The best new theatre shows opening in London January 2023

It’s been too long since London got to experience the underground delights of Vault Festival: the 2020 edition was shut by the pandemic, and the following two years didn’t happen. Now it’s back: London’s biggest, boldest, weirdest underground festival of theatre and comedy finally returns for two glorious months.

After two years rendered necessarily low-key by the pandemic, the tirelessly innovative LIMF is having a last hurrah for its old multi-venue format, bringing a wealth of international physical theatre talent to London one last time. 

Sam Steiner’s debut play, a surreal romcom about a couple struggling to cope in a society where language has inexplicably been rationed was a big word-of-mouth success at the 2015 Edinburgh Fringe. And now it’s back – unexpectedly but delightfully – in a major West End revival from director Josie Rourke with a starry cast of Aidan Turner and Jenna Coleman.

It topped our December picks… and then it got a bit messed up when Lydia Wilson was forced to drop out of Rebecca Frecknall’s prestige Tennessee Williams revival. But it should manage a January opening, with Patsy Ferran now taking on the role of Blanche DuBois, opposite Paul Mescal making his post-fame return to the stage in the iconic role of Stanley Kowalski. 

Another December play forced to delay a month due to illness, the Donmar’s notional Christmas show is a rare revival for twentieth-century playwright Lillian Hellmann’s 1941 drama about Kurt, a German dissident and his family who believe they’ve escaped the horrors of Nazi Germany but find they’ve caught up with them in America. Ellen McDougall directs.

Trans actor and playwright Travis Alabanza follows up their acclaimed plays ‘Burgerz’ and ‘Overflow’ with ‘Sound of the Underground’, a celebration of London’s queer nightlife. The Royal Court being the Royal Court, it’s unclear if this will take the form of a drama with characters or something more abstract, but it sounds like a fun way to kick off 2023.

‘The Unfriend’ sees erstwhile ‘Doctor Who’ head writer Steven Moffat make his debut as a playwright in partnership with his ‘Sherlock’ collaborator Mark Gatiss (who makes his debut as a stage director). The social satire has already been a hit at Chichester Festival Theatre, and follows English couple Peter and Debbie who befriend an eccentric, Trump-loving old lady named Elsa while on holiday in the US. 

Michael Frayn’s hysterical meta-farce is one of those comedies that’s never far from a revival. Directed by Lindsay Posner, this hit version stars Felicity Kendal, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Matthew Kelly, Alexander Hanson, Joseph Millson, Sasha Frost, Pepter Lunkuse and Jonathan Coy as the cast of ‘Nothing On’, a ropey sex farce whose tour across the UK becomes a farce in itself.

Canadian circus superstars Cirque du Soleil return for their traditional start-of-year slot at the Royal Albert Hall with ‘Kurios’, a UK premiere. The steampunk-styled show is inspired by Victoriana and thus has a clear connection to the RAH, which has had special modifications performed upon it over the course of this year to reinforce the structure to accommodate more of the Cirque’s shows. 

Indie immersive theatre crew Swamp Motel returns with a fresh adventure. ‘Saint Jude’ is a partnership with AI company Charisma.ai that’s set in the titular Saint Jude, a company that provides comfort and care for people trapped in irreversible comas.