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Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, 2021
Photo by: David Jensen | Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, 2021

Regent's Park Open Air Theatre

London's most beautiful theatre lies tucked away in the middle of Regent's Park
  • Theatre | Outdoor theatres
  • Regent’s Park
  • Recommended
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Time Out says

Founded in 1932, central London's most beautiful and secluded theatre is surrounded by Regent's Park on every side and is completely uncovered – so consequently open only between May and September each year.

Though its twinkling, manicured prettiness makes Regent's Park Open Air Theatre resemble something out of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', the volume of Shakespeare performed on its stage has dwindled from almost exclusively to fairly sporadically under long-serving artistic director Timothy Sheader. His seasons generally start with a gritty opener, have a populist classic in the middle, then climax with one of the big musicals that he's made his name with. Around that there's acoustic gigs, comedy and usually some kids' theatre.

Ticket prices are comparable to the West End, though the sightlines are good at most prices. There are cheap tickets available for younger audiences (including the BREEZE membership scheme, which offers £10 tickets for 18-25-year-olds), and concessions can buy discounted standby tickets prior to the day's performance (from 5pm for evenings and noon matinees).

Having no roof, rain does sometimes lead to performance cancellations: if this happens you can exchange your ticket for a future performance, but no refund is permitted.

The Regent's Park Open Air Theatre has plenty of food options, from a barbecue to picnic hampers, and the bar is the longest in any London theatre.

If you're interested in theatre history, the Open Air Theatre's archives are available to view online at openairtheatreheritage.com and contain images galore of former company members include Benedict Cumberbatch, Judi Dench and Ralph Fiennes.

Details

Address
Inner Circle
Regent's Park
London
NW1 4NR
Transport:
Tube: Baker St
Price:
Various
Opening hours:
Check website for show times
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What’s on

Sherlock Holmes

This looks like a fun way to start the new Open Air Theatre season, with a new stage adventure for Arthur Conan Doyle’s immortal detective. Holmes is a complicated figure to stage, so easy to bog down in Victorian kitsch that he lends himself more to comedy adaptations than easnest ones. This play from Joel Horwood sounds like it is going for the latter, and certainly the OAT is the perfect venue for a big, bracing romp. The story follows Sherlock and Watson as they hit a slump following their first big case, only to have things turned around by the arrival of a woman with a mysterious jewel. There are quite a lot of Holmes stories involving women and mysterious jewels, so whether this is straight uo adaptation or more of a composite is TBC, but it sounds like Horwood has deliberately aimed for a younger Holmes, origin story type set up to ease audiences into the detective’s world. Joshua James plays the title role, in a production directed by Sean Holmes (on a sabbatical from London’s other big open air theatre, the Globe). 
  • Drama

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

The Open Air Theatre started out life as a Shakespeare only venue, and while it’s been decades since that was last the case, he’s generally remained in the mix. Did the absence of any of his plays in Drew McOnie’s debut season in charge last year indicate he was moving away from the Bard? No! Starting its run just in time for actual Midsummer, here comes Shakespeare’s ultimate crow-pleaser, as directed by Atri Bannerjee. We’ve no massive steer for how this one will play out, but it’s described as ‘blissful’, indicating it’s proabbly not going to do anything too outre, and it’ll have an original folk-infused score from Maimuna Memon. Note that in the trial of a new system for the OAT to mitigate the effects of hotter summers due to climate change, the matinees for A Midsummer Night’s Dream are at the very early time of 12.30pm.
  • Shakespeare

Cats

It’s finally happened: human civilization has finally lasted long enough that there is a second British production of Cats. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s blockbuster adaptation of TS Eliot’s whimsical book of feline kids’ poetry was the quintessential musical of the ’80s, and the feline perfomers’ garb of facepaint and legwarmers feels embedded in the decade’s aesthetics. And it lasted a lot longer than that: the original Trevor Nunn-directed production’s 21-year-run ended in 2002, with somewhat updated reprisals in 2014 and 2015.  Now, though – undeterred by that film we don’t talk about – there is a new Cats. Audaciously bagged by the Open Air Theatre as its big 2026 summer musical, but embarking on a UK tour thereafter, it’ll be directed and chroegraphed by OAT boss Drew McOnie. He’s a slick, commercial director with something of a dance focus, but he’s unlikely to do a Jamie Lloyd-style deconstruction of it, but any new take will probably feel inherently radical purely by dint of trying something different in any way. Casting etc is TBC, although in what is essentially a revue-based night of different songs about different cats, the role of Grizabella the Glamour Cat tends to be viewed as the ‘lead’ role (plus she gets to sing all time banger ‘Memory’. Public booking opens Tuesday October 28.
  • Musicals

Anansi the Spider

4 out of 5 stars
This review is from 2019. Anansi the Spider returns in 2026.  Anansi the trickster spider went global a long time ago. But Justin Audibert’s inaugural production in charge of the Unicorn takes folklore’s most famous arachnid right back to his roots. Under Sadeysa Greenaway-Bailey’s sprawling tree set, performers Afia Abusham, Sapphire Joy and Juliet Okotie file on clutching djembe drums, wearing West African clothes and accents as they launch into a funny, energetic trio of tales. In the first act, Anansi steals the world’s wisdom, only to reflect that this might have been a rather unwise decision; in the second he blags some vegetables from a green, er, fingered snake and cons a series of unfortunate other animals into paying the steep price demanded for the veg; the third hops to modern London – this time Anansi is a chancer who concocts an elaborate scheme to bag himself two dinners and ends up falling flat on his face. The three women divvy up three Anansi roles for a funny and lively show for ages three to seven that’s essentially old-fashioned storytelling, done with pace and care. There are no splashy spider costumes, but they’re not necessary – the young audience get that each woman is a different facet of Anansi. And if it’s mostly about the power of their words, then engaging music and lighting switches up the mood when small attention spans threaten to wander. There’s also some sublime physicality, be that Anansi teetering precariously up the enormous tree...
  • Children's
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