The best new theatre shows opening in London this month

This Dolly Parton-penned musical adaptation of her hit 1980 film finally makes its West End debut a good decade after it was seen on Broadway. Amber Davie, Natalie McQueen, Brian Conley and Louise Redknapp will star in the story of a trio of female office employees who get their own back on their letchy male boss.

February 2019 sees the West End positively awash with new musicals. Most of them are Broadway imports. But then there’s this: Paul Whitehouse of ‘The Fast Show’ heads up a loving musical tribute to the enduringly popular British sitcom ‘Only Fools and Horses’. It's set in 1989, and is surely not going to attempt a drastic reimagining. 

Playwright John Donnelly and director Blanche McIntyre reunite up for a new version of Molière’s comic masterpiece about the eponymous charismatic charlatan, who insinuates himself into the home of the wealthy, jaded Orgon. US actor Denis O'Hare stars as the iconic conman. 

Known for directing hit productions of 'Pomona' and 'An Octoroon', Ned Bennett is turning his hand to Peter Shaffer's brutal horsey psychodrama 'Equus'.

Jamie Lloyd directs the final instalment in the 'Pinter at the Pinter' season, which is a double bill of vintage Harold Pinter comedies. 'A Slight Ache' and 'The Dumb Waiter' are two late '50s comedies: one set in an elegant country house, one following two hitmen. Cast includes Danny Dyer and Martin Freeman.

New York director Rachel Chavkin has been at the helm of some of the boldest, weirdest theatre hits of the past few years. Now she's taking on Arthur Miller's 'The American Clock', which is set in 1929 just as the Wall Street stock market crashes. Clarke Peters star in a highly experimental production

This is a fascinating proposition: designer Tom Scutt makes his directorial debut helming a stage adaptation of a cult 2012 horror film about a British sound engineer who starts to lose his mind when he signs up for an increasingly disturbing Italian giallo thriller. The excellent Tom Brooke stars.

The big sleeper hit Broadway musical of the last few years, ‘Come from Away’ tells the unlikely true story of a sleepy Newfoundland town that took in strangers from around the world when their planes were grounded at the local airport in the wake of 9/11. A hit in Canada and the States, you can expect to be very charmed.

New York experimental playwright Anne Washburn has forged a potent relationship with the Almeida via deliciously creepy, fiercely original plays ‘Mr Burns’ and ‘The Twilight Zone’. Now, she’s back with ‘Shipwreck’, a doubtless out-there satire about the fourty-fifth President of the United States, aka Donald Trump.

Super-director Ivo van Hove’s stage version of Joseph L Mankiewicz’s seminal 1950 film ‘All About Eve’ has been rumoured for aeons, and now it’s here: Gillian Anderson and Lily James step into the Bette Davis and Anne Baxter roles as bitterly feuding actresses in this version of the classic Hollywood satire.

The last show I saw by Irish playwright David Ireland was ‘I Promise You Sex and Violence’, a wildly offensive bad taste comedy that opened to venomous reviews at the 2014 Edinburgh Fringe and definitely stands in the top five worst things I’ve ever seen in any medium…

Laura Wade’s very enjoyable satire ‘Home, I'm Darling’ is now settling in at its third home, after opening at Theatr Clwyd in Mold (it’s directed by the theatre’s boss Tamara Harvey), and then coming to the National last year…

This review is from 2017. 'Follies' returns to the National Theatre in February 2019. There’s nothing like a Stephen Sondheim musical to make you wonder what the hell everybody else is playing at…