Stage Watch brings together a curated selection of upcoming theatre, musicals and live performances from London and across the broader Oxfordshire region – from star-led revivals and Broadway transfers to cinematic thrillers and bold reimaginings of familiar stories.
This selection moves between dark comedy, supernatural musical theatre, wartime romance, classic comedy and psychological suspense. From the anarchic world of Oh, Mary! and the gothic exuberance of Beetlejuice to Matthew Bourne’s atmospheric Cinderella and the world stage premiere of The Silence of the Lambs in Oxford, these productions offer very different ways into the season ahead.
Oh, Mary!
Trafalgar Theatre, London.
Booking from 28 Sep to 05 Dec 2026. Save up to 50%.
A wildly irreverent reimagining of Mary Todd Lincoln, Oh, Mary! turns the private frustrations and ambitions of Abraham Lincoln’s wife into an anarchic 80-minute comedy set in the weeks before the president’s assassination. Beneath its deliberately absurd surface is a story about thwarted desire, celebrity, marriage and a woman struggling to find a life beyond the role expected of her.
Following its success on Broadway and in London, the production returns with Lolly Adefope taking on the central role of Mary Todd Lincoln from 28 September. The performance follows Jinkx Monsoon’s acclaimed London run and brings a distinctly British comic sensibility to a character described as miserable, suffocated and desperate for an audience of her own.
Written by Cole Escola and directed by Sam Pinkleton, the production has collected major recognition on both sides of the Atlantic, including Olivier and Tony Awards. Its deliberately heightened style makes history less a solemn backdrop than the raw material for a fast, strange and frequently outrageous theatrical comedy.
Best for: Audiences who enjoy boundary-pushing comedy, unconventional historical fiction and fast-paced, irreverent theatre.
Good to know: Expect dark humour, strong language, adult themes, references to alcoholism and a single gunshot. Age guidance 14+. Lolly Adefope is not performing as Mary on 14 October 2026.
Beetlejuice
Prince Edward Theatre, London.
Booking to 02 Jan 2027.
Tim Burton’s macabre world comes to life in Beetlejuice, a spectacular musical that combines gothic imagery, comic chaos and an unexpectedly life-affirming story about grief, family and finding a way forward. At its centre is Lydia Deetz, a teenager whose encounter with a recently deceased couple leads her into the orbit of Beetlejuice, the irrepressible ghost with the most.
David Fynn takes on the title role, bringing a manic physicality to the character, alongside Hannah Nordberg as Lydia. The production draws on the visual imagination of Burton’s original film while expanding the story through an exuberant score, elaborate design and theatrical effects.
With music by Eddie Perfect, a book by Scott Brown and Anthony King and choreography by Connor Gallagher, the musical moves between the supernatural and the deeply human. Its extravagant staging is matched by songs that explore mortality, adolescence, family and the complicated business of being alive.
Best for: Fans of Tim Burton, large-scale musical theatre, gothic comedy and spectacular stage design.
Good to know: The production runs for around 2 hours 40 minutes including an interval and is recommended for ages 12+ with adult supervision. Expect strong language, adult humour, mature themes and drug references.
Hay Fever
Wyndham’s Theatre, London.
Booking from 22 Sep to 12 Dec 2026.
Noël Coward’s Hay Fever returns to the West End in a new production directed by Emily Burns, with Christine Baranski making her West End debut as the theatrical and gloriously self-absorbed Judith Bliss.
The Bliss family’s country house is supposed to offer a peaceful weekend away. Instead, Judith, her novelist husband David and their children Sorrel and Simon each invite a guest without telling the others. As the visitors arrive, the family’s instinct for performance, provocation and personal drama turns an awkward weekend into a comic battle of manners.
Baranski is joined by Richard E. Grant as David Bliss, bringing two formidable stage and screen performers together for Coward’s celebrated comedy of vanity, eccentricity and social discomfort. The production’s appeal lies in the tension between the Blisses’ effortless theatricality and their complete inability to behave like conventional hosts.
First performed in 1925, Hay Fever remains a comedy about people who treat everyday life as a stage – and whose greatest source of entertainment may be one another.
Best for: Admirers of Noël Coward, sophisticated comedy, ensemble acting and classic British theatre.
Good to know: Running time is approximately two hours including an interval. The production includes smoking of cigarettes. Some performances in October and November will involve filming.
Matthew Bourne’s Cinderella
Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London. Booking from 1 Dec 2026 to 17 Jan 2027.
Matthew Bourne’s Cinderella relocates the familiar fairy tale to London during the Blitz, transforming the story into a wartime romance shaped by chance, separation and the extraordinary uncertainty of life during 1940.
A chance encounter brings Cinderella together with a young RAF pilot, but their brief moment of happiness is interrupted by the violence of the Blitz. Bourne’s production places their relationship against a London of air-raid sirens, bomb damage and blackout, giving the familiar fairy tale a darker and more cinematic atmosphere.
Returning to Sadler’s Wells for a 30th anniversary celebration, the production combines Bourne’s distinctive storytelling with Lez Brotherston’s Olivier Award-winning designs, Neil Austin’s lighting and Duncan McLean’s video and projection work. Prokofiev’s score becomes the emotional landscape for a story that moves between intimacy and spectacle.
The result is less a conventional fairy tale than a portrait of love and resilience in a city transformed by war.
Best for: Dance audiences, admirers of Matthew Bourne and those looking for a visually immersive alternative to traditional Christmas ballet.
Good to know: The production runs for around 2 hours 20 minutes including an interval. Age guidance is 8+. Expect depictions of bombing raids, destruction, explosions, theatrical smoke and haze, strobe lighting and loud noises.
The Silence of the Lambs
New Theatre Oxford.
Monday 19 to Saturday 24 October 2026.
Thomas Harris’s psychological thriller arrives on stage for its world stage play premiere, bringing the unsettling relationship between FBI trainee Clarice Starling and imprisoned murderer Hannibal Lecter to the New Theatre Oxford.
When Starling is tasked with interviewing Lecter in the hope that his insight will help investigators catch another serial killer, the investigation becomes a psychological game in its own right. Lecter has information that Clarice needs, but every conversation brings the two closer to a dangerous boundary between interrogation and manipulation.
John Partridge stars as Hannibal Lecter, with Mollie Gallagher as Clarice Starling, Oliver Farnworth as Agent Jack Crawford and Sam Jackson as Buffalo Bill. The production is written by Gina Gionfriddo and directed by Nikolai Foster.
For Oxford audiences, the significance lies not only in the story’s enduring cultural impact but in seeing a landmark thriller reworked specifically for the stage. The production seeks to replace the cinematic distance of the original with the immediacy of live performance, bringing its central characters and disturbing encounters into close proximity with the audience.
Best for: Fans of psychological thrillers, crime drama and literary adaptations looking for a darker night at the theatre.
Good to know: The production runs for approximately 2 hours 15 minutes including an interval and carries a 15+ age guidance. It contains disturbing scenes of threats, violence and murder, very strong language, sexual references, sexual harassment and violence, onstage prosthetic human remains, flashing lights, haze and loud noises including gunshots.
