Here’s a guide to some of the shows opening in London this month…
The Unfriend, Wyndham’s Theatre: now in previews, Steven Moffat’s comedy is back in the West End, starring Lee Mack (Not Going Out, Would I Lie To You?) and Sarah Alexander (Coupling, Smack The Pony) and Frances Barber (Silk, Doctor Who).
While on holiday Peter and Debbie befriend Elsa: a lusty, Trump-loving widow from Denver, USA. She’s less than woke but kind of wonderful, so they agree to stay in touch – because no one ever really does, do they?
When Elsa invites herself to stay with the family a few months later, they decide to look her up online. But it’s too late: on learning the truth about Elsa Jean Krakowski, the deadly danger is already on a flight to London! What began as a casual holiday friendship is suddenly a threat to all their lives.
Cockfosters, The Turbine Theatre: this January, head to the Turbine Theatre to catch this comedy set on the London Underground and based on the London Underground. It will run at the theatre from the 9th to the 20th January.
Two strangers meet on the Piccadilly Line and travel across London on a journey they’ll never forget.
A brilliantly surreal take on the tube journey that we know and love (subject to delays), with larger-than-life characters that make every journey matter.
So top up your Oyster, mind the gap and hop aboard the tube trip of a lifetime to Cockfosters. Ever been?
Kim’s Convenience, Park Theatre: from the 8th January to the 10th February, you are able to catch the UK premiere of playwright, screenwriter and actor Ins Choi’s play which went onto inspire the Netflix series. It is directed by Esther Jun who has a long history with Ins Choi’s play, having been cast in the original production.
Mr. Kim works hard to support his wife and children with his Toronto convenience store. As he evaluates his future, he faces both a changing neighbourhood landscape and the gap between his values and those of his Canada-born children. Choi calls Kim’s Convenience his ‘love letter to his parents and to all first-generation immigrants who call Canada their home.’
Rehab the Musical, Neon 194: Grant Black & Murray Lachlan Young’s musical returns to London, following a run at the Playground Theatre in 2022. Playing at new venue from the 12th January, Rehab is a story about trying to change our lives for the better- even when you are at your lowest point.
It’s 1990 and jaded 26 year-old pop star, Kid Pop, finds himself in court after being caught red handed in a drug fuelled tabloid sting. An understanding judge gives Kid the choice between jail time or six weeks in a rehabilitation centre. It’s a no-brainer for Kid, Rehab will be a holiday. How could he have got it so wrong?
Cowbois, Royal Cout Theatre: the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Charlie Josephine’s play arrives in London from the 11th January.
In a sleepy town in the Wild West, the women drift through their days like tumbleweed. Their husbands, swept up in the goldrush, have been missing for almost a year and show no sign of returning. In fact, the town is almost cut off from outsiders entirely, with only one drunken sheriff for protection.That is until handsome bandit Jack Cannon swaggers up to the town’s saloon, looking for a place to hide from the bounty hunters on his tail. Armed with a wink, and with a gun by their side for good measure, Jack’s explosive arrival inspires a gender revolution, and starts a fire under the petticoat of every one of the town’s repressed inhabitants.
Cruel Intentions: The Musical, The Other Palace: the London premiere of this musical will take place at The Other Palace from the 11th January until the 14th April. Based on the 1990’s film, it is filled with music from the era including songs by Britney Spears, Boyz II Men, Christina Aguilera, TLC, Natalie Imbruglia, The Verve, *NSYNC and R.E.M.
Step-siblings Sebastian Valmont and Kathryn Merteuil, manipulative monsters flushed with their own sexual prowess, engage in a cruel bet: Kathryn goads Sebastian into attempting to seduce Annette Hargrove, the headmaster’s virtuous daughter. Weaving a web of secrets and temptation, as the two set out to destroy an innocent girl – and anyone who gets in their way – their vengeful crusade wreaks havoc on the students at their exclusive Manhattan high school and the diabolical duo become entangled in their own mesh of deception and unexpected romance, with explosive results…
The Most Precious of Goods, Marylebone Theatre: running from the 22nd January until the 3rd February, the play is based on Jean-Claude Grumberg’s best-selling French language novella. Set against the backdrop of the Holocaust, The Most Precious of Goods is a story of love and hope set against the most terrible of circumstances.
Winter 1943, somewhere in war-torn Eastern Europe: a poor woodcutter’s wife finds a little bundle thrown in the snow from a moving goods train. It contains something for which she has always yearned, but…
1979, Finborough Theatre: now in previews, this European premiere of Michael Healey’s play and his fourth to be performed at the Finborough Theatre, is a satirical political comedy based on true events. It is directed by Jimmy Walter s and stars Joseph May as Canada’s youngest ever prime minister Joe Clark, and Ian Porter and Samantha Coughlan will both play multiple roles including Pierre Trudeau, Maureen McTeer and Steve Harper.
In May 1979, Progressive Conservative Joe Clark was elected as Canada’s youngest ever Prime Minister. By Christmas 1979, it looked as though it was all over.
But Clark is young and idealistic, resolute on making his mark in office, and governing for the whole country, not just his own party supporters. Faced with a critical decision, his colleagues – including his predecessor Pierre Trudeau – take the opportunity to steer him in completely different directions…
HEART, Brixton House: playing from the 23rd January, Jade Anouka’s debut play is a story of love, loss, and self-discovery. The production will combine live music and sound design by musician and four time UK Beatbox champion Grace Savage. It was first shown in New York at The Minetta Lane Theatre in July 2022, before it found further acclaim at Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
The play tells the story of a woman grappling with the end of her marriage and the beginning of a new chapter in her life.
The Mother of Kamal, Upstairs at the Gatehouse: based on her family’s history, Dina Ibrahim’s play arrives at the theatre from the 19th to the 28th January. It is a story that blends traditional narrative drama with elements drawn from classical, physical, epic and ensemble theatre. It first had a run at the 2023 Camden Fringe and has been extended into a full-length piece since then.
It is 1948 in the slums of Baghdad. A working-class Jewish mother, Um-Kamal, finds her two sons arrested by the feared and loathed Secret Police. Inexplicably, the younger brother, Sasson, gets imprisoned, while Kamal, the older, is set free. Rumour and intrigue ensue, and Um-Kamal is reluctantly drawn into the orbit of the Communist Party, risking all to save her teenage sons and hold her rapidly fragmenting family together.
Decades later, conflicting family histories and narratives emerge, as the troubled Kamal finally faces a reckoning with the truth of what really happened following that night in the cells in Baghdad – and its impact on the family across time and space.
By Emma Clarendon