Comedies and tragedies, adaptations and original works – and some of the best stage actors in the world vying for our attention – yes, it's looking like a record year for plays.
Here, the Mail's theater critic Patrick Marmion suggests some dates for your diary…
WITHAIL & I
Paul McGann (left) and Richard E. Grant (right) in Withnail and I
Without question, the show I'm most looking forward to in 2024 is Bruce Robinson's stage adaptation of his bittersweet 1987 cult film.
But can any actor come close to Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann as down-and-out thespians struggling for work at the end of the 1960s? And who dares to slip into Richard Griffiths' Uncle Monty's huge trousers?
Thankfully, Robinson is writing the adaptation and comedy maestro Sean Foley is directing. Pray they keep the soundtrack, and good luck to those tasked with firing off some of the best zingers of all time (“We went on vacation by mistake!”).
3rd–25th May, Rep Theatre, Birmingham; birmingham-rep.co.uk
PLAZA SUITE
Sarah Jessica Parker makes her West End debut opposite her husband Matthew Broderick in Plaza Suite.
The first big-name American actors to emerge this year are Sarah Jessica Parker (making her West End debut) and her husband Matthew Broderick in the Neil Simon comedy classic Plaza Suite.
The pair play three couples who occupy the titular hotel rooms: a grumpy married couple, high school sweethearts, and an older couple whose daughter locked herself in the toilet before her wedding.
17 January – 30 March, Savoy Theatre, Strand, London; plazasuiteuk.com
DORIAN GRAY
Hot on the heels of Parker and Broderick, Sarah Snook – aka the scheming Shiv Roy from TV's Succession – appears in a West End solo show, playing all 26 roles.
It's a modern take on Oscar Wilde's fable, in which a young party animal keeps a picture in the attic to age for him so he doesn't have to.
The Australian actress will reprise an appearance first seen in Sydney in 2020.
n February 6 – May 11, Theater Royal Haymarket, London; doriangrayplay.com
AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE
Former Doctor Who maverick Matt Smith plays another doctor in Henrik Ibsen's great social drama.
As a doctor Dr. Stockmann, he discovers that the “healing water” of his health resort is dangerously polluted. What to do? Directed by another outsider, German showman Thomas Ostermeier, don't expect anything conventional.
February 6 – April 6, Duke of York's Theatre, London; anenemyofthepeople.co.uk
THE HILLS OF CALIFORNIA
Jez Butterworth, author of the Mark Rylance hit Jerusalem, returns to the West End with director Sam Mendes. Their last work together was the Irish drama The Ferryman.
This is about four sisters – played by Laura Donnelly (one of the stars of “The Ferryman”), Leanne Best, Ophelia Lovibond and Helena Wilson – who head home to arid Blackpool in the summer of 1976 to care for their dying mother take care.
January 27 – June 15, Harold Pinter Theatre, London; Hillsofcaliforniaplay.com
A long day's journey into the night
Brian Cox (pictured with Sarah Snook) plays the flawed father of the dysfunctional Tyrone family in Long Day's Journey into Night
After overseeing an epic story of family breakdown on television, Brian Cox takes on Eugene O'Neill's Pulitzer Prize-winning story of family breakdown in Succession as the monstrous patriarch Logan Roy. This time he plays the flawed father of the dysfunctional Irish-American Tyrone family as they drive each other apart on a long, hot day in August 1912.
Patricia Clarkson plays his opium-addicted wife, with Alex Lawther and Daryl McCormack as their feuding, spendthrift sons.
March 19 – June 8, Wyndham's Theatre, London; Longdays Journeylondon.com
New Year's Eve
Michael Sheen plays Aneurin “Nye” Bevan in Tim Price’s tribute to the great Welsh Labor leader who never was. Instead, as Health Secretary he oversaw the creation of the NHS in Clement Attlee's post-war government.
Looking back at Bevan's deathbed in 1960, it was directed by Rufus Norris and is likely to be one of his last productions at the National Theater before he retires in 2025.
February 24 – May 11, Olivier Theatre, National Theatre; nationaltheatre.org.uk
1979 (Finborough Theatre, London)
Verdict: Hung drama
You'll need a clear head, an interest in Canadian post-war politics and a reasonable understanding of the socio-economic geography of this great nation to make the most of the lively Finborough Theatre's new 1979 play. But Michael Healey's drama documentary is not without interest for the rest of us.
The plot revolves around the fate of 39-year-old Joe Clark, the unexpected winner of the 1979 election as leader of the country's Progressive Conservative Party (a title that cleverly hedges its bets in a veiled oxymoron).
Sitting at the Prime Minister's desk, Clark must survive a vote of confidence before he can tackle an unpopular budget that turns out to be a two-stage dissolution of his government.
Also in his mailbox is the task of obtaining a set of fake passports for US hostages in Iran.
You'll need a clear head, an interest in Canadian post-war politics and a reasonable understanding of the socio-economic geography of this great nation to make the most of the lively Finborough Theatre's new play, 1979
There are plenty of highly intelligent and enjoyably sardonic political musings, with one of Healey's characters noting that “passion is a burden on a politician.”
However, the playwright packs too much arcane information into his 75-minute skit, which requires an overhead projector to provide election statistics and explain some of the gags.
The otherwise lively Jimmy Walters production, which I saw in a very early preview, is similarly over-compressed: it uses just three actors to play ten characters (including an anachronistic appearance by a young future prime minister, Stephen Harper).
Furthermore, realistic historical political dramas do not lend themselves to gender-neutral casting (as here), and Healey could have better described them as pure pantomime.
Although performed around the dramatic millstone of a huge leather-topped desk, I admired the chutzpah of the three who took on this unlikely task.
Joseph May makes a good fist of Clark, who stays true to a brown corduroy suit that he knows marks him out as a hapless fool.
As previous Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau (Ian Porter) said: There's less to Clark than meets the eye.
Samantha Coughlan as his wife Maureen McTeer also doesn't rate Clark as a politician – which doesn't make him a promising protagonist. And yet, despite the inconspicuous habit of wiping her face with her rolled-up jacket, May plunges almost charismatically relaxed into the historical abyss.
PATRICK MARMION
Tim Burton's dark fairy tale comes to life…
Edward Scissorhands (Sadler's Wells, then touring)
Verdict: One step better
The inspiration for Matthew Bourne's show is Tim Burton's wonderful 1990 film, reimagined as a magical musical. The style is cartoonish, colorful and fun; the emotional impact is moving and tender – but neither the dance nor the music really blows you away.
This is the beautifully told story of a strange outsider: a gentle creature with a unique talent, but who, despite his better nature, is inherently dangerous.
A prologue provides an explanation for Edward's mysterious origins. A boy with a pair of scissors is fatally struck by lightning. (Schoolboy mistake.)
In a fantastical gothic studio, his Frankenstein-like father has a rudimentary surrogate “son” running his sewing machine and foolishly gives him a pair of scissors for fingers. (Lesson number two.)
Edward Scissorhands by Matthew Bourne is based on the 1990 film by Tim Burton
The style is cartoonish, colorful and fun; the emotional impact is moving and tender – but neither the dance nor the music really blows you away.
Cut to 1950s American suburbs and Hope Springs, all boxy bungalows and manicured gardens. Everyone is on the move: the shy gay couple with their baby, the voluptuous vampire and her chubby husband, the Bible-hating priest and the wholesome Boggs family.
The strange Edward Blossoms is embraced by Mrs. Boggs and discovers a natural genius for topiary and a flair for hilarious hairstyling. And falls in love with her daughter Kim, a cheerleader with a ponytail. In a magnificent sequence, he and Kim whirl through a wonderful world of dancing topiary figures. But it's a dream.
Back in reality, he charms his lover with the sculpture, which he depicts as a glittering iron angel, ponytail and all. At the Christmas party, Edward takes part in jiving, his blades lifting and caressing Kim as gently as feathers. Beautiful.
Lez Brotherston's 1950s designs and costumes are a delight; The score by Terry Davies, performed by a live orchestra, is a vibrant delight. And real snow falls on the audience. All that's missing is a song to take with you, some fast-paced footwork – and for me a happy ending.
Tour dates can be found at new-adventures.net.
GEORGINA BROWN
That's what I call a great party!
High Society (Mill at Sonning, Reading)
Verdict: Treasure for King Cole
Cole Porter's swanky musical High Society is another tour de force for Sally Hughes' ambitious Berkshire boutique theater, The Mill at Sonning – the venue which offers a pre-show buffet dinner.
Remaking the romantic comedy based on the 1940 film “Philadelphia Story,” in which Katherine Hepburn plays New York socialite Tracy Lord, is no easy task: she is torn between her boring new fiancé and her charming one Ex (Cary Grant) and a lively young journalist (James Stewart). But to make matters worse, those roles were then played by Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra in the renamed 1956 musical.
Unburdened by the burden of expectations, the 15-piece cast with four band members makes the show a breeze in Joe Pitcher's light-hearted production.
A 15-member cast and four band members make the show a breeze in Joe Pitcher's light-hearted production of “High Society.”
Porter's music and songs are brought to sparkling life on Jason Denvir's beautiful terrace set
Porter's music and songs are brought to sparkling life on Jason Denvir's beautiful patio stage overlooking a giant projection of the yachts in Oyster Bay, Long Island.
And the lavish party the night before Tracy's wedding gets into full swing as views of the ocean give way to a glittering, moonlit harbor.
Speaking of swing, this infectious musical genre dreamily fuses with jazz and calypso in a score that includes Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, She's Got That Thing, Swell Party and Let's Misbehave. And the music is played on everything from pianos and saxophones to accordions and spoons.
Pitcher's elegant, stylish production also features great wigs and costumes – and what the young actors lack in experience, they make up for in vitality and exuberance. Victoria Serra plays the initially stuffy Tracy, who trades in her cold smile and becomes cheeky in the second half, with a lovely warble.
As Tracy's love interest ex Dexter, Matt Blaker looks like a beefy version of Tom Cruise, with the added benefit of being able to sing. And while Mike Connor, Matthew Jean's alternate love interest, almost sinks into a Sinatra-style drawl, he sings and moves with the best of them.
This Much I Know (Hampstead TheatreDownstairs)
Verdict: Historical Sudoku
This Much I Know is a Sudoku puzzle game about an American psychology professor whose wife unexpectedly leaves him to research her family history after discovering that her Russian grandmother was the daughter of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
And to scratch our heads, there's a subplot about the US professor who leads a white supremacist student into the sunlit highlands of multicultural liberalism.
Author Jonathan Spector was the author of a weak woke satire, Eureka Day, starring Helen Hunt at the Old Vic in 2022.
This Much I Know is based on interesting ideas about human behavior, most of which are taken from a book by psychologist Daniel Kahneman
But the beauty of this film is that it forces you to insert yourself into the story and fly around the world in time and place with three actors playing multiple roles. And the piece is brimming with interesting ideas about human behavior that draw heavily on a book by psychologist Daniel Kahneman about the human tendency toward self-deception.
Chelsea Walker's new direction could do more to pull together the threads of Blythe Brett's expansive auditorium set, which uses televisions to introduce us to historical characters, including Stalin himself. The acting, however, is always captivating, with Esh Alladi portraying a very affable professor cheerfully explaining the inadequacies of our species, and Natalie Klamar conveying a sense of need and urgency as his troubled wife. Oscar Adams completes some stereotypical ideas about the young white nationalist.
PATRICK MARMION