Best London theatre shows to see in 2024

Where: Gielgud Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1D 6AR
When: Until 27 July 2024
Website: openingnightmusical.com

The Devil Wears Prada

Dig out your cerulean sweater – The Devil Wears Prada is making its way to the Dominion Theatre this October, and it’s already one of the most highly-anticipated London theatre shows in recent times. The new musical, based on Lauren Weisberger’s best-selling 2003 novel and the 2006 blockbuster film, features music by Elton John, with direction and choreography by Jerry Mitchell (Kinky Boots, Legally Blonde, Hairspray). The storyline remains loosely the same, following aspiring writer Andy Sachs’s time at Runway magazine, reporting to its austere Editor-in-Chief, Miranda Priestly. Elton John’s recent (much praised) stage musical Tammy Faye (which also premiered in 2022, when TDWP premiered in the US) is a promising point of reference.

Where: Dominion Theatre, 268-269 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 7AQ
When: 24 October 2024 – 31 May 2025
Website: devilwearspradamusical.com

The Hills of California

(Possibly) the most eagerly anticipated play of 2024, Jez Butterworth’s latest theatrical work, The Hills of California, reunites the Jerusalem playwright with director Sam Mendes (The Lehman Trilogy, The Motive and the Cue). Following their celebrated collaboration on The Ferryman, the pair are swapping rural Northern Ireland for Blackpool this time. As yet, little is known about the plot of this 1976-set ‘generational drama’, other than that it centres on the Webb Sisters (Laura Donnelly, Leanne Best, Ophelia Lovibond, and Helena Wilson) who return to their mother’s run-down B&B as she lies dying upstairs.

Where: Harold Pinter Theatre, Panton Street, London SW1Y 4DN
When: 27 January – 15 June 2024
Website: hillsofcaliforniaplay.com

Romeo & Juliet

Following the seismic successes of The Jamie Lloyd Company‘s Sunset Boulevard, which saw Nicole Scherzinger play Norma Desmond, and The Effect, starring Paapa Essiedu and Taylor Russell, at the National Theatre, Lloyd’s next step was always going to be met with much curiosity and anticipation. Now, his latest show has been announced: Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, starring Tom Holland as Romeo Montague. Directed by Lloyd, this new production promises to be a ‘pulsating new vision of Shakespeare’s immortal tale of wordsmiths, rhymers, lovers, and fighters’. Tickets for its summer run at Duke of York’s Theatre are already all but sold out, and further casting has yet to be announced.