It’s May on the London stage and we’re now entering that period of the year where things start seriously hotting up in the West End, as the biggest shows of 2026 – the ones that are hoping to still be here in a year – finally get their runs underway pre-summer. Things are warming up literally too: the Globe opened its doors in April, and the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre joins it this month.
The biggest show coming to London in May is Beetlejuice, a massive Broadway Tim Burton musical adaptation that’s finally found a West End theatre big enough to stage it. The biggest name on the stage this month, however, is an all-time Brit legend who was a theatre regular until the ’80s when he left to become a film star. All tickets to Krapp’s Last Tape starring Gary Oldman are of course sold out, but read on to find out how you can still get in.
All this and plenty more besides, from a fresh chance to see Ava Pickett’s much-hyped 1536 to Jinkx Monsoon ‘doing’ Judy Garland.
The best new London theatre shows opening in May 2026
1. Krapp’s Last Tape
Gary Oldman was a Royal Court stalwart until the mid-’80s, when he essentially quit theatre for film: you’ll probably be familiar with his work. Last year, however, he returned to the stage with a production of Samuel Beckett’s peerless experimental masterpiece Krapp’s Last Tape, in which an old man listens back with mounting horror to the megalomaniacal recorded utterances of his youth. Debuting his production at the York Theatre Royal (his pre-Court stage home), Oldman starred in, directed and designed it himself. Now it’s coming to London as part of the Royal Court’s 70th birthday celebrations: obviously it’s long sold-out but all Monday tickets go on sale on the day of performance, while standing tickets are released 90 minutes before curtain up to in-person callers only.
Somewhat astonishingly, Krapp’s Last Tape originally debuted at the Royal Court as a ‘curtain raiser’ (kind of like a B-movie) to Beckett’s Endgame. In tribute to that, a new short play called Godot’s To-Do List by young writer Leo Simpe-Asante will open the night.
Royal Court Theatre, May 8-30.
2. Beetlejuice the Musical
We haven’t had a full-tilt, widescreen wow-look-how-much-money-they’re-spending Broadway import musical for a couple of years now. Cue Beetlejuice the Musical (or to give it its correct name, Beetlejuice the Musical. The Musical. The Musical). Directed by Alex Timbers – who did the honours for the ludicrously OTT Moulin Rouge! – it is, of course, a lavish stage adaptation of Tim Burton’s phantasmagorical black comedy about a recently deceased couple who wake up in an absurdist afterlife and turn to a crazed ‘bio-exorcist’ to try and get rid of the awful living couple who’ve moved into their lovely house. David Fynn – who led the West End’s School of Rock – will play the bonkers Beetlejuice.
Prince Edward Theatre, May 20-Apr 17 2027. Buy tickets here.
3. 1536
Ava Pickett’s sweary drama about the hopes and dreams of three young women living in rural Essex at the zenith of Henry VIII’s reign was one of the lower-key entries in the Almeida calendar last year. But it closed as one of the most acclaimed shows of 2026, with multiple Olivier nominations in the bag and Pickett roundly tipped as the next big thing in playwriting. And now there’s this, a chance to see it again as Pickett’s singular play transfers to the West End with its core cast of Liv Hill, Siena Kelly and Tanya Reynolds unchanged.
Ambassadors Theatre, May 2-Aug 1. Buy tickets here.
4. Sherlock Holmes
Nothing says ‘open air theatre season is here’ like the opening of the actual Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park. It will kick off its 2026 with a classic all-ages stage thriller as playwright Joel Horwood pens a brand new adventure for Sherlock Holmes. In it, Joshua James’s youthful Great Detective is left somewhat rudderless after the success of his first case – until a mysterious woman turns up at his door with a fantastic story about a stolen jewel. It sounds like a very fun romp, the sort of which only the OAT can really carry off.
Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, May 2-Jun 6. Buy tickets here.
5. Mother Courage and Her Children
Last year Globe artistic director Michelle Terry introduced Arthur Miller to the Globe’s outdoor theatre for the first time. And this year she ticks off another 20th century great as she programmes Bertolt Brecht’s anti-war masterpiece Mother Courage and Her Children, with Terry herself taking on the role of the eponymous war profiteer – selling her wares in a dystopian future warzone in this new adaptation from Anna Jordan. Not to launch into an essay on verfremdungseffekt here, but the Globe’s outdoor setting is the perfect venue for Brecht’s work and theories – it should be a match made in theatrical heaven.
Shakespeare’s Globe, May 7-Jun 27. Buy tickets here.
6. High Society
The other big musical this month is a major revival of frothy Golden Age classic High Society at the Barbican, a fizzy Cole Porter wedding comedy with a negligible plot and a score to die for. Helen George from Call the Midwife stars as socialite Tracy Lord, with Felicity Kendall as her mum. It’s best viewed as a sort of follow-up to the Barbican’s post-pandemic smash Anything Goes, another deliriously silly, massively fun Porter musical that also starred Kendall. The big difference is that this is an earlier star and a shorter run, with the Barbican’s summer musical spot split between High Society and the, er, rather different manga adaptation Death Note.
Barbican Centre, May 19-Jul 11. Buy tickets here.
7. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
Not a big musical but a nice looking small one, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is a name that might ring a bell. It started life as 2019 film directed by and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and based on the true story of a boy whose technical ingenuity helped him save his village in Malawi. This RSC musical adaptation doesn’t star Ejiofor, but it did score warm notices when it played Stratford-upon-Avon earlier this year and now it heads our way for a limited run in the West End’s newest theatre.
@sohoplace, now until Jul 18. Buy tickets here.
8. CARE
Brit auteur Alexander Zeldin made his name in the ’10s with a trilogy of docu-drama style plays about the collapse of the social contract in austerity Britain. Is CARE a return to those themes? It’s hard to see how a drama about Joan (Linda Bassett), a grandmother who reluctantly enters a British old folks’ home is going to be 100 percent sunshine and laughter, given the frayed and broken nature of the care system in this country. Nonetheless, we’re promised a positive depiction of the home, and perhaps an atypically cheery new work from Zeldin.
Young Vic, May 11-Jul 11. Buy tickets here.
9. Equus
Peter Shaffer isn’t a playwright who ever scored Pinter or Osborne-like levels of personal fame, but his great works probably get staged as much as theirs and rightly so. Fresh off the back of the news that Michael Sheen will be starring in Amadeus next year, there are two major Shaffer revivals to see in London this month. Equus is arguably most widely remembered for the 2007 revival starring a naked Daniel Radcliffe, but the psychological thriller about a psychiatrist trying to understand why a young man blinded six horses is a potent and profoundly disturbing work to this day. This Menier revival is probably its most intimate major staging ever, and stars Toby Stephens as the troubled Doctor Martin Dysart. Meanwhile, over at the Orange Tree there’s a relatively rare chance to see Black Comedy. It’s not one of Shaffer’s god-tier plays, but it’s not far behind, a one-act farce set in a London flat that revolves around the very amusing reversal of the lighting cues.
Menier Chocolate Factory, May 8-Jul 4. Buy tickets here.
10. End of the Rainbow
This Judy Garland bio-drama with songs did the rounds about 15 years ago as a vehicle for musical theatre great Tracie Bennett, and was adapted into the film Judy, which won Renee Zellweger an Oscar in 2020. Now it’s back as a vehicle for drag icon Jinkx Monsoon, a piece of casting that will surely either be a masterstroke or a bit much as the play follows a ruinously addicted Garland as she battles through a series of concert performances in London at the end of her life. It’ll also be the first ‘proper’ play to be staged at Soho Theatre Walthamstow after the brand-new venue cancelled last year’s panto.
Soho Theatre Walthamstow, May 15-Jun 20. Buy tickets here.
The best new London theatre openings to book for in 2026.
Plus: the Old Vic is staging an all female production of Glengarry Glen Ross.
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