Following on from his dazzling performance as Algernon in The Importance of Being Earnest at the National Theatre, Ncuti Gatwa returns to the stage in Liz Duffy Adams’s dark historical comedy that imagines what might have happened if Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare were locked in a room together and forced to collaborate. The Doctor Who and Sex Education star’s tremendous charisma ought to be ideal for the Elizabethan bad boy playwright whose life was cut short in a bar fight in Deptford. Edward Bluemel, who has also been very appealing in all his TV appearances so far (including My Lady Jane and The Discovery of Witches), co-stars as Shakespeare.

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There’s a lovely circularity to Stephen Fry playing Lady Bracknell as he played Oscar Wilde himself in the acclaimed 1997 film Wilde. In addition to acting, the multifaceted Fry is celebrated as a broadcaster, author, comedian, and ubiquitous TV personality. Pop star Olly Alexander, who succeeds Gatwa as Algernon, is best known as an actor for his performance in It’s a Sin. The supporting cast also includes well-known TV faces Hugh Dennis (Outnumbered) as Reverend Canon Chasuble and Shobna Gulati (Coronation Street) as Miss Prism.

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Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston plays patriarch Joe Keller in Arthur Miller’s postwar family drama. Cranston was previously seen in London in media satire Network at the National Theatre, for which he received an Olivier Award (he also won a Tony – his second – for the role on Broadway). Marianne Jean-Baptiste, an Oscar nominee for Secret and Lies and a recent BAFTA nominee for Hard Truths, plays his wife Kate. And Paapa Essiedu, who plays war veteran son Chris, is a theatre star who also plays Severus Snape in the upcoming Harry Potter reboot. The production is helmed by avant-garde director Ivo van Hove.

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A true power pairing drives Tom Morris’s new production of Othello. Homeland and Supergirl star David Harewood returns to the part that he first played regionally in 1991 and then at the National Theatre in 1997 (where he was the first Black actor to play the role at the venue). Playing Iago, Toby Jones is one of the greatest character actors of his generation, as demonstrated by his performances in Detectorists and Mr Bates vs the Post Office. The cast also includes Caitlin FitzGerald (Masters of Sex) as Desdemona. Sparks ought to fly.

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The Swedish actress Alicia Vikander trained as a ballet dancer before making her name in the films A Royal Affair, Testament of Youth, and Ex Machina. In 2015, she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in The Danish Girl alongside Eddie Redmayne. Subsequent films have included Tomb Raider, The Green Knight, and Firebrand. She now makes her theatre debut as the enigmatic Ellida in Simon Stone's adaptation of Ibsen’s The Lady from the Sea. Vikander is luminous on screen and Yael Farber’s productions are always visually arresting. Joe Alwyn and Andrew Lincoln also star.

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An Oscar winner for Dead Man Walking (she has four further nominations), Susan Sarandon makes her London debut in Tracy Letts’s (August: Osage County) new play, which takes place over 70 years with five different actresses playing the title role. Sarandon’s other films include The Witches of Eastwick, Thelma and Louise, and Enchanted. Andrea Riseborough has had an eclectic stage and screen career and was nominated for an Oscar for her portrayal of an alcoholic in To Leslie. The cast also includes Melanie La Barrie, Lauren Ward, Eleanor Worthington Cox, and Alisha Weir – all alumni of Matilda on stage or screen (as is Riseborough, who played Mrs Wormwood in the film, as well as many members of the creative team, including director Matthew Warchus).

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We were all charmed by Nicola Coughlan in Derry Girls and Bridgerton, and she was last seen on stage as one of the schoolgirls in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie at the Donmar Warehouse in 2018. Siobhán McSweeney, Couglan’s Derry Girls co-star who stole every scene she was in as deadpan nun Sister Michael, last appeared in London in Dancing at Lughnasa (in which another Derry Girl, Louisa Harland, played one of her sisters). Coughlan and McSweeney now join forces as Margaret “Pegeen” Flaherty and Widow Quin in a revival of JM Synge’s 1907 tragedy at the National Theatre.

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Nicola Walker’s presence on TV is always a signifier of quality, giving outstanding performances in Last Tango in Halifax, The Split, and, most recently, Annika. Earlier this year, Walker was seen on stage in Mike Bartlett's Unicorn alongside Stephen Mangan and Erin Doherty. In October, she leads Nick Payne’s new play The Unbelievers at the Royal Court, a piece about motherhood, faith, and family, directed by Marianne Elliott.

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Another famous Nicola takes to the stage this autumn. Former Girls Aloud singer Nicola Roberts will take over the role of Persephone in mythological folk musical Hadestown from September. This isn’t quite Roberts’s West End debut as she briefly appeared in City of Angels, which sadly closed quickly due to the pandemic – this ought to be a much more fruitful run!

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Former pop star and TV star Vanessa Williams (Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives) continues in her role as fearsome fashion magazine editor Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada, with music by Elton John. Previously, Williams was Tony-nominated for playing the Witch in Into the Woods on Broadway and like Nicola Roberts, she appeared in the Covid casualty that was City of Angels. Fortunately, Miranda has given her a role to really dig her red stilettos into – she plays the role until 18 October.

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An Oscar nominee for The Banshees of Inisherin and an Emmy winner for Into the Storm, Brendan Gleeson (also known for In Bruges and Harry Potter) is a consummate character actor as well as a musician and a promoter of the Irish language. Gleeson has appeared in numerous stage productions in Ireland and he now makes his West End debut in a revival of Conor McPherson’s supernatural drama The Weir, directed by the playwright himself.

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In spring 2026, Ralph Fiennes returns to the London stage to play Henry Irving, the most celebrated actor of the second half of the nineteenth century. Fiennes is a three-time Oscar nominee (for Schindler’s List, The English Patient, and Conclave) and other credits include The Grand Budapest Hotel, Harry Potter, and Coriolanus. He was most recently seen on stage in Macbeth with Indira Varma. Miranda Raison (Spooks) plays Irving’s long-time co-star Ellen Terry, with whom he may have had a relationship that was more than professional.

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