Here are the most highly-anticipated theatre shows hitting the West End in 2017
Hamilton
Victoria Palace Theatre: November 2017
Theatrical events don’t come much bigger than Hamilton’s highly-anticipated arrival in London. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s masterpiece charting the life of Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of the United States of America who died in a duel (historical spoiler!), racked up 11 Tony Awards and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Featuring a cast of black and Hispanic actors who gave Mike Pence a right talking to last year, the sung-through score is a heady mix of hip-hop and pop and has gathered a cult following in the UK. The London production will reopen the Victoria Palace Theatre following a refurb.
Why you can't miss it:
Providing Trump doesn’t surprise win the German election, it’ll be the talk of the town.
An American in Paris
Dominion Theatre: 4 March
Based on the Oscar-winning film of the same name, this new musical transfers from Broadway and Paris, where it received rave reviews. It follows Jerry Mulligan, an American GI trying to make it as a painter in post-war Paris, who falls in love with a French ballerina. George and Ira Gershwin’s score – featuring hits ‘I Got Rhythm’ and ‘They Can’t Take That Away From Me’ – is reinvented by choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, who doesn’t shy away from a 17-minute ballet sequence.
Why you can't miss it:
A real feast for the eyes set in one of London’s largest theatres.
Rosencrantz and Guildernsten are Dead
Old Vic: 25 Feb
In this revitalised and iconic situation comedy, Daniel Radcliffe (pictured here almost figuring out how his jeans pocket works) and Joshua McGuire (off of the telly and things) play two hapless and flailing minor characters in a production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It’s been 50 years since this mind-bending play about identity and self-image premiered on The Old Vic’s stage, and in February it returns to the theatre.
Why you can't miss it:
Radcliffe gets his bum or willy out in most things now, so you and your friends can take bets on which it will be this time.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Harold Pinter Theatre: 22 Feb
If you saw Imelda Staunton in Gypsy at the Savoy Theatre, you’ll know that she can pump an electric volt through the most tired of productions. We’re full of amps, then, to see what she does with the classic role of Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Set on an American campus, it unflinchingly rummages around in the murky crevices of a decaying marriage over the course of one night. She’s joined by Conleth Hill (Lord Varys in Game of Thrones) and this production is particularly poignant as its writer, Edward Albee, succumbed to the curse of 2016 and passed away in September last year.
Why you can't miss it:
Classic play, Imelda Staunton – what more do you want, you ungrateful swine?
Follies
National Theatre: late 2017
A classic Broadway musical from 1971 composed by Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman, Follies makes its National Theatre debut later this year. Set in the ruins of a Broadway theatre scheduled for demolition, the show sees a reunion of couples who had once performed at the crumbling venue. Imelda Staunton and Janie Dee star as fading showgirls Sally Durant Plummer and Phyllis Rogers Stone, while Philip Quast plays Benjamin Stone. A charismatic and iconic musical.
Why you can't miss it:
The National’s artistic director Rufus Norris will have wooed Imelda for naught
Don Juan in Soho
Wyndham's Theatre: 17 March
Patrick Marber, writer of sexy relationship melodrama Closer, is back directing another of his sexy relationship melodramas, this time based on Moliere’s 17th century comedy Don Juan. In this, sex addict Don is transported to sex central, modern day Soho and played by grinning, shark-eyed Scotsman David Tennant. In this one, modern swanky hotels rub up against alleyways full of crackheads and prostitutes, providing the perfect backdrop for hedonism. The play had a successful run 10 years ago at the Donmar Warehouse where it was invariably described by critics as ‘disgracefully sexy’. Ooh, Margaret.
Why you can't miss it:
David Tennant’s brilliant on stage, even if he was Dr Who.
Angels in America
National Theatre :11 April
This new staging of Tony Kushner’s multi-award winning two-part play is directed by Olivier and Tony award winning director Marianne Elliott (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and War Horse). Set in mid 1980s America at the height of the AIDS crisis, New Yorkers grapple with love, sex and death under the cloud of a conservative Reagan administration. The cast includes Andrew Garfield, Denise Gough, Nathan Lane, James McArdle and Russell Tovey. Likely to sell out quickly.
Why you can't miss it:
A staggeringly powerful play that promises to be one of the National’s shows of the year.