[title]
My one rule of theatre is that while it’s nice to travel to see shows out of town, there’s never any point in having FOMO because everything that’s actually any good will probably end up coming to London anyway.
And March 2026 certainly proves the hell out of that rule, as we’re treated to transfers of the most acclaimed Broadway show of last year (John Proctor is the Villain), the first production from Michael Sheen’s Welsh National Theatre (Our Town), and transfers from such exotic locales as Bristol (Choir Boy) and Leicester (Kinky Boots). Plus plenty of homegrown magic including a massive luxury National Theatre production of Maxim Gorky’s Summerfolk, and the great director Robert Icke helming a new production of Romeo & Juliet starring Sadie Sink.
The 10 best new London theatre openings in March 2026
1. Romeo & Juliet
What a joy it is to live in an era in which Robert Icke and Jamie Lloyd – arguably the two most exciting mainstream theatre directors alive – are basically now in charge of West End celebrity Shakespeare. Following Lloyd’s superlative Much Ado last year, Icke picks up the baton again with his own take on Romeo & Juliet, this one with Stranger Things starlet Sadie Sink as one half of of the doomed teenage power couple and Noah Jupe – best known for his role in the Quiet Place films – as her Romeo. Expect (as ever with Icke) an emotional but unsentimental production that’s liable to find new meaning in the centuries-old source material. And it will of course be a thrill to see Sink on stage, fresh from her acclaimed Broadway performance in our next play…
Harold Pinter Theatre, Mar 16-Jun 6. Buy tickets here.
2. John Proctor is the Villain
There’s no Sadie Sink (as established above, she’s busy) but other than the casting this is a wholesale transfer to the Royal Court for Danya Taymor’s Broadway mega-hit production of Kimberley Belflower’s play John Proctor is the Villain. Basically a very smart metatheatrical rewrite of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible set at an American high school and featuring quite a few more Taylor Swift songs, it was nominated for seven Tony Awards Stateside and forms a thrilling centrepiece to the Court’s 70th anniversary season.
Royal Court Theatre, Mar 20-Apr 25.
3. Our Town
ICYMI Michael Sheen recently turned his back on Hollywood in order to found and front the new Welsh National Theatre. Great news for Wales – and great news for us, as after scoring great reviews in Swansea, WNT’s acclaimed debut production transfers to the Rose Theatre Kingston for a month. Our Town is, of course, a revival of Thornton Wilder’s morbidly playful postmodern classic, with Sheen in the lead role of Narrator in a production directed by Francesca Goodridge and with fellow national hero Russell T Davies as ‘creative associate’.
Rose Theatre Kingston, until Mar 28.
4. Summerfolk
This is the sort of thing the National Theatre does best: a massive fuck-off revival of a classic (but rarely revived) foreign play, given a luxuriant new adaptation and a cast of dozens, several of them famous. The play is Maxim Gorky’s prophetic 1905 classic about a frivolous Russian bourgeoise enjoying a beautiful summer while ignoring the gathering stormclouds around them. The adaptors are Nina Raine and her brother Moses. And the cast of Robert Hastie’s production includes the likes of Alex Lawther, Doon Mackichan, Justine Mitchell, Paul Ready and Sophie Rundle. The odds of a production of Summerfolk as sumptuous as this coming along in the next few decades is pretty low, so don’t miss out.
National Theatre, Mar 6-Apr 29. Buy tickets here.
5. Broken Glass
It’s bizarre to think Arthur Miller’s last bona fide hit play debuted as recently as 1994, the year Parklife and Pulp Fiction came out. Broken Glass was not only a hit upon its debut, but again in 2011 when an acclaimed Kiln Theatre revival transferred to the West End. And now Miller’s drama about a Brooklyn Jewish woman in a struggling marriage who becomes paralysed on Kristallnacht gets an exciting new revival from Jordan Fein, who has been making serious waves as a director of musicals but now helms his first major drama in the UK. A fine cast is headed up by Nancy Carroll and Pearl Chanda.
Young Vic, now until Apr 18. Buy tickets here.
6. Teeth ‘N’ Smiles
Rebecca Lucy Taylor – aka Self Esteem – has made little secret of her stage ambitions, and indeed has realised them to a degree with a stint in Cabaret and the highly theatrical stage show for her last album A Complicated Woman, which ran at the Duke of York’s Theatre last year. Nonetheless, this is a definite step up as she returns to the Duke of York’s to star in a major revival of David Hare’s early hit Teeth ’N’ Smiles. The role of jaded, disintegrating ’60s rock singer Maggie certainly seems like a good fit – she gets to sing, and has contributed new material – but it’ll be her first time receiving actual reviews for a stage role, and she’s got big shoes to fill: the role originally gave a breakthrough it its original star, one Helen Mirren.
Duke of York’s Theatre, Mar 13-Jun 6. Buy tickets here.
7. Jaja’s African Hair Braiding
Ghanaian-American playwright Jocelyn Bioh scored a hit at the Lyric a couple of years back with her drama School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play. Now she reunites with its Brit director Monique Toukofor for the UK premiere of Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, an acclaimed off-Broadway comedy about the lively goings on at a Harlem hair salon and its West African immigrant staff.
Lyric Hammersmith, Mar 18-Apr 25. Buy tickets here.
8. Kinky Boots
It was only a few years ago that the original Broadway production of Cyndi Lauper and Harvey Fierstein’s musical adaptation of classic Britcom Kinky Boots was strutting its reinforced footwear through the West End. And now there's a new production already. It does make sense however: there was always something quite incongruous about a collection of the most New York people alive making a musical set in a Northamptonshire shoe factory, and this revival is not only British but comes from the East Midlands, and the Leicester Curve theatre. Matt Cardle stars as factory owner Charlie, and Johannes Radebe as Lola, the drag queen who changes his life.
London Coliseum, Mar 16-Jul 11. Buy tickets here.
9. Choir Boy
Tarrell Alvin McCraney scored a breakthrough hit with his 2012 play Choir Boy. But despite the play’s Broadway success, the original London production of the Moonlight creator’s excellent drama about class, sexuality and singing at an elite all-Black prep school wasn’t actually widely seen, playing a sold out run at the tiny Upstairs theatre at the Royal Court. However, it received a major revival at the Bristol Old Vic a couple of years back and it now transfers to Stratford East.
Stratford East, Mar 26-Apr 25.
10. Manic Street Creature
Souped up and expanded for its biggest London run to date, Maimuna Memon’s 2022 Edinburgh Fringe hit is a four-hander centring on Ria, a driven musician working hard on an album about the collapse of a recent relationship, who slowly starts to find herself becoming divorced from reality. Memon’s career as actor, playwright and composer has really kicked into gear since it debuted, in large part thanks to the Olivier she won for her supporting role in the Donmar’s Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812.
Kiln Theatre, Mar 5-28. Buy tickets here.
The best new London theatre openings to book for in 2026.
Plus: the RSC has announced an epic autumn season.
Get the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke – from news and reviews to events and trends. Just follow our Time Out London WhatsApp channel.
Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out London newsletter for the best of the city, straight to your inbox.