Theatre shows opening this week
THE FROGS at Southwark Playhouse
Star of the smash-hit TV show GLEE, Kevin Mchale starts performances this week in Stephen Sondheim‘s THE FROGS at Southwark Playhouse (23 May – 28 June 2025). The musical was originally performed in Yale University’s gymnasium’s swimming pool in 1974. This production will not be.
Advertised as a laugh-a-minute musical comedy, The Frogs is a “freely adapted” (by Stephen Sondheim and Burt Shevelove) version of an Ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes. In the musical, Dionysos, despairing of the quality of living dramatists, travels to Hades to bring George Bernard Shaw back from the dead. William Shakespeare competes with Shaw for the title of best playwright, which he wins. Dionysos brings Shakespeare back to the world of the living in the hope that art can save civilisation.
Sharing the role of Pluto over the run of the show are Victoria Scone, Danielle Steers, Sooz Kempner, Jo Foster and one more still to be announced.
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF at the Barbican Theatre
The critically acclaimed production of Fiddler on the Roof opens at the Barbican Theatre this week (24 May until 19 July), following a sold-out season at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre last year.
Immediately following the Barbican run, the show will embark on a major five-month UK and Ireland tour. The tour of Fiddler On The Roof opens on 24 July at Churchill Theatre Bromley and will visit Leeds, Belfast, Norwich, Nottingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, High Wycombe, Liverpool, Southend, Dublin, Manchester, Eastbourne, Canterbury and Cardiff before ending the tour on 6 December in Sunderland.
Fiddler On The Roof, is set in 1905 in the tiny village of Anatevka where Tevye, a Jewish milkman, lives his life by their proud traditions. For his five daughters, that means a visit from the matchmaker. As each daughter challenges his beliefs, against the backdrop of a changing world, can Tevye hold on to his roots, or must he bend to the will of his children and learn to embrace the unfamiliar?
STEREOPHONIC at Duke of York’s Theatre
Stereophonic became the most Tony Award-nominated play ever and the most Tony Award-winning show of 2024. This week, it opens in London’s West End at the Duke of York’s Theatre (24 May – 20 September 2025).
As a band strives to perfect each track of their make-or-break album, the cast of actor-musicians mines the agony and the ecstasy of creation as it zooms in on a music studio in 1976. Here, an up-and-coming rock band recording a new album finds itself suddenly on the cusp of superstardom. The ensuing pressures could spark their breakup — or their breakthrough.
Theatre shows closing this week
HANDBAGGED UK Tour
Moira Buffini’s fly-on-the-wall comedy HANDBAGGED about Queen Elizabeth II and Margaret Thatcher, reimagined with music featuring re-workings of 80s pop classics will end its four-month UK tour at Oxford Playhouse this weekend. The tour opened at Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch on 6 February and visited Wolverhampton, Doncaster, Peterborough, Salford, Leicester, Wakefield, Blackpool, Bury St Edmunds, Coventry, Guilford and Newcastle before arriving in Oxford this week.
DEAR ENGLAND at the National Theatre
The National Theatre‘s production of James Graham’s smash-hit Dear England had its world premiere in the Olivier theatre on 20 June 2023. Following a sold-out run, Dear England transferred to the Prince Edward Theatre, in London’s West End, from 9 October 2023 to 13 January 2024, where it broke box office records.
Dear England returned to the Olivier theatre on 10 March this year and will close its run this weekend on 24 May 2025. Dear England will then have a 4-week run at the Lowry in Salford from 29 May to 29 June 2025. Directed by the Almeida Theatre’s Artistic Director Rupert Goold, Dear England tells the story of the England men’s football team under Gareth Southgate.
Accessible Theatre Performances taking place this week
This week, you can catch Audio Described Performances of Dear England at the National Theatre (Friday) and MJ the Musical at the Prince Edward Theatre (Saturday).
There will also be Captioned Performances of My Master Builder at Wyndham’s Theatre and Here We Are at the National Theatre.
For all upcoming Accessible Theatre Performances check out https://westendwilma.com/accessible-performances/
