What theatre productions are you looking forward to booking for 2026?

[FatCatSkinnyRat]

My DH and I have started going to the theatre Saturday matinees more regularly now our kids are older teens and we can leave them home alone on Saturday afternoons!!

We have booked Dracula so far as Australian friends have raved about it but wondering what else is coming out that people are excited about?

I’ve got Golden Boy and Thelma and Louise coming up in September, along with My son’s a queer.
Excited for all of them.

Hi @Placestogo
Yes infidelity is a theme in that too. Can completely understand that The Truth would have been difficult in that situation.

Just a warning to everyone who might be thinking about booking The Lion King.

I took DD10 to see it about six weeks ago - to a matinee performance. The behaviour of the audience was atrocious. A single woman in front of us (looked like an influencer) was filming large sections of the show, and the family behind us - who had arrived late with a range of children from age about 4-9, kept swapping seats and chatting loudly throughout.

At the interval I found an usher (who had already taken the woman's phone and asked her to delete footage) and they very kindly moved us to other seats - but the second set of seats also had unbearable behaviour from other theatregoers - a family with 3 year old twins behind us. The mum was keeping her twin fairly quiet and shhh-ing her where appropriate. The dad was totally failing to keep the other twin quiet and engaging in conversation with him at normal volume. The children at the end of our row kept jumping up and down in their seats and giggling, causing the whole row to shake.

I appreciate it's a musical that attracts children, but the staff were doing absolutely nothing to curb the worst of the behaviour - despite being present to (rightly) move items out of the aisle as performers use the auditorium too.

I submitted a complaint to ATG theatres as our whole experience was completely ruined - they took over two weeks to respond, despite fobbing me off regularly with "we will be in touch within two working days". I eventually got a response only when I raised a chargeback with my credit card company. The chargeback was denied as the performance went ahead - so as far as they were concerned they have fulfilled their contract. I totally understand this, but they did literally nothing to ameliorate the terrible experience we had.

I go to the theatre a couple of times a month - and ATG run my two closest theatres, which have usually been brilliant. This would definitely put me off booking with them again. I understand problems occur, but refusing to do anything to make it better is not on - theatre is expensive.

I would also strongly advise that if you do see The Lion King - try to see an evening performance as there will be fewer children. Or better still, swerve it entirely and take your children to see Matilda instead.

Oh that's awful @Elevenseconds . I read somewhere that the English language schools for kids in London block book the Lion King routinely and the kids have little or no interest with resulting bad behaviour, the ATG response is very disappointing, they run my local theatre too. I had to intervene with a woman using her phone constantly during Jesus Christ Superstar recently, why do they go?

I have tickets for the NT Pride transfer to the Bridge Theatre.
Really looking forward to it

Thanks - and sorry to hear you had a bad experience too.

The bad behaviour (and failure to address it) was one thing, but the unwillingness to make any form of redress was even more annoying. I didn't expect a full refund, but would have been happy with "here are two tickets on this date to something that isn't sold out, take it or leave it", or even a commitment to "we've taken your feedback on board, and this is what we're doing differently".

The whole thing smacked of "we're earning lots of money and people will book it regardless, so tough luck".

I got tickets for that too - upper circle or whatever it’s called there as everything was a little pricey…..

If we’re allowed to extend this thread into 2027, I’m excited about the new production of ‘Charlie and the chocolate factory’ next year, starring Michael Ball. I realised I haven’t actually seen him in a musical since probably ‘Aspects of love’ back in the day, only concerts. Tickets go on sale at end of the month.

I have heard that is brilliant.. must get tickets

We saw Jesus Christ Superstar last night and Beetlejuice tonight.

Sam Ryder was phenomenal. He surpassed my expectations. The mob leader dancer you couldn’t take your eyes off her. Julian Clary was atrocious. Simply awful. Loved Pilate but found Mary a bit meh. Ds has seen the same actress in a different show and she was great in that so we can only assume it was the direction.

the music was fantastic and I loved some of the imagery, eg with the mic cables and the symbolism of taking mics from characters. BUT, there was little direction. We know the show well, Ds has been in a production and we all felt the story was lost. If we didn’t know it we’d have had no clue what was going on. An example was the moneylenders in the temple scene. No clue.

Beetlejuice was bonkers fun. Lydia was great. BJ himself I felt could have been more zany. All the reviews I’ve seen say that the understudy Tom Xander embodies the character better and brings more energy and having seen him in Mormon I can well imagine it. Loved the updated references.

Lion Kng - dd worked front of house there for two years and the ushers have a very difficult time. However there have been a lot of Managment changes. It’s very touristy and bad behaviour is a real problem.

@Comefromaway Are you me? You summed up exactly what we thought of JCS such as great singing and dancing, story a bit lost, Sam Ryder superb, Mary, nice singing voice, but ok, and that dancer, we were drawn to watching her as well. We had Richard Armitage who was good, but there were bigger roles in the cast, and I wouldn’t have picked him out as special. The only person you didn’t mention was Judas (Tyrone Huntley) who was phenomenal and deserves greater recognition.

I’ve just signed up for the alerts in that as well - I had contemplated going to last touring production but I heard mixed reports on it so never did.

I got seats in the circle , the middle tier, for £41. ‘High seats’ but they are comfortable with backs and arm rests and it isn’t a restricted view.

I just saw Cate Blanchett and Nina Hoss in Electra/ Persona this afternoon. Very intense and thought provoking, I think it will take a while to unpack what happened on stage.

I felt like that after seeing Les Liaisons Dangereuses at the National. Did anyone else catch it? Really well done but highly unlikeable characters and very thought provoking.

Yes it was stunning. I loved the use of mirrors to show the way everyone was being watched, and the use of dance to tell the story ( unlike the meaningless wafting you get in some productions!). It was so cool that Lesley Manville played the ingenue in the first production as well. Art reflecting life when she became Lesley's character at the end! ( Sorry I forget the names)

I've had a lot of solo work visits to London this year, starting to feel like I've seen everything!

Back to the future is touring next year, we've tickets for Liverpool in January with the dc. I saw it in London a while back and hoping the special effects travel well.

We've booked for Christmas Carol Goes Wrong in Manchester in December and their new play Comedy about spies for London theatre week.

I'm working in Manchester quite a bit between now and Christmas, I've looked at the big theatres, which smaller ones do I need to consider?

I saw the current version of JCSS when it was touring earlier in the year (or last year?). I was underwhelmed despite really loving the show usually. Some details may have been improved with the newest version but from reviews it seems that a lot has stayed the same.

I disliked the singers having hand held microphones. On one occasion, Mary had to pretty much run back to the microphone on a stand for a dramatic part of I don't know how to love him. And when the Pharisees sang with their microphones, then put them down and continued singing showed they were basically props sometimes.

I felt that a lot of the modernisation of costumes detracted from some people who might not know the story so well from knowing exactly who some characters were.

Yes, Julian Clary was awful. Spoke his part rather than sang it.

I actually laughed out loud at the mic-drop to symbolise Judas' death. And as for the cross being made from microphone stands...style over substance. I did, however, like the symbolism of the silver staining Judas' hands.

We also had one dancer whose main job seemed to be come on and gesture wildly at Jesus repeatedly, for no apparent reason. Or to occasionally dance by covering first one eye with their right hand, then their other eye with their left. My friend said it reminded her of the opticians. "Better on the left, or better on the right?"

I'm still looking forward to seeing Sam's performance when we see it next year when it tours. I'm not sure it will match hearing Gethsemane belted out by someone with full theatre training, but I have heard people have really enjoyed it and am willing to give it a go. But not at London prices.

We have tickets for the upcoming Little Shop of Horrors in Manchester. The have leant hard into casting ex soap stars. I don't care if they are names. I care if they can sing and act. It's DD's favourite so I hope it's a good production.

We have a few random things booked at local (and not so local) theatres in the upcoming months.

An amateur version of Bake Off the musical (might be terrible!)
Shit Faced Shakespeare (also might be terrible). :)
The picture of Dorian Grey.

Heathers in Blackpool.

Cats in Llandudno.
Showstoppers in Salford in December - 2 shows on the same day, but they are improvised and will be completely different. Very talented company.

We've also got tickets for the Hadestown tour when it comes to Chester. But that's not til Nov '27!

I saw JCSS 2 or 3 years ago on tour too, Julian Clary was in it then too but not the night I saw it, for which I was grateful as I thought he would likely just play himself. We deliberately booked it with Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Herod this time because I thought there was less risk of that happening, also we like him in Modern Family. We specifically avoided Julian, Boy George (dropped out anyway) and Layton Williams this time all for the same reason. Sam was amazing and I like him anyway but I do remember being absolutely blown away by the Jesus on tour with Gethsemane. I also thought Caiaphas and Annas were much better in the touring version.

Paddington this month for us, I am also considering Pride, The Cherry Orchard and Hay Fever.

This has just come up on my active threads.
I've not done much this year, but I saw Miss Saigon in Glasgow, in June, Cabaret, in London this week, and I've got tickets for The lives of others in November.

Sad I missed tickets for Electra but agree with the comments up thread about how appalling the Brie Larsen one was, just Noooooooooo!

I'm not sure about The Oresteia now but am seeing it in a couple of weeks. I also just saw Cleansed at the Almeida which was very disturbing and not for the faint hearted.

I've got tickets for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf in November with Gillian Anderson which hopefully will be good.

Has anyone seen Bloodsport which is at Stratford East? I saw 1536 which was by the same writer earlier this summer and really liked it.

Saw Christmas Carol Goes Wrong in Jan, and seeing Spies next weekend. Love a Mischief production.

Took DS to see Paddington a little while ago, we both really loved it. Bonnie Langford is a real treat!

I see mousetrap is doing a little tour. Seen it eleventy million times but I love it so will try to find a convenient date.

There's a spoken poetry parody of die hard at the Lowry. Apparently out of Edinburgh Fringe, anyone know if it's good?