Best West End theatre shows in London

What is it? You know what it is: Lin-Manual Miranda’s audacious hip-hop musical about US founding father Alexander Hamilton is the defining work of commercial theatre this century.

Where is it? Victoria Palace Theatre.

How much is it? £20-£175.

Why go? Even if it didn’t feel queasily enmeshed in America’s confounding last couple of decades and inner debate over whether it wants to be a shining liberal beacon or a far-right ethnostate… Hamilton is simply a remarkable musical, history, hip hop and some truly staggering earworms joined together in one damn-near perfect whole. 

What is it? Mark Rosenblatt’s smash Royal Court drama about Roald Dahl’s antisemitic ’80s transfers to the West End.

Where is it? Harold Pinter Theatre.

How much is it? £25-£190.

Why go? It’s a brilliant and bamboozling debut play and it transfers with its chief asset intact: US star John Lithgow repeats his Olivier-winning turn as Dahl. 

General advice is to stay away from hornets’ nests, especially if you are the West End and you want people to have a nice time and pay lots of money for a ticket. Mark Rosenblatt’s debut play goes against general advice. In fact he finds the biggest hornets’ nests he can and prods at all of them, and sees what comes flying out. What does come out is pretty spectacular.

Despite recently winning what seemed like every single award that had ever been invented, and turning round the faltering fortunes of the Royal Court Theatre, there was never a guarantee that his play about (‘about’ seems like a fairly inadequate word) Roald Dahl’s antisemitism – and the deep trenches of dispute about Israel – would work in the West End. At the Royal Court you expect that kind of politics. The West End is for musicals and celebrities.

But it does work, just as brilliantly. First off there’s John Lithgow (also all the awards) stooping and scowling his way into Dahl, charming in his grandpa-ish grumping at the beginning. He’s a walking metaphor: a giant – of literature, of stature – and big. But friendly? If you knew nothing about him except the good stuff – Charlie, Matilda, Mr Fox – you’d be charmed by his strong will, his passion and compassion. It’s 1983, he’s got a bad back, his house is being noisily renovated, he’s recently got engaged, and has a new book coming out so no wonder he’s grumpy. When his publisher suggests he moves temporarily to a nearby cottage, his crabby reply is, ‘I don’t fit in cottages.’

He’s also just written a very antisemitic review of a book about Israel’s bombing of Lebanon, and his publishers are worried about the backlash, so British publisher Tom Maschler (real - a very strong Elliot Levey) and emissary of American publisher Jessie Stone (made up, Aya Cash) are sent to Dahl to eke out an apology.

Cash is the only new cast member here, replacing Olivier-nominated Romola Garai as Stone. She’s just as good, in a very different way: more confident, more assertive, until she’s slowly backed into a corner by Dahl’s browbeating. Director Nicholas Hytner has her almost literally pushed back against the wall of the set, angry and terrified.

Yes it’s lots of people arguing in a drawing room and god knows the West End has had its fun with plays like those. But something sets it apart, which is Rosenblatt’s willingness to go there. ‘Are you Jewish?’ Dahl asks Stone barely a minute after they meet. From there it’s fireworks, it’s daggers drawn, Dahl a big complex beast either made bearlike by deep compassion for oppressed, injusticed people, or a big child who doesn’t know how to regulate his feelings, so instead throws antisemitic tantrums. And actually the familiarity of the old-fashioned form then butts up against its daring intent, like the play is waiting for the tension and conflict that ripples throughout the audience as some of the lines are spat out, the seizing of shock, the awkwardness, outrage and discomfort.

Israel, Palestine. Author censorship. Art and artist. Publishers dealing with authors who keep saying nasty things. It’s all there. The overwhelming feeling – even if it slumps its shoulders for just a moment towards the end of the second act – that adults are in the room. This isn’t the spider pencil world of Quentin Blake illustrations. The nastiness is real. Rosenblatt uses the great giant of children’s books and makes a very grown up play. Aided by Hytner’s crystalline production, where humour is never many lines away, he demands that these arguments play out, stink and vitriol and all, I guess in the hope that we can stop arguing them on repeat for the next forty years.

What is it? After two blockbuster seasons at the Barbican, the RSC’s lavish stage adaptation of the 1988 Studio Ghibli classic is now set up in the West End.

Where is it? Gillian Lynne Theatre.

How much is it? £29.50-£160.

Why go? Not only is it a faithful adaptation of a beloved story, but My Neighbour Totoro is about as stunning a spectacle as you could hope to see on stage. There have never been official pictures released of the stupendous Totoro and Catbus puppets - but trust me, your jaw will drop.

What is it? Indie-folk musician Anaïs Mitchell’s musical retelling of the Orpheus story began life in the mid-’00s as a lo-fi song cycle; now it’s a full-blown musical, perhaps the weirdest West End and Broadway hit of the modern era.

Where is it? Lyric Theatre.

How much is it? £25-£125.

Why go? You’ve really never seen anything quite like Hadestown, a surreal pyre of Greek myth and New Orleans voodoo jazz that basically comes across like the greatest concert you never expected to be attending.

What is it? Nascent playwrighting superstar Ryan Calais Cameron follows up his smash For Black Boys with a taut three-hander thriller about pioneering Black film star Sidney Poitier’s fraught rise to fame in Red Scare-era America.

Where is it? Apollo Theatre.

How much is it? £25-£90.

Why go? Ivanno Jeremiah is superb as the poised, wary young Poitier, the dialogue crackles and pop beautifully, and Cameron’s evocation of a paranoid, divided America feels alarmingly relevant to today. 

What is it? Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’s ultra-sassy electro-pop musical about the six wives of Henry VIII is the quintessential British musical of the present day.

Where is it? Vaudeville Theatre.

How much is it? £34.50-£84.50.

Why go? It is, quite simply, the Brat musical: noisy, sassy, breezy, messy and just 80 minutes long (with correspondingly reasonable top prices), it’s a burst of fun that fits perfectly into a big night out.

What is it? It’s Les Mis for crying out loud! Okay, it’s technically a different Les Mis to the one that opened at the Barbican back in 1985 – a ‘revised’ version was brought in to the West End in 2019 – but fundamentally it is the epic story of ex-con Jean Valjean’s quest for redemption in post-Revolutionary France.

Where is it? Sondheim Theatre.

How much is it? £25-£205.

Why go? Whatever you think about the new version (the revolve is out, lavish projections are in) the songs remain wondrous and producer Cameron Mackintosh always keeps it topped up with world class singing talent.

What is it? Andrew Lloyd Webber’s magnum opus, still going strong in the West End after almost 40 years.

Where is it? His Majesty’s Theatre.

How much is it? £25-£247.50.

Why go? Almost half a century on and the production values on this thing are still remarkable - with its underground rivers, live fireballs and crashing chandeliers, it’s hard to imagine a new show looking as good as this again. The songs are okay too.

What is it? Tim Minchin’s smash Roald Dahl adaptation is the most successful new British musical of the twenty-first century and has been going strong in the West End since 2011.

Where is it? Cambridge Theatre.

How much is it? £20-£135.

Why go? It’s an exuberent celebration of being clever and being good while not feeling obliged to follow every rule in the book that’s probably the best kids’s musical in London, if not the world. 

What is it? Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s Broadway-munching musical about a group of out of their depth Mormon missionaries is one of the West End’s longest running shows.

Where is it? Prince of Wales Theatre.

How much is it? £20-£175.

Why go? Sure, there are ‘fucks’ and ‘cunts’ and gags about baby rape – but most of it is deployed ironically; beneath it all, this is a big-hearted affair that pays note-perfect homage to the sounds and spirit of Broadway’s golden age.