27 December 2024
Newsdesk
Spend 2025 with the National Theatre on stage, in the cinema and from the comfort of your own home. Whether it’s enjoying the heartwarming tale of Ballet Shoes on the South Bank, the multi award-winning musical, Hadestown in the West End, catching the global sensation War Horse on tour around the UK and Ireland, watching Dr Strangelove in cinemas or streaming Prima Facie from home, National Theatre has something to offer everybody in 2025.
On the South Bank, 2025 begins with the continuation, until 25 January, of Oscar Wilde’s most celebrated comedy The Importance of Being Earnest in the Lyttelton theatre. Directed by Max Webster, this hilarious play follows two gentlemen who find themselves caught in a web of lies whilst assuming false identities. Starring three-time Olivier Award-winner Sharon D Clarke, Ncuti Gatwa, Hugh Skinner, Eliza Scanlen and Ronk? Adékolu?jo.
Following its stage run, The Importance of Being Earnest will be filmed for National Theatre Live, screening in cinemas across the globe from 20 February 2025.
Also continuing until 22 February in the Olivier theatre is the heartwarming, family-friendly tale Ballet Shoes, a spectacular reimagining of Noel Streatfeild’s beloved novel, in a new version by Kendall Feaver. In a crumbling house full of dinosaur bones and fossils, three adopted sisters – Pauline, Petrova and Posy – are learning who they are and what they want to be. Directed by The Ocean at the End of the Lane’s Katy Rudd.
In the Lyttelton Theatre, the largest ever staging of Alterations plays from 20 February - 5 April 2025. Walker Holt has big dreams for his tailor’s shop, and an even bigger order to complete and over the course of 24 hours, he must work tirelessly to satisfy his new client’s impossible tailoring needs. Lynette Linton directs Michael Abbensetts’ era-defining comedy and reinvigorated version of Abbnsetts’ seminal work, which illuminates the Guyanese experience of 1970s London, with additional material by Trish Cooke. Initial casting includes Arinzé Kene (Get Up, Stand Up: The Bob Marley Story) making his National Theatre debut and Cherrelle Skeete (Hanna).
With Spring comes the return of the Olivier Award-winning ‘Best New Play’, Dear England, as the smash-hit production returns to the Olivier theatre 10 March to 24 May 2025, followed by a four-week run at The Lowry in Salford from 29 May until 29 June 2025. James Graham’s Olivier Award-winning play, directed by Rupert Goold, follows the story of the England men’s football team under manager Gareth Southgate and has evolved to include the recent European championship, continuing to examine the crucial role the England team and manager play in English society.
Celebrate World Theatre Day on 27 March in style with the release of Stanley Kubrick’s comedy masterpiece Dr. Strangelove captured live from London’s West End and releasing to cinemas worldwide through National Theatre Live. Seven-time BAFTA Award-winner Steve Coogan (Alan Partridge, The Trip) takes on a ‘tour de (armed) force’ (???? Daily Mail) performance, playing four roles in this theatrical reimagining.
In April, the Olivier theatre will welcome Stephen Sondheim’s final musical, Here We Are, after receiving its world premiere in New York in 2023 with a new production at the National Theatre from 23 April to 28 June 2025. Directed by two-time Tony Award-winner Joe Mantello, with a book by David Ives, this incredible musical follows Leo and Marianne Brink. Having found the ideal spot to take their friends, a strange series of events interrupt their meal, and they realise they may have bitten off more than they can chew. Cast will include Tracie Bennett (Follies) and Denis O’Hare (Tartuffe), who reprise their roles from the original production in New York, and Rory Kinnear (No Time to Die) who will join this new production in London.
Ushering in the summer in the Olivier Theatre is the return of the innovative musical London Road for a limited run from 5 June to 21 June 2025. Directed by Rufus Norris, written by Alecky Blythe and composed by Adam Cork, this moving story of ordinary people coming together during an extraordinary time is set in the Suffolk town of Ipswich in 2006, where the bodies of five women are discovered and the community grapples with being at the epicentre of the tragedy. Using their own words set to an innovative musical score, the highly anticipated return of the remarkable, award-winning verbatim musical is not to be missed.
Also playing at the Olivier theatre is the return of Nye, written by Tim Price and directed by Rufus Norris, an epic Welsh fantasia charting the life of Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan, often referred to as the politician with the greatest influence on our country, without ever being Prime Minister. From campaigning at the coalfield to leading the battle to create the NHS, Nye is led on a mind-bending journey back through his life, with Michael Sheen reprising his role as Nye Bevan. It will run at the National Theatre from 3 July to 16 August 2025, before returning to the Wales Millennium Centre’s Donald Gordon Theatre from 22 to 30 August 2025.
From summer 2025, four new plays announced at the National Theatre will also include the world premiere of Inter Alia in the Lyttelton theatre, reuniting the team behind Prima Facie, writer Suzie Miller and director Justin Martin. Rosamund Pike (Saltburn) makes her National Theatre debut as an eminent High Court Judge forced to reckon her professional life and role as wife, mother, friend and feminist. In the Dorfman The Estate written by Shaan Sahota and directed by Daniel Raggett (Accidental Death of an Anarchist) will have its world premiere. An ambitious politician has sights set on Number 10, but his father’s death brings questions about the family estate to the fore. Casting includes Adeel Akhtar (Fool Me Once). This is followed by The Land of the Living by former Young Vic Artistic Director David Lan, which tells the story of children stolen by the Nazis during World War II. Directed by Stephen Daldry (An Inspector Calls), the cast includes Juliet Stevenson (The Doctor). From November 2025, in the Dorfman will be the world premiere of End, a new play by David Eldridge (Beginning, Middle), the concluding part of his trilogy commissioned by Rufus Norris during his tenure. Directed by Lyric Hammersmith Artistic Director Rachel O’Riordan (Romeo and Julie). Further casting, dates and onsale for Inter Alia, The Estate, The Land of the Living and End is to be announced in the New Year.
Continuing in the West End is the multi award-winning musical Hadestown. Winner of 8 Tony® Awards and a Grammy® Award for ‘Best Musical Theatre Album’, Hadestown continues its critically acclaimed run at the Lyric Theatre, five years after its sold-out engagement at the National Theatre. Blending modern American folk music with New Orleans-inspired jazz, Hadestown takes you on an unforgettable journey to the underworld and back, intertwining two mythic love stories – that of young dreamers Orpheus and Eurydice, and that of King Hades and his wife Persephone. Featuring music, lyrics, and book by singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell, direction by Rachel Chavkin and a cast that includes Madeline Charlemagne, Melanie La Barrie, Trevor Dion Nicholas, Rachel Tucker and Dylan Wood.
For the National Theatre experience all around the country, the global smash hit War Horse continues its UK and Ireland tour until 8 November 2025. Based on the beloved novel by Michael Morpurgo, War Horse has become the most successful play in the history of the National Theatre and has been seen by over 8.3 million people worldwide. Adapted by Nick Stafford and originally directed by Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris, creative development for this new tour has been led by Tom Morris with revival director Katie Henry and features reimagined designs by Rae Smith with additional music by Adrian Sutton. War Horse is an unforgettable theatrical experience which takes audiences on an extraordinary journey from the fields of rural Devon to the trenches of First World War France. This powerfully moving and imaginative drama is a show of phenomenal inventiveness, featuring astonishing life-sized horses by South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Company.
