This story was written in collaboration with Forbes Finds. Forbes Finds covers products and experiences we think you’ll love. Featured products are independently selected and linked to for your convenience. If you buy something using a link on this page, Forbes may receive a small share of that sale.
Every day a new play or performance opens in one of London’s many boroughs. From under-the-radar performances to blockbuster shows that have made their way direct from Broadway, the cultural nightlife in London is nothing short of electric. Stylish, enticing, thought-provoking or centuries-old, the breadth of talent and experiences is indefatigable. From ballets to opera, musicals to emotionally charged plays, here in London the curtain rises on new talent and Hollywood’s A-list who have taken to the stage, each night of the week.
Adapted for the stage by Helen Edmundson, Small Island at the National’s Olivier Theatre tells three intricately connected stories spanning Jamaica to the UK beginning during the Second World War through to 1948. Based on Andrea Levy’s Orange Prize-winning novel of the same name, the story tackles themes of race, class, identity, and this epic tale proves as relevant today as when it was first published.
This laugh-out-loud play has been produced around the world to riveted audiences. And it’s apt that the Lyric Hammersmith is staging this production, as this is where the play premiered back in 1982 to rave reviews. One thing that is certain, Michael Frayn’s comedy has stood the test of time and now, led by multi-award-winning director Jeremy Herrin and a cast helmed my Meera Syal, it’s a delight.
Wendell Pierce (The Wire, Suits, Selma) makes his UK stage debut as Willy Loman, with Olivier Award-winning Sharon D. Clarke as Linda Loman and Arinzé Kene (Misty, Been So Long) as Biff Loman in this sell-out production. Having begun its journey at the Young Vic theatre to a deluge of five-star reviews, it is then transferring to the West End’s Piccadilly Theatre in October. Arthur Miller’s 1949 play is still as relevant today as ever before.
Proving that they can stretch their creative muscles far beyond wizards and the sublime, playwright Jack Thorne and director John Tiffany are perhaps best-known for their West End work on Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. They are also the brains and brawn behind the Royal Court production of The End of History. A searing family drama set in 1997 examining the legacy of the generation of women that protested at Greenham Common, it is on at the Sloane Square theatre until
A powerful and thoughtful production about women, aging and the LGBTQ community, Dark Sublime is an electric and engaging piece of new writing. Staged at the Trafalgar Studios from June 25 through until August 3, this debut play Michael Dennis is a love-letter to British sci-fi television – and will be riveting both to those who love and eschew this unusual genre.
After his run as Moriarty in Sherlock and his comedic role in Season Two of the much-lauded Fleabag, Andrew Scott is without-a-doubt a firm household name. Taking the lead in Noel Coward’s seminal Present Laughter at the Old Vic (until August 10). Scott is taking the stage alongside Luke Thallon, Sophie Thompson, Suzie Toase and Indira Varma. This naughty, raucous, laugh-a-minute comedy is the ideal light and airy summer delight.
On the spectacularly ornate Royal Opera House stage until July 21, Mozart’s great opera is rife with intrigue, capers and guffaws. Despite being banned in Vienna when it was first released, it remains one of the composer’s best-known and best-loved productions. Full of universal themes and packed full of wonderful, soaring arias, it continues to delight audiences young and old to this day.
These year’s BBC Proms is all about focusing on meditative and mindful music. While the schedule is 90 percent classical music, this year will also feature a few hip-hop options as well. A special late-night meditative Prom at the Royal Albert Happ has been specially designed to calm and nourish both mind and soul. And perhaps more invigorating than calming, Queen Victoria’s gilded-gold-leaf piano, commissioned in 1856 from the French manufacturers Érard will be featured front-and-center on stage, a world first.
