This musical drama tackles the aftermath of the Lockerbie bombing in 1988, bringing to life the friendships forged between locals from the Scottish borders and the American relatives of those on Pan AM flight 103.Co-produced with the National Theatre of Scotland, and the inaugural show for the reopening of the Citizens theatre’s redeveloped building, it includes 14 actor-singers and a five-piece roots band.Could this be the new Come from Away? Citizens theatre, Glasgow, 9 September-4 October“This ain’t no classic play b*tches.” So reads the advertising tagline to this part spoken-word reimagining of Euripides’s orgiastic ancient drama about a group of women who tear a king to bits.Written by Nima Taleghani, it is the first playwright’s debut to be performed on the Olivier stage and is helmed by Indhu Rubasingham, the National Theatre’s new director.

National Theatre, London, 13 September-1 NovemberSusan Sarandon is the latest American A-lister to make her way to Britain’s boards.She is one of Hollywood’s most respected actors, so this promises to be quite an event.Tracy Letts’s 2016 family drama focuses on a mother and daughter relationship across the decades, with Andrea Riseborough starring opposite Sarandon.Old Vic, London, 23 September-1 NovemberAdrian Lester has excelled in a spate of Shakespearean roles on stage.Now he takes on the large proboscis-ed poet, soldier and letter-writing lover from Edmond Rostand’s 19th-century classic.

What makes the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production all the more of an exciting prospect is that it is co-adapted by grime poet and playwright Debris Stevenson along with screen and stage director Simon Evans.Swan theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon, 27 September-15 NovemberPolish auteur Łukasz Twarkowski is known for his monumental, multimedia shows.He made a splash in London with The Employees, about life in space, earlier this year.This drama, based on a real-life scandal of forgeries of Mark Rothko paintings, promises to have the same pumping techno beats and high-octane visual aesthetics.Prepare for your eyes to pop.

Barbican, London, 2-5 OctoberRalph Fiennes and Francesca Annis give this new drama by Rebecca Lenkiewicz its celebrity stardust,Once a real-life couple, they play family members here, with Fiennes as a troubled TV star and Annis as his domineering mother,Directed by Holly Race Roughan, from touring company Headlong, it is the last in a Fiennes season at the venue,Theatre Royal Bath, 3-18 OctoberKip Williams was the experimental Australian director behind a multiscreen, one-woman adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray starring Sarah Snook (who won an Olivier award for playing 26 roles in it),This adaptation of Jean Genet’s 1947 play featuring a pair of sadomasochistic sisters is its follow-up, translated, adapted and directed by Williams.

Expectations are high.Donmar Warehouse, London, 13 October-29 NovemberBased on a true story, this Theatr na nÓg production dramatises the life of Merthyr-born Cuthbert Taylor, who was partly of Caribbean heritage; he represented Britain at the Olympics in 1928 but was denied the opportunity to compete for a British title because of a colour bar enforced by the nation’s sporting body, which deemed him “not white enough to be British”.Sherman theatre, Cardiff, 16-22 OctoberIf the immersive Paddington Bear Experience at London’s County Hall is not enough and you are itching for more adventures after the third film, this musical about the Peruvian bear might help fill your marmalade-sandwich-shaped hole.Adapted from the Michael Bond book and the films, it features music composed by Tom Fletcher.Savoy theatre, London, 1 November 2025-25 May 2026This revival of Arthur Miller’s play comes stuffed with talent, from Paapa Essiedu and Marianne Jean-Baptiste to Tom Glynn-Carney, Bryan Cranston and Hayley Squires.

Belgian director Ivo van Hove adapted – and reinvented – Miller’s A View from the Bridge in 2015, to enormous acclaim,Let’s see if alchemy strikes again,Wyndham’s theatre, London, 13 November 2025-7 March 2026Lonely rivers have flowed to the sea, to the sea, since Ghost star Whoopi Goldberg last brought her comedy to the UK,Now, the 69-year old plays two gigs, in London and Cardiff, combining standup with convivial conversation about her life and storied career,Hammersmith Apollo, London, 4 September, and Utilita Arena Cardiff, 5 SeptemberRiding high on the cinema success of The Ballad of Wallis Island – although you would never know it from his comedy – the rumpled fortysomething returns with Loganberry, a new show about middle age.

Expect wistful, offbeat standup/poetry about ageing, singledom, impertinent podcasts and Key-list celebrity.Wilton’s Music Hall, London, 10-22 NovemberA working men’s club MC in a pact with the devil? That’s Frankie Monroe, Joe Kent-Walters’s comedy character – painted of face and ruffled of shirt – before whom two successive Edinburgh fringe festivals have now quivered.Now his creator takes Frankie, and his tales of entertainment and the underworld, on the road.Soho theatre, London, 17-29 November, then touringA problem many young comics face is how to translate online success to the stage.Stevie Martin, with plenty of experience in both camps (and a recent breakout stint on Taskmaster to boot), turns that conundrum into ingenious and silly multimedia show Clout, which delighted last summer’s Edinburgh fringe and is now touring.

Soho theatre, London, 22-27 September, then touringMore so than other comics – perhaps because she is so open personally and politically – Josie Long’s shows have for 20 years provided us with an alternative chronicle of our times,With Now Is the Time of Monsters, she turns from the benighted 2020s to prehistory, to consider “discovery, wonder and extinction”,Mull theatre, Tobermory, 6 September, then touringIt is rare that a performance has the capacity to be genuinely shocking, but this is one,Brazilian writer-performer Carolina Bianchi vividly addresses the subject of sexual violence (and her own experience of rape) by drinking a date rape drug on stage and letting the show play out as she slips into unconsciousness,Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, 17-18 SeptemberA choreographer of probing intelligence and consummate craft, Jeyasingh rewrites Shakespeare’s The Tempest from the point of view of Caliban, forced into servitude following the arrival of Prospero and his daughter.

It is an impressionistic tale of power lost and regained, seeded with contemporary resonance and influences from Jeyasingh’s life.Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh, 20 September, then touringSouth Asian dance and queer identity meet in Patel’s new work, Astitva, which launches the newly renamed Bradford Arts Centre (formerly Kala Sangam) after a multimillion pound refurbishment.The arts centre’s programme is strong on dance, with forthcoming shows from Akeim Toussaint Buck, Joss Arnott and Northern Rascals alongside community events.Bradford Arts Centre, 9-10 October, then touringLavish classical ballet in all its glory from English National Ballet.A picture of elegance, The Sleeping Beauty is one of the ultimate tests of dancers’ technique, not least Aurora’s taxing Rose Adagio.

This is Kenneth MacMillan’s production from 1967, based on Marius Petipa’s 19th-century choreography with Tchaikovsky’s glorious score.Liverpool Empire, 23-25 October; Palace theatre, Manchester, 19-22 November; Mayflower theatre, Southampton, 26-29 NovemberA major exhibition dedicated to the work of choreographer Sir Wayne McGregor, exploring 30 years of research – with multiple collaborators – into physical intelligence and the intersection between bodies and technology.It includes (at the off-site West End venue Stone Nest) the UK premiere of McGregor’s new 3D, 360-degree installation On the Other Earth.Somerset House, London, 30 October 2025–22 February 2026