This is a collaborative post.
Since the new plays and shows for 2020 just began or recently available fo book the tickets – I’ve got this year’s bucket list ready too. And what a bucket list – London as usual, will be buzzing with great shows, dramas on stage, brilliant characters and big names. I can’t wait to see these!
To Kill a Mockingbird
I’m a big fan of the Welsh actor Rhys Ifans, I enjoyed most of his cinematic work. (I’ll be honest, I particularly enjoyed his character in The Boat That Rocked, love that film, so much fun!). From May till the end of October we can see him in Bartlett Sher’s stage adaptation of Harper Lee’s civil rights classic To Kill a Mockingbird. Honestly, I could see why the choice. Rhys Ifans will star as principled white Southern attorney Atticus Finch, who defends black man Tom Robinson in a rape trial in deeply prejudiced Alabama. Book tickets here.
Gielgud Theatre, Soho
Frozen
With a 3-year-old Frozen fan, this seems to be unavoidable! Don’t get me wrong, I quite like the stories of Elsa, Anna, Kristof and Olaf (especially Frozen 2) so we just got our tickets to see the musical on stage too. I think the melodies and the story definitely called for a stage musical (again, Frozen 2 even more than than Frozen, if you are familiar with the second film, you’ll know what I mean, it was clearly written for stage.)Surely set to be the biggest show of the year, adapted by Michael Grandage.
Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Covent Garden
Hello, Dolly
Probably one of the best known and everyone’s sweetheart musical: Hello, Dolly moved to Broadway in 1964, winning 10 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. No wonder why. Who doesn’t love it? Imelda Staunton (whom I adore) and Dominic Cooke are reuniting for in Hello Dolly. The musical hasn’t had a London revival in over a decade! A great come back, I say.
Adelphi Theatre, Strand
Sunday in the Park with George
Another big movie star: Jake Gyllenhaal stars Sunday in the Park with George, a Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s brilliant 1984 musical about Georges Seurat and his troubled great-grandson George. I’ve heard a lot about the musical itself but have never seen it. Stephen Sondheim wrote Company and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, which I both like as well as the lyrics for West Side Story and Gypsy. So it definitely sounds very promising.
Savoy Theatre, Strand