England’s capital city beckons travellers with its vast array of awe-inspiring attractions. London’s countless architectural wonders, cultural institutions, and rich history make the city a popular destination. 

Whether you are building an itinerary for a one-day trip to London Town or are fortunate enough to embark on a longer excursion, there’s plenty to do. We have curated a list of London’s top attractions to make for lasting travel memories. Stroll through the city’s many pristine parks,...

Top attractions in London

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Read our guide to London's top attractions to get tickets to, from Buckingham Palace to the London Tower, Wembley Stadium to Kew Gardens, and more.

Pop the champagne because *The Great Gatsby* is coming to the West End! The new Tony Award-winning musical, which opened on Broadway in April 2024, will arrive at the London Coliseum on 11 April 2025, running until 7 September.

An adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel, *The Great Gatsby* follows mysterious millionaire, Jay Gatsby, who hosts decadent parties but pines for his former flame Daisy Buchanan. The novel was adapted for the screen in 2013 by Baz Luhrmann, starring Leonardo...

'The Great Gatsby' musical to transfer to the London Coliseum 

1200 LT The cast of The Great Gatsby (c) Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

The new musical opened at The Broadway Theatre in April 2024, following a world premiere at Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey in late 2023. 

Help is on the way, dears! Everyone’s favourite Scottish nanny – first inhabited in the 1993 comedy film by Robin Williams, playing a divorced dad who disguises himself as Mrs Doubtfire so he can see his children – is now a West End star.

The inventive, heartfelt and raucously funny stage musical adaptation has become a new audience favourite, packed with gags, big musical numbers, and a touching reflection on how family can come in different forms, as long as there is love.

As you prepare for...

Make a day out of 'Mrs Doubtfire' in London

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Make your family visit to West End musical comedy *Mrs Doubtfire* a sure-fire hit by adding even more fun activities to your London trip.

Further casting has been announced for the Brie Larson-led production of Sophocles’s [*Elektra*,](https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/show/42608-elektra) which begins performances at the Duke of York’s Theatre in the West End on 24 January, 2025.

Larson, who is making her West End debut, will be joined by Stockard Channing (*The West Wing, The Good Wife*), Marième Diouf (*Romeo and Juliet*), Greg Hicks (*Grapes of Wrath, Coriolanus*), and Patrick Vaill ([*Stranger Things: The First...

Further casting revealed for Brie Larson-led 'Elektra' in the West End

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Stockard Channing, Marième Diouf, Greg Hicks, and Patrick Vaill will join Brie Larson in Anne Carson's translation of Sophocles's great tragedy.

The full cast has been announced for William Shakespeare's *A Midsummer Night’s Dream*, which opens at the Barbican in London on 3 December, running until 18 January, 2025.

Joining Mathew Baynton (*Ghosts, Wonka*) as Bottom, is Andrew Richardson (*Guys and Dolls*) as Oberon/Theseus and Katherine Pearce (*Waterloo Road*), who returns to the RSC as Puck.

New company members also include Alexander Bellinfantie (Moth), Eliza Smith (Mustardseed), and Natalie Thomas (Peaseblossom).

They join...

'A Midsummer Night's Dream' announces full cast at the Barbican

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Joining Mathew Baynton as Bottom, is Andrew Richardson as Oberon/Theseus and Katherine Pearce as Puck. Eleanor Rhode directs Shakespeare's play about love, magic, appearance, and jealousy.

Lead casting has been announced for new musical *Hercules*, which opens in the West End next summer. Performances will begin at Theatre Royal Drury Lane on 6 June, 2025.

Luke Brady will play the title role in the musical next year. His stage credits include *As You Like It* (RSC), *SuperYou* (Lyric Theatre), *Assassins* (Chichester Theatre), *The Prince of Egypt* (Dominion Theatre), *Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice,* and *The Taming of the Shrew* (Shakespeare’s Globe), while on screen he...

'Hercules' reveals lead casting in the West End

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*Hercules* has music by Alan Menken and lyrics by David Zippel, and a new book by Robert Horn and Young Vic outgoing artistic director Kwame Kwei-Armah.

There’s no better way to escape those dark winter nights than with a trip to the theatre. Happily, November is serving up plenty of exciting London shows to keep any winter blues at bay, with some major openings in the West End and beyond. 

Those who can't wait for *The Greatest Showman* musical to arrive in London can whet their appetities with [*Come Alive!*](https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/show/37379-come-alive), a spectacular circus show based on the music of the hit 2017 film, with an...

Top theatre to see in London in November

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West End

Find out the best shows to see in London in November 2024, from *Barcelona* with Lily Collins and Álvaro Morte, to *Dr. Strangelove* with Steve Coogan.

Additional shows have been announced in the Bush Theatre's line-up for 2025, including a new play starring Olivier Award nominee and *It's a Sin* actor Omari Douglas.

He has been cast in Coral Wylie's new play *Lavender, Hyacinth, Violet, Yew*, which follows 19-year-old Pip as they dig into their family's past, unearthing old secrets. Directed by Debbie Hannan (Overflow), the cast also includes Wil Johnson, Pooky Quesnel, and writer Wylie. The show will run from 8 February to 22 March.

Making...

Bush Theatre announces new shows in 2025 season

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Work by Coral Wylie, babirye bukilwa, and Mohamed-Zain Dada will continue the Bush Theatre's programming in 2025, with Olivier Award nominee Omari Douglas returning to the stage.

New play *The Last Laugh* will run at the Noël Coward Theatre in the West End from 25 February to 22 March next year, ahead of a season in New York and a UK tour. 

Written and directed by Paul Hendy, the show re-imagines the lives of three of Britain's greatest comedy heroes: Tommy Cooper, Eric Morecambe, and Bob Monkhouse. *The Last Laugh* played at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this summer. 

Bob Golding, Damian Williams, and Simon Cartwright will all reprise their roles as Eric Morecambe,...

'The Last Laugh' to transfer to the West End

1200 LT THE LAST LAUGH. Bob Golding (Eric Morecambe), Damian Williams (Tommy Cooper) and Simon Cartwright (Bob Monkhouse). Photo Pamela Raith (1)

Written and directed by Paul Hendy, the show re-imagines the lives of three of Britain's greatest comedy heroes: Tommy Cooper, Eric Morecambe, and Bob Monkhouse.

Something wicked this way comes… and London is packed with spook-tacular shows and activities that are perfect for Halloween 2024. The annual fright night falls on 31 October, which is a Thursday this year, and if you just love everything about this spine-tingling holiday, then you’ll want to start thinking about your plans now.

One ghoulishly great way to celebrate Halloween is with a play or musical – perhaps one that centres on witches, like...

Top shows and attractions in London for Halloween

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Trick or treat! Discover a wide variety of fun activities and events to book for Halloween in London, ranging from spine-chilling shows to eerie attractions.

The award-winning solo show [*My Son’s A Queer, (But What Can You Do?)*](https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/show/26064-my-sons-a-queer-but-what-can-you-do), written and performed by Rob Madge, is set to have its West End debut this fall. Directed by Luke Sheppard, this limited engagement will run from 21 October to 6 November at the [Garrick Theatre](https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/theatres/garrick-theatre).

In the show, Madge shares stories from their youth — like the time they tried to put on a full-fledged Disney parade in their house for their grandma — which highlight all the chaos and joy their family got from raising a queer child. They also get a second chance at staging that parade.

The show premiered to acclaim at the [Turbine Theatre](https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/theatres/turbine-theatre), winning the 2022 WhatsOnStage Best Off-West End Production Award. *My Son’s A Queer* is also playing an engagement at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival before opening in the West End.

Madge is a veteran London stage actor, having performed in West End productions of [*Mary Poppins*](https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/show/15047-mary-poppins), [*Les Misérables*](https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/show/300-les-miserables), and *Oliver!* as a child, and more recently in the U.K. and Ireland tours of *Les Misérables* and *Bedknobs and Broomsticks*.

Book *My Son’s A Queer, (But What Can You Do?)* tickets on London Theatre.

[![LT - CTA - 250](//images.ctfassets.net/6pezt69ih962/1t6HRGmhlYl70k6PmR0mOZ/3caac861bc1d4233cd7844652c925623/LT-CTA-250.png)](https://ticket.londontheatre.co.uk/booking/calendar?product_id=26064&content_product_id=26064&venue_id=117)

*Photo credit: Rob Madge in My Son's a Queer at the Turbine Theatre. (Photo by Mark Senior)*

'My Son’s A Queer, (But What Can You Do?)' to transfer to the West End

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Genre: Play

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When Rob was twelve, they attempted a full-blown Disney parade in their house for their Grandma. As Rob donned wigs and played Mary Poppins, Ariel, Mickey Mouse and Belle, their Dad doubled as Stage Manager, Sound Technician and Goofy. 

Unfortunately, Dad missed all his cues and pushed all the floats in the wrong direction. Mum mistook Aladdin for Ursula. The costumes went awry. Grandma had a nice time, though.

*My Son’s a Queer (But What Can You Do?)* is the joyous autobiographical story of social-media sensation Rob Madge as they set out to recreate that parade - and this time, nobody, no, nobody is gonna rain on it.

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When Rob was twelve, they attempted a full-blown Disney parade. Many years later, Rob recreates the parade in the West End. 
After taking the Edinburgh Fringe by storm, *My Son’s a Queer (But What Can You Do?)* brings the joy to London.
See *My Son’s a Queer (But What Can You Do?)* at the Garrick Theatre today.

The little show that could has taken up a heartfelt residency in the West End, following runs at Battersea’s [Turbine Theatre](https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/theatres/turbine-theatre) and this year’s Edinburgh Festival that helped spread the word as to the production’s charm – and clout. Making history (according to its producer) as the first West End show to use the word “queer” in the title, [*My Son’s a Queer (But What Can You Do?)*](https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/show/26064-my-sons-a-queer-but-what-can-you-do-tickets) chronicles the rise and rise of its non-binary solo performer. A veteran of [*Les Mis*](https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/show/300-les-miserables-tickets) and [*Mary Poppins*](https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/show/15047-mary-poppins-tickets), to name but two established titles, Rob Madge has now turned their life-to-date into a 75-minute celebration of being your best and truest self.

We hear of the long-delayed birth, following three rounds of IVF, of an only child who was born in the Midlands into seemingly the most supportive family imaginable. A performer from the off, young Madge took to the apparently omnipresent camera that caught every embryonic thespian foray on tape. “Anything is possible when the stage is your living room,” we are told, and the set bears that assertion out: Chest drawers form an ad hoc staircase, and the backdrop is – what else? - a giant TV screen.

Not exactly backwards about coming forward, the pre-pubescent Madge plunders every opportunity to put themselves on parade, as we discover via a sequence of captioned videos from their past. Frequent misspellings (“asylum” proves a tricky one) are part of the amateur appeal as these home movies unspool. 

Appearing before us in a vest and shorts that allow them to don multiple costumes as the piece nears its climax, the adult Madge is considerably more wry and self-aware than their enthusiastically precocious younger self. (I doubt the sweet-faced Madge seen on screen in an inflatable wading pool had any idea that an innocent reference to “swallowing a mouthful” would be open to other interpretations later on.) 

The material is bound to resonate in all sorts of ways, whether or not you identified as a child with *Beauty or the Beast* – Madge wanted to be Belle – or loathed the expectation that a boy and a football are an innate match.  Madge’s childhood appears to have been an extended opportunity for an exuberant Disney parade, and one in which their entire family seemed to participate with unceasing good cheer. Madge’s dad, indeed, emerges as the unexpected hero of the piece: a loving parent turned de facto stage manager and ally. More to the point, his innate tolerance didn’t need signalling, but existed as second nature to a generosity of spirit that makes one wonder whether this family ever uttered a cross word. Madge’s extended relatives – grandma included - share in the prevailing high spirits.

Such obstacles as there were came from the outside world – bullying at school, for instance, that in a remarkable show of solidarity led Madge’s mum to apply for work at the same school as a dinner lady. Young Madge is seen sporting a Santa hat with plaits one minute and being interviewed about appearing in *Mary Poppins* the next, while the wiser and possibly warier adult Madge fields showbiz jokes involving Connie Fisher, the musical [*Six*](https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/show/12201-six-the-musical-tickets), and “good Cinderella” – that last one brings down the house. 

The director, Luke Sheppard, is shortly to make his Broadway debut with [*& Juliet*](https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/show/14834-and-juliet-tickets), and you sometimes wish a more forceful outside eye had urged the Madge we see before us to tease out this story in ways that didn’t rely quite so entirely on the past to inform the present. A quip early on compares this solo effort to “*Fleabag* - without the anal,” except that Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s career-making alter ego digs infinitely more deeply than is ever attempted here. 

Madge talks at one point of embracing performance as a way to enter into another self, so it seems marginally surprising that no one has clocked the irony of a piece that depends for emphasis and power on the unfurling revelation of Madge’s own self: How they went from there to here has to be taken somewhat on faith given a narrative that simply skips over those periods that don’t have a filmed correlative – their arrival, for instance, at a present-day identity.  

The goal is clearly to catch playgoers up in the shared joy of self-assertion that many will recognise from the likes of *Torch Song Trilogy* and *La Cage aux Folles*, to cite two gay-themed shows that both played the West End (and Broadway) decades ago, in effect paving the way for Madge’s achievement here. 

It’s revealing when a report card on the young Madge informs their parents of “your flamboyant monster of a child,” only for the intervening decades to reveal a confident performer who can more than hold centre stage: What you see conjoins Alan Cumming’s insouciance crossed with the open-faced appeal of a younger Matt Lucas. Where does Madge go next in what, after all, is a still-young life? That remains to be seen even as, for now, *My Son’s a Queer* recounts a near-blessed upbringing, all but demanding that Madge’s family take its own richly deserved bow.

[*My Son’s a Queer (But What Can You Do?)* is at the Garrick Theatre to Nov. 6. Book *My Son’s a Queer (But What Can You Do?)* tickets on London Theatre.](https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/show/26064-my-sons-a-queer-but-what-can-you-do-tickets)

*Photo credit: Rob Madge in My Son's a Queer. (Photo by Mark Senior)*

'My Son's a Queer (But What Can You Do?)' review — a celebration of being your best, most theatrical self

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Boys From The Blackstuff

The Garrick Theatre is a renowned and historical theatre venue located in the heart of London, Charing Cross Road, near Leicester Square. Opened in 1889, it was named after the stage actor David Garrick. Designed by Walter Emden and C.J. Phipps, it is built with an exquisite blend of classical and baroque architectural styles, giving it a unique touch of elegance. The theatre boasts a theatrical heritage unrivalled in its history of performances, artists, and premieres, hosting a variety of world-class productions ranging from dramatic plays, farces, comedic performances, to Shakespearean plays. With a seating capacity of 656 spread across three levels - stalls, dress circle, and grand circle - the theatre offers an intimate atmosphere, drawing audience closer to the performances and making it a favourite venue for both theatre-goers and performers. Along with the splendid auditorium, the theatre contains bars at each level providing a comfortable space for refreshment. The theatre is equipped with state-of-the-art systems offering excellent audio and visual experiences. A visit to the Garrick Theatre is a step back into time, offering classic London theatre experience in a beautiful and iconic venue. 

## How to Get There
The Garrick Theatre is easily accessible by various modes of transport. If you are using the London Underground, the closest Tube stations are Leicester Square (Northern, Piccadilly) and Charing Cross (Bakerloo, Northern). By bus, several bus routes pass close to the theatre, including the numbers 24, 29 and 176. If driving, the nearest car park is Q-Park Chinatown.

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The Garrick Theatre opened in 1889, and is named after actor David Garrick. When the theatre was built, architects discovered an underground river on the site!

The theatre became associated with comedy in 1982 with a four-year run of the farce *No Sex Please, We’re British*. This was the longest-running show at the Garrick, until J. B. Priestley’s *An Inspector Calls* transferred from the [Aldwych Theatre](https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/theatres/aldwych-theatre) in 1995 and resided for six years.

In recent years, a number of musicals have played here, including *A Little Night Music*, *Chicago*, and *The Scottsboro Boys*. In 2015, [Kenneth Branagh](https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/stars-on-stage/kenneth-branagh) took up residency at the Garrick for a year-long season of plays with his own theatre company. 

## Garrick Theatre Seating Information

The auditorium has three levels – Stalls, Dress Circle and Grand Circle. In the Stalls, the view of the top of the stage is slightly obscured by the overhang of the Dress Circle from Row N onwards. 

In the Dress Circle, the view of the stage is not obscured by the overhang of the Upper Circle, but the ceiling can feeel low for those in the last row. The seats are designed in a horseshoe shape around the theatre and the Dress Circle offers good sightlines.

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The Garrick Theatre, opened in 1889, is associated with comedy and musicals, and has housed popular shows like 'An Inspector Calls'. It features three seating levels.

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The Garrick Theatre is an iconic London venue, known for its architectural elegance, rich history, and hosting top-tier productions.

'My Son’s A Queer, (But What Can You Do?)' to transfer to the West End

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