The best theatre shows to book tickets for in 2021, in London and the UK
Excited about post-lockdown life? Good news: numerous tickets are available, from Andrew Lloyd Webber s Cinderella to a Bob Marley musical
Theatre highlights to come include Ian McKellen s Hamlet
The show will go on! Theatres finally reopened on May 17 with socially distanced audiences, as England moved into Step 3 of the lockdown roadmap. It is hoped that venues can return to full audiences from June 21 (Step 4).
Many shows, including new and returning West End productions, are already selling tickets. Check out our picks below and get booking.
Best theatre shows for 2021
The Barn Theatre is set to return next month with a co-production world premier of Cat Goscovitch’s new play – A Russian Doll. The Cirencester-based theatre have teamed up with Arcola Theatre, London, for this play which is based on a true story. It follows twenty-something Masha as she becomes embroiled in the world of data and deceit as a member of Russia’s disinformation campaigns during the EU referendum. Iwan Lewis, artistic director and CEO of the Barn Theatre, said of the theatre’s reopening: “We love great partnerships here at the Barn Theatre. “We were able to negotiate a global pandemic through creative and brilliant collaborations and it’s great to kick off our 2021 season with another.
A Russian Doll
The Barn Theatre in Cirencester and the Arcola Theatre in London will co-produce Cat Goscovitch s new play
A Russian Doll, which will reopen the Barn in May.
Directed by Nicolas Kent, the show will have its world premiere on 18 May, with London dates (set to take place in the Arcola s new outdoor space, Arcola Outside), to be revealed.
Goscovitch, daughter of C P Taylor, said today: The EU referendum was a moment that changed the history of the United Kingdom forever. In writing this play, I wanted to explore what role Russian disinformation played in influencing the vote and how it impacted not just our political lives but also our personal. How does a click become a vote? What does it mean to take someone down the rabbit hole? And will we ever come back?
Last modified on Sun 18 Apr 2021 12.49 EDT
Helen McCrory, who has died of cancer aged 52, was already established among the leading stage actors of her generation when she became known as Cherie Blair in Stephen Frears’s movie The Queen (2006), starring Helen Mirren, and with Michael Sheen as Tony; and as the witch Narcissa Malfoy, mother of Draco, in the last three Harry Potter films.
Her brisk and slinky Cherie Blair was one in a line of suited authority figures and lawyers played by McCrory, culminating in an acidulous, brutally frank but deluded Tory prime minister in David Hare’s television drama Roadkill (2020), refusing to give a “big job” to Hugh Laurie’s shameless MP. In comparison, Narcissa was a “turn,” a Gothic hoot, for all her verve and suffocating evil.
Helen McCrory would have been the next Helen Mirren or Judi Dench
The actress leaves an extraordinary body of work, but there is no doubt that she had so much more to give
Helen McCrory was one of the finest actors of her generation
Credit: Ben Blackall
The wonder for me about Helen McCrory – whose passing, at 52, is so cruel, so sad, such a profound and premature loss to the acting profession – is how relatively long it took for people to cotton on to her magnificence.
I was lucky enough to visit the Tricycle, north London one winter evening in 1995 and see her star as Lady M in Macbeth. In fact, of course, she wasn’t then the draw – here was, surprisingly enough, a Shakespeare production at a major off-West End venue renowned for its contemporary political work. It was an oddity from artistic director Nicolas Kent. Yet within the space of a couple of hours, I emerged with her name on my lips, and the surest conviction that I had set eyes on one of the greats.