30th Anniversary production! You heard that right, RENTheads, after last being seen in the West End in 1999, RENT is returning to London with Gaten Matarazzo making his West End debut as Mark Cohen! Electrifying the musical theatre landscape when it premiered on Broadway back in 1996, Jonathan Larson's Pulitzer and Tony-winning RENT remains an unmissable experience to this day. Bursting with energy and a rocking score, Rent tells the story of a band of young artists living in New York, who are determined to overcome the fear of HIV that hangs over them.

American playwright Tracey Scott Wilson's searing contemporary drama makes its British premiere at the Olivier Theatre. Directed by Clint Dyer (Death of England: Closing Time), the production stars BAFTA-winning actress Letitia Wright (Black Panther) making her National Theatre debut after a celebrated screen career, alongside an ensemble including Lorraine Toussaint (Orange is the New Black), Ashley Thomas (Bashy) and Wilf Scolding (Cabaret). Originally running in Manhattan in 2003, The Story is a gripping thriller based on a true story, navigating the risks of telling a story others would rather leave buried.

Tony Award winner Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Modern Family) stars in this fascinating one-man play following a critically acclaimed New York run, premiering at London's Menier Chocolate Factory this September. Diving into one of the most turbulent periods of celebrated author Truman Capote's life, TRU utilises immersive elements in an intimate, funny, and heartfelt exploration of an American icon.

The National Theatre stages Cloud 9, an early-career masterwork from the celebrated award-winning playwright Caryl Churchill (Top Girls, Serious Money) this year. Directed by the National's associate director Dominic Cooke (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Follies), the revival marks the latest collaboration in a long running professional association between Cooke and Churchill. A trademark, hard-hitting work from Churchill with themes of oppression both colonial and sexual, further details and casting will soon be announced.

Award-winning Hampstead Inspire alumnus Alex Rugman (How To Save A Rock) returns to the Hampstead Theatre with the drama The Urmetazoan, directed by Olivier nominee Anna Ledwich (Dry Powder; Four Minutes Twelve Seconds). This touching play brings to the stage the story of two sisters on different life paths, Alice and Abigail (played by Dorothea Myer-Bennett and Meghan Treadway respectively), in a relatable tale which asks the question of whether sisterly connections can ever truly be severed.

Following his award-winning debut play, The Horse of Jenin, Palestine-born comic and actor Alaa Shehada returns with his latest solo work, The Bridge. Co-written with and directed by Sam Beale, the production brings Shehada's personal lens to systemic political realities, using physical comedy, witty humour and engrossing storytelling to confront the very real, enduring legacy of British colonialism in Palestine, alongside the daily friction of Israeli occupation. Having graduated from the Nobel Peace Prize-nominated Freedom Theatre Acting School in Jenin Refugee Camp, Shehada's first hand experience sheds light on the harsh truths of the Palestinian experience through the medium of side-splitting comedy and captivating theatre.

Wladyslaw Szpilman's harrowing yet hopeful 1946 memoir receives its world premiere stage adaptation in London. Adapted and directed by Thom Southerland (Titanic the Musical) and featuring the original compositions of Szpilman, who was hailed as "the Polish Gershwin", Andrew Lloyd-Webber collaborator Simon Lee provides the orchestrations for the production, which features an ensemble of actor-musicians capturing the artistic essence of pre-war Warsaw.

Darkling, written by Titas Halder (Foal), arrives at the Holloway Theatre, the Bush Theatre's main performance space, this September-October. Helmed by director Matthew Xia (Tambo & Bones), the arresting work, based on the true story of the 1984 Bhopal gas leak disaster, functions as a timely reminder of the human cost of environmental negligence and unfettered industrial expansion. Stranger Things' Linnea Berthelsen plays the lead role, in her debut on the UK stage.

Co-created by Bruntwood Prize-shortlistee Georgia Bruce and director Jules Head, Attention comes to the London stage following a Dublin Fringe run that earned seven award nominations, including nods for Best Production and the Radical Spirit Award. The play is built on a unique, live-game structure where the performers determine the scene flow in real time, restarting, pausing, or skipping ahead at will, creating an unpredictable production which changes every single night. Returning to their original roles, actors Blaithin Mac Gabhann and Norah Lopez Holden bring their chemistry to this uniquely brilliant play once more.

Daniel Bailey directs one of Playwright August Wilson's greatest works, Fences, at the Lyric Hammersmith this autumn. Winner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 1987 Tony Award for Best Play, Fences, like all of the plays in Wilson's 10-play Century Cycle, explores the lives of African Americans as they cope with life and race relations in a segregated society. Staged by Headlong Theatre Company, don't miss this modern classic.

Prepare for an extraordinary historical story of silent bravery. Rosalind Adler and Lee Sellers' thrilling new drama comes to London, debuting at the Park Theatre in August 2026. Focusing on legendary composer Shostakovich's struggle to create free music under Stalin's brutal regime, Holy Fool is a dark, tense and sharp-witted tale of creativity versus tyranny.

Olivier Award winning actress Janie Dee (Carousel; Follies) plays Dorothy Kilgallen, the legendary American journalist of the 50s and 60s, in this world premiere of Speculations in London. Written by Torben Betts (Murder in the Dark), the political thriller directed by Trevor Nunn digs into the suspicious circumstances in which Marilyn Monroe, JFK and Lee Harvey Oswald died, which have fueled conspiracy theories for decades and continue to capture the minds of many even today. Were the deaths connected? Would Dorothy's journalism seal her fate? Dig deeper into these questions with this riveting new play.

Arcola Theatre plays host to the world premiere of The Banality of Evil by Julia Pascal (Blueprint Medea, Crossing Jerusalem), centred around the then-33-year-old philosopher Hannah Arendt. A vital piece of political theatre grounded in extensive research and eyewitness testimonies, the production brings together elements of satire, cabaret and physical performance, to tell the overlooked stories of women who, trapped in the gears of history, would go on to become some of the century's most important voices.