London Theatre: Top 10 Plays to see in 2020

  • by Siman Pankhania
  • Posted on Feb 12, 2020
  • Musical

Get ready for 2020 with some of the best plays coming to the West End stage this year:

Leopoldstadt
Where? Wyndhams Theatre
When? 25 January – 16 May 2020
What? LEOPOLDSTADT is a passionate drama of love, family and endurance. It is Stoppard‘s most humane and heart-breaking play. Coming to the Wyndhams Theatre. Vienna in 1900 was  the most vibrant city in Europe, humming with artistic and intellectual excitement and a genius for enjoying life. A tenth of the population were Jews. A generation earlier they had been granted full civil rights be the Emperor, Franz Josef. Consequently, hundreds of thousands had fled from the Pale and the pogroms in the East and many found sanctuary in the crowded tenements of the old Jewish quarter, LEOPOLDSTADT.

The Seagull
Where? Playhouse Theatre
When? 11 March – 30 May 2020
What? Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) makes her West End debut as Nina in Anya Reiss’ unique modernisation of Anton Chekhov’s THE SEAGULL, with direction by Jamie Lloyd. A young woman is desperate for fame and a way out. A young man is pining after the woman of his dreams. A successful writer longs for a sense of achievement. An actress wants to fight the changing of the times. In an isolated home in the countryside where dreams are in tatters, hopes dashed, hearts broken and there is nowhere left to turn, the only option is to turn on each other.

A Doll’s House
Where? Playhouse Theatre
When? 10 June to 5 September 2020
What? Jessica Chastain makes her West End debut as Nora in Frank McGuinness’ ‘triumphant and thrilling’ (The New Yorker) adaptation of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, in a radical new production by director Jamie Lloyd at the Playhouse Theatre. Following Cyrano de Bergerac and The Seagull, the third and final show in The Jamie Lloyd Company’s Playhouse Season is a story of one woman’s fight for her own life.

To Kill A Mockingbird
Where? Gielgud Theatre
When? 17 March – 10 June 2017
What? Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-Winning American classic TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD comes to the West End from Broadway in a new adaptation by Aaron Sorkin, directed by Bartlett Sher. Inspired by Lee’s own childhood in Alabama, To Kill a Mockingbird features one of literature’s towering symbols of integrity and righteousness in the character of Atticus Finch, based on Lee’s own father. The character of Scout, based on herself, has come to define youthful innocence – and its inevitable loss – for generation after generation of readers around the world.

Life of Pi
Where? Wyndhams Theatre
When? 24 June – 4 October 2020
What? LIFE OF PI at the Wyndhams Theatre is a universally acclaimed, smash hit adaptation of an epic journey of endurance and hope. Based on one of the most extraordinary and best-loved works of fiction – winner of the Man Booker Prize, selling over fifteen million copies worldwide – and featuring breath-taking puppetry and state-of-the-art visuals, don’t miss LIFE OF PI.

The Doctor
Where? Duke of York’s Theatre
When? 20 April to 11 July 2020
What? Olivier Award winner Juliet Stevenson delivers ‘one of the performances of the year’ (Evening Standard) in the West End transfer of Robert Icke’s sold-out, five-star Almeida Theatre production of The Doctor at the Duke of York’s Theatre. The latest smash-hit by ‘Britain’s best director’ (Telegraph) is a ‘provocative, wonderfully upsetting’ (Independent) whirlwind of gender, race and identity politics, ‘one of the peaks of the theatrical year’ (Guardian) and a ‘devastating play for today’ (Financial Times).

Upstart Crow
Where? Gielgud Theatre
When? 7 February to 25 April 2020
What? Ben Elton brings his critically acclaimed and much adored BBC sitcom UPSTART CROW to its natural home, the stage, with an all-new comic play set to delight London’s West End. Starring David Mitchell, once more donning the bald wig and bardish coddling pouch in his iconic characterisation of Will Shakespeare and Gemma Whelan as the sweet and fragrant Kate.

Baby Reindeer
Where? Ambassadors Theatre
When? 2 April to 2 May 2020
What? When award-winning comedian Richard Gadd offers a stranger a free cup of tea, he has no sense of the nightmare to come. One act of kindness. Six years of torment.The sell-out smash hit of last year’s Edinburgh Fringe, Baby Reindeer is the “blistering” debut play (Telegraph) from Richard Gadd (Monkey See Monkey Do, Netflix’s ‘Sex Education’). Directed by Olivier Award-winner Jon Brittain (Rotterdam), this is a chilling personal account of compulsion, delusion and obsession. Some admirers simply won’t be shaken off. “A haunted, haunting hour.”

The Watsons
Where? The Harold Pinter Theatre
When? 8 May 2020 to 26 September 2020
What? Picking up an unfinished novel, Olivier Award-winner Laura Wade’s ‘ingenious and triumphant’ (Evening Standard) new comedy pops the bonnet on Jane Austen’s world. Directed by Samuel WestTHE WATSONS transfers to the West End following sold-out runs at the Menier Chocolate Factory and Chichester Festival Theatre.  What happens when a writer loses the plot and fictional characters take control of their tale?

The Shark is Broken
Where? Ambassadors Theatre
When? 11 May – 18 July 2020
What? Cape Cod, 1974: shooting on JAWS has stalled. The film’s lead actors – Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss – are stuck on a boat, frustrated by foul weather and a faulty mechanical co-star. Awash with alcohol and ambition, three great white sharks start to bare their teeth… Sonia Friedman Productions is delighted to announce its second production at the Ambassadors Theatre in 2020. After a sell-out, critically acclaimed premiere at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe, Ian Shaw and Joseph Nixon’s brilliantly funny play will arrive in the West End from 11th May.

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