squires.
Almeida Theatre, Sep 9-Oct 31.
5. The Standard of Living
Playwright James Graham is the undisputed king of writing incredibly interesting plays about incredibly dry subject matter. So while in most cases the prospect of a new play about the life and ideas of influential economist James Maynard Keynes might prompt a sinking feeling, I’m pretty sure Graham has us covered. And to be fair, the bisexual, Bloomsbury Group member was a far from boring guy. Rory Kinnear will play the rebel economist, with Royal Ballet principal Natalia Osipova as his ballet dancer wife Lydia Lopokova and Thomas Flynn as his lover Duncan Grant. Nicholas Hytner directs.
Theatre Royal Haymarket, Sep 21-Dec 12. Buy tickets here.
6. Thelma & Louise
Although there will doubtless be those who fret that yet another classic film is getting the stage musical treatment, there are very definitely reasons to be excited about Thelma & Louise. For starters, the project is the brainchild of the 1991 Ridley Scott movie’s screenwriter Callie Khouri, who hardly needs to live off distant glories: her TV show Nashville was a much more recent success. Toss in the fact that it’s being staged at the edgy Young Vic and that the songs are from the hugely respected alt-country icon Neko Case, and it certainly doesn’t sound boring.
Young Vic, Sep 3-Oct 24. Buy tickets here.
7. Bloodsport: After Helen of Troy
Ava Pickett burst on the scene as a playwright last year, but it was this summer’s West End transfer for her debut 1536 that really put her name on people’s lips, as tickets became scarcer than hens’ teeth and celebrity endorsements piled up like snowdrifts. Well, it’s closed now, though we hope to see it again. But never fear, here’s the next Ava Pickett play. Topically enough, Bloodsport concepts the aftermath of the Trojan War, and follows Helen’s troubled return home. The publicity images suggest that, unlike period drama 1536, this may be a modern retelling. But you can expect a sharp, funny, very fresh take from the show, which stars Michelle Dockery as Helen.
Stratford East, Sep 3-Oct 10.
8. Kimberly Akimbo
If I told you there was a brand new musical about a school girl who has aged into a woman in her 60s, you would probably say that sounds like an insane idea for a musical. And maybe it is, but Jeanine Tesori and David Lindsay-Abaire’s 2021 musical scored superb notices when it moved to Broadway the following year, winning five Tony Awards. Now it makes its UK debut in a production from former Donmar boss Michael Longhurst, with the great Maria Friedman starring as Kimberly – her first stage role in seven years.
Hampstead Theatre, Aug 28-Nov 7. Buy tickets here.
9. The Last Ship
Sting’s musical about the decline of the Tyneside shipbuilding industry is clearly a deeply personal project to him. It debuted on Broadway over a decade ago and had a UK tour pre-pandemic, but it’s mystifyingly held off coming to London – though part of it can surely be attributed to a string of drastic revisions that have made it feel more ‘British’, the latest coming from playwright Barney Norris. It finally calls in on the West End as part of a sweeping global tour. It plays the ginormous Theatre Royal Drury Lane for just a couple of weeks – the reason for the limited engagement presumably being that Sting himself will star as Jackie White, the patriarch of a family clinging on to the last days of Tyneside shipbuilding and a role roughly synonymous with his own father.
Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Sep 22-Oct 3. Buy tickets here.
10. Tartuffe (Remixed)
In a month of colossal celebrity productions, the great Mark Rylance typically chooses to return to the stage a little more randomly. The Oscar winner will play the title role in what is indeed a remix of Moliere’s classic farce by Darren Raymond. Here the titular conman (Rylance) is a white priest who infiltrates his way into a Jamaican-Nigerian family, with doubtless hilarious results. The Marylebone Theatre has just a couple of hundred seats and is presumably as intimate a venue as you’re ever going to see its star in again.
Marylebone Theatre, Sep 4-Oct 24.
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