The top London theatre shows according to our critics

What is it? Oh come on you know what Hamilton is.

Where is it? Victoria Palace Theatre.

Why go? Well if you don’t know what Hamilton is, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s virtuosic hip-hop inflected account of the life and times of relatively obscure US Founding Father Alexander Hamilton is pretty much the biggest musical of our times. And it remains sensational an exhilarating celebration of multiculturalism that’s also a witty but broadlyt accurate romp through US history.

What is it? The RSC’s lavish stage adaptation of the Studio Ghibli classic is back for its third London run, and first time out in the West End.

Where is it? Gillian Lynne Theatre.

Why go? It’s a lovely – albeit very faithful – retelling of the beloved film, but it’s the spectacular puppet incarnations of furry forest spirit Totoro and whatever the hell the Catbus is that will really blow your mind.

What is it? Irish writer Conor McPherson directs this major West End revival of the play that sent his career into the stratosphere when it opened at the Royal Court Theatre in 1997. Brendan Gleeson stars.

Where is it? Harold Pinter Theatre.

Why go? The Weir has lost none of its gently haunting, melancholic pull. An effortlessly charismatic Gleeson sinks as deeply into Jack as if he’s grown gruffly out of his bar stool – crotchety and drily funny.

What is it? Star playwright Nick Payne returns to the Royal Court for the first time in over a decade with a knotty, time-hopping drama about a mother’s descent into fanaticism following her son’s unexplained disappearance.

Where is it? Royal Court Theatre.

Why go? For the outstanding lead turn by Nicola Walker who has finally found a stage role that lets her vent the sullen, sarcastic charisma that’s made her such a TV star.

What is it? Max Webster’s vividly queer take on Oscar Wilde’s magnum opus transfers to the West End with a starry new cast led by Ollie Alexander and Stephen Fry.

Where is it? Noël Coward Theatre.

Why go? A series of wonderful turns – including MVP Hayley Carmichael as two eccentric manservants – light up this hysterically camp drama that breaks Wilde’s comedy out of the closet with dayglo aplomb.

What is it? Lenny Henry, Jonny Donahoe, Ambika Mod, Sue Perkins and Minnie Driver are the rotating stars for the West End debut of Duncan Macmillan’s beloved depression monologue.

Where is it? @sohoplace.

Why go? Macmillan’s moving and funny play about a boy who obsessively makes a list of everything good about the world to cheer his mum up remains a deligtfully inimate experience @sohoplace. We’ve only seen Henry and Donahoe perform it, but they bring effortless, easy rapport to an audience they play off beautifully. 

This review is from the Young Vic, March 2025. Punch will transfer to the West End in autumn 2025 with the same cast.

Absurdly prolific as he is, it sometimes feels like we could do with cloning playwright James Graham a few times. His reassuringly familiar but diverse body of work has done so much to bring obscure chapters of recent history to life – from the whipping operation of the hung 1970s Labour parliament to the 1968 television clashes between Gore Vidal and William F Buckley Jr – that it feels faintly bleak pondering the great stories that one James Graham alone has to let slide. 

Punch, which originated at the Nottingham Playhouse last year, is the perfect example of what he does. It tells the poignant story of Jacob (David Shields), a lad from Nottingham who got into a totally pointless fight – if you can even call it that – with James, a (never-seen) paramedic just a few years older than him. On a big night out, Jacob punched James precisely once. James went down, and a couple of weeks later he died, his life support switched off following a bleed to the brain.

Graham’s script delves into this with typical deftness: arguably his plays all amount to really, really good explainers. We get the incident and also its profoundly complicated aftermath. But we also get a forensic dive into Jacob’s life, his journey from a sweet primary schooler who loves his single mum to his gradual falling in with the wrong crowd, as undiagnosed neurological conditions and the roughness of his estate begin to bite.

Shields is terrific as Jacob: his performance is a modulated study in the ferocity but also the innocence and vulnerability of a young offender. He’s led to a dark place, in part, by his refusal to think through what he’s doing or to engage with the consequences of his actions. For ages he avoids accepting what he did, twitchily referring to it as ‘the accident’. But when James’s parents get in touch via a mediation service, Jacob finds himself forced to own his actions. Shields’s voice disintegrates into anguished semi-incoherency as he finally attempts to articulate what he did.

In the second half Punch moves on to unexpectedly happier territory. Graham, a working-class East Midlands writer himself, is fascinated by social mobility and the traps people are born into. It’s not a case of it being a heartwarming tale of redemption or Jacob being forgiven. But Graham is good at analysing and, yes, explaining the remarkable trajectory of Jacob’s life, his story broken down into forensic bites of reminiscence, narrated by Shields and the five other cast members, who take on a multitude of roles.

A transfer from a theatre that suffered devastating funding cuts last year, Punch doesn’t have the budget of the typical Young Vic show. Anna Fleische’s concrete underpass set is evocative but unshowy; Adam Penford’s direction is efficient but hardly flashy. Even Graham’s text feels more stripped back and businesslike than his more widescreen works like Dear England, which returns to the National Theatre in a couple of weeks. But it’s not like he just knocked it out: Punch is on the smaller side for a James Graham play, but its climax will have you blubbing. He can’t tell every story, but once again you’ll be grateful he told this one.

What is it? This eccentric musical was one of the big breakout hits of this year’s Edinburgh Fringe. It’s a two-hander about the toxic relationship between the big-hearted, ready-to-love Earth and smarmy, self-absorbed humanity.

Where is it? Southwark Playhouse Elephant.

Why go? It’s a kooky concept, but this two-hander works surprisingly well, largely thanks to Danielle Steers (Earth) and Tobias Turley (Humanity) being cracking vocalists with a believable chemistry sizzling between them. Through catchy songs stuffed with incisive lyrics, the show follows their relationship through the milestones. 

What is it? Aussie director Kip Williams – of The Picture of Dorian Gray fame – directs his first original UK production, a verion of Jean Genet’s classic The Maids that makes similarly bold use of live video as his previous show.

Where is it? Donmar Warehouse.

Why go? It’s as visually stunning a show as you’ll see all year, with its extraordinary and joyously brazen use of phone filters. And there’s a tremendous cast of Lydia Wilson, Phia Saban and Yerin Ha.

What is it? The longest-running musical of all time needs no introduction whatsoever (but if you really need to know it’s an all-singing adaptation of Victor Hugo’s seminal novel about the Paris Uprising of 1832).

Where is it? Sondheim Theatre.

Why go? Although the current West End iteration is a ‘new’ version that was ushered in in 2019 – and indeed there have been judicous updates throughout its long life – Les Mis is popular for the reason it’s always been popular: soaring songs, stirring story, memorable characters and a commitment to keeping it stocked with world class singing talent.