All the A-list celebrities starring in London’s West End theatres (and beyond) in 2026
“I would give all my fame for a pot of ale and safety”
Hermione Blandford
Look, when you tell someone you’ve been to see a play, they’ll inevitably ask if anyone famous is in it. The yes/no that follows signals whether they will, in fact, want to talk about that play.
Star casting itself is a point of discussion in Theatreland - the ticket prices, the stunt of it all, the annoying eBayers at stage door - but when the right celebrity lands the right role, it’s lightning in a bottle. Case in point: The Seagull at the Barbican last year was star-studded and magnificent.
At any given time, a nosy around the West End shows that you can see all sorts of British household names on stage - for instance, Sheridan Smith and Romesh Ranganathan are currently at the Duke of York’s in Woman in Mind. High-wattage stars sometimes jet in to London for a one-nighter or fundraiser too, like Rachel Zegler and Ben Platt’s six night anniversary run of The Last Five Years at the Palladium in March. And, hot off the presses, Wicked's Arianna Grande and Jonathan Bailey are taking up residency at the Barbican Theatre for a Sondheim revival next summer.
Here we’ve compiled a theatrical calendar of bonafide celebs performing in proper productions (we’re talking weeks or months-long) in London and beyond. If you’re looking for more of an indie gem or up-and-coming act, read this preview of new-for-2026 shows.
A couple more shows to keep an eye on: first, the West End transfer of Ava Pickett’s rave-reviewed 1536 which plays at The Ambassadors from 2nd May. The brilliant Tanya Reynolds (Sex Education, The Decameron) starred in the original Almeida run last year — the leads for the West End are TBC. Second, the cast for the National Theatre’s take on Maxim Gorky’s Summerfolk hasn’t been announced yet. It opens on the 6th March and could yet include a name or two.
Now, on to the announced stuff...
Playboy of The Western World: Nicola Coughlan & Siobhán McSweeney
Two Derry Girls star in this classic 1900s play by Irish playwright John Millington Synge about, funnily enough, the rise and fall of a local celebrity. Siobhán McSweeney plays Widow Quin and Nicola Coughlan barmaid Pegeen, who are both fawning over one Christy Mahon. Mahon (Éanna Hardwicke) becomes the talk of the pub, and the ladies, when he announces he’s killed his own father. Directed by Abbey Theatre’s Caitríona McLaughlin and staged at the National’s Lyttelton Theatre, the critics are mostly on board, with The i paper’s Fiona Mountford calling it “a twisty treat”.
All My Sons: Bryan Cranston & Marianne Jean-Baptiste
Bryan Cranston has legitimately got the juice when it comes to live theatre - his mad-as-hell Network at the National Theatre nine years ago was dynamite. His portrayal of businessman Joe Keller in Arthur Miller’s 1946 play All My Sons has garnered a pile of five-star reviews and as such it’s a hot (read: expensive) ticket. Directed by the award-winning Ivo van Hove and currently playing at the Wyndham’s, All My Sons is another Miller tragedy that criticises the American Dream, here centred on a family in which only one son returns home from World War II. The cast around Cranston is superb too: Marianne Jean-Baptistie, Paapa Essiedu and Hayley Squires. According to The Guardian’s Arifa Akbar, “it is a rare thing to see a group of actors quite this brilliant gel so completely.”
High Noon: Billy Crudup & Denise Gough
The dream is, of course, to see a phenomenal actor in a phenomenal play. But here’s one to noodle over: the new stage version of the 1952 Western High Noon, currently playing at the Harold Pinter theatre, with Billy Crudup as Marshall Will Kane and Denise Gough as Amy Fowler. It’s getting mixed reviews so far - not a flop but not a total triumph either - so securing tickets shouldn’t be too much hassle.
If you’re a particular fan of golden-god-turned-morning-show-exec Crudup then, it seems a no-brainer. And critic Nancy Durrant was not a fan of the production overall but says “Gough, of course, lights up the stage whenever she’s on it.” (We saw Brian Cox play Johann Sebastian Bach in last year’s The Score, a play which found itself in similar circumstances with regards to the critical response and he was bloody excellent).
Our Town: Michael Sheen
Michael Sheen, excellent actor, all-round good guy and national treasure, has not only launched a new Welsh National Theatre, to fill the gap since the closure of the National Theatre of Wales in 2024, with his own money no less, but he’s about to star in his first production as founding artistic director. He plays the Stage Manager in Thornton Wilder’s American classic, Our Town, at three theatres across Wales before finishing the tour in Kingston, south west London. The Welsh connection? Our Town is thought to have inspired Dylan Thomas’ heart-expanding radio drama Under Milk Wood. Sheen has fellow Welshman Russell T Davies on his creative team so watch out for what comes next.
Dracula: Cynthia Erivo
Call us old-fashioned but we tend towards preferring more than one actor on stage if there’s more than one character in a play. The one-man or one-woman show has become a bit of a creative endurance test lately - Andrew Scott’s Vanya, Sarah Snook’s The Picture of Dorian Gray - and Australian writer-director Kip Williams, specifically his creative use of tech and live video, is very much behind the charge. Next up: Cynthia Erivo will play all 23 roles, including the Count himself, in Bram Stoker’s gothic horror classic, which is in rehearsals now.
Sunday in the Park with George: Ariana Grande and Jonathan Bailey
Speaking of Wicked alumni, this is a Wicked reunion if ever we saw one, with pop-sensation Ariana Grande and Jonathan Bailey speculated to team up for a high-kicking, jazz-handing rendition of Stephen Sondheim’s musical, Sunday in the Park with George.
Teased via Bailey’s Instagram with the caption “All it has to be is good” - the title of one of the musical’s songs - superfans were quick to link it to Sondheim’s pulitzer-winning, two time Tony awarded musical, inspired by the Georges Suerat painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. First performed in Broadway in 1984, the play revolves around a fictionalised version of Georges Seurat who immerses himself completely in the creation of his masterpiece, alongside his great-grandson, also an artist.
Whilst most details are still to be confirmed, this will be one of the most hyped shows in years. And yes, we're cheating a bit here as this is planned for next summer — but with a cast like that, all the more reason to give you a heads up if you intend on getting tickets...
Teeth ‘n’ Smiles: Self Esteem
Pop star Self Esteem, otherwise known as Rebecca Lucy Taylor, has made some shrewd movies into theatre in the past few years. First, she debuted as Sally Bowles in the Cabaret revival at the Kit Kat Club in 2023 and now she’s starring in, and writing new music for, a new production of the mid-70s David Hare play Teeth ‘n’ Smiles. Why’s that smart? Well, Taylor plays Maggie, the lead singer of a washed-up rock band, reduced to playing a May Ball at a Cambridge college, in a role which Helen Mirren first played at the Royal Court back in 1975.
Romeo & Juliet: Sadie Sink & Noah Jupe
One for the yoof, this spring sees Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink (aged 23) pair up with A Quiet Place’s Noah Jupe (aged 20) as Shakespeare’s star-crossed sausages. The director is a theatreland celebrity in his own right too: Robert Icke, fresh from taking his award-winning West End adaptation of Oedipus to Broadway. The logline for his upcoming Romeo & Juliet at the Harold Pinter reads, sassily, “In Verona, in the height of summer, two young people meet at a party. The rest is tragedy.”
Inter Alia: Rosamund Pike
Much more of a known quantity is Suzie Miller’s legal drama Inter Alia, which is coming to the Wyndham’s for seven weeks, after it played at the National last year. (Inter alia, definition: ‘among other things’). This might not be quite the knockout sensation of 2019’s Prima Facie but the story of “maverick” Crown Court judge Jessica Parks, trying to balance her work, her family and her principles, is suitably thorny. Oh, and Parks is played by the ice queen herself, the always complex, always interesting Rosamund Pike.
Les Liaisons Dangereuses: Lesley Manville, Aidan Turner & Monica Barbaro
Dangerous Liaisons, Cruel Intentions… whichever your chosen adaptation of the 18th century French epistolary novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, it’s a banger. Set in pre-Revolutionary Paris, two aristocrats play wicked games in and out of the decadent salons. For the National Theatre’s upcoming staging of the Chistopher Hampton play, Lesley Manville stars as the scheming Marquise de Merteuil and Poldark himself, Aidan Turner plays her rival, the Vicomte de Valmont. Should sizzle.
A Doll’s House: Romola Garai
OK, look, Romola Garai is A-list in our eyes. We still think about the gorgeous, short-lived BBC TV show The Hour in which she played (BBC) news producer Bel Rowley, she was an excellent Emma in the 2009 Austen adaptation and she’s popped up in films like Atonement, Suffragette and Scoop. Garai has also become a titan of the London stage in recent years, thanks to roles in the Annie Ernaux adaptation The Years (for which she won an Olivier award) and the Roald Dahl dramatisation Giant.
So it’s an event that Romola Garai is doing Ibsen, at the Almeida no less, in a new version of A Doll’s House by Anya Reiss. Garai is taking on the part of Nora, a wife and mother who feels stifled in her marriage to Torvald, and if the reference to an Amex in the darkly comic quote on the Almeida show page is to be believed, Reiss has transported Nora from 1870s Norway to some time about now.
Grace Pervades: Ralph Fiennes
As it’s not quite sell-out Shakespeare, this could be a good chance to see Ralph Fiennes on the London stage as this David Hare play transfers from the Theatre Royal Bath, where Fiennes spent last summer acting and directing in all sorts of stuff. In Grace Pervades, he plays a grand Victorian actor, Sir Henry Irving, opposite Miranda Raison as Ellen Terry, once the highest paid actress in England. Directed by Jeremy Herrin, it’s a decade-spanning story of their work and relationship from when Terry agrees to join Irving’s company at the Lyceum onwards, that is, by all accounts, something of a love letter to theatre.
Krapp’s Last Tape / Godot’s To-Do List: Gary Oldman
An old man sits alone in his den, listening to tape recordings of his younger self. This 1958 one-act, one-man Samuel Beckett play was originally written as a monologue for Irish actor Patrick Magee. Over the years, legends including John Hurt, Michael Gambon, Harold Pinter, F. Murray Abraham and Stephen Rea have taken on the role, attempting to become one with the machine and its ghosts, with the spool as Krapp’s “whole life”, as Beckett once instructed actor Pierre Chabert.
Joining these ranks is one-of-one Gary Oldman, who directed himself in a production at York Theatre Royal in 2025 which he’s bringing to Sloane Square’s Royal Court for three weeks in May. Suffice it to say it’s sold out but you can sign up for returns, try for on-the-day £15 Monday tickets or, as a last resort, turn up 90 minutes before the performance and pay the famous rate of 10p to stand and watch through designated windows on the circle level of the theatre.
Ivanov: Chris Pine
Chris Pine doing Chekhov is surely the biggest known unknown for star casting in London theatre for 2026. I mean yes, he’s acted on stage in the US, albeit not for a while, and he started out doing Shakespeare and Greek tragedy in the theatre program at UC Berkeley. But can Captain Kirk himself play the titular melancholy, bourgeois Russian government official in Ivanov for two and a half months straight and find something compelling? We’ll get the answer in Simon Stone’s production for the riverside Bridge Theatre this summer.
The Cherry Orchard: Helen Hunt & Kenneth Branagh AND The Cherry Orchard: Kristin Scott Thomas
Speaking of Anton Pavlovich, his final masterpiece The Cherry Orchard is frequently put on in London and this year we’re getting two celeb-stuffed adaptations in (or near, at least) the capital. First, Kenneth Branagh is bringing Helen Hunt to the RSC’s Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon to play Ranyevskaya alongside his Lopakhin, in a new version by the super talented Laura Wade.
And then, at some point we’re getting a production from mega-producer Sonia Friedman, starring Kristin Scott Thomas in the Ranyevskaya role. Adapted by Conor McPherson (writer of the lovely plays The Weir and Girl From The North Country) and directed by Ian Rickson, we don’t even know which theatre this will go to yet but we’re already slightly more excited about the KST casting. And only partly because Kenneth Branagh can be incredibly irritating.
- Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon - 10th July to 29th August & West End Theatre TBC - dates TBC
Man to Man: Tilda Swinton
A supremely singular performer in the form of Tilda Swinton, a revival of a one-woman play at the Royal Court, a short-ish seven week run. Yes, it’s sold out - so do pay attention to the advice above regarding Krapp’s Last Tape as it’s all applicable here. Man to Man is the East German writer Manfred Karge’s 1982 portrait of a woman in pre-war Germany who assumes the identity of her dead husband. It was, in fact, Tilda Swinton who originated the role of Ella/Max at the Royal Court in 1988. Also returning are director Stephen Unwin and designer Bunny Christie so this will be something special.
Golden Boy: Josh O’Connor
Golden boy is correct. Josh O’Connor is proving himself to be a phenomenally soulful and versatile actor, most recently leading Kelly Reichardt’s slower-than-thou art heist film The Mastermind and Rian Johnson’s ungodly mystery Wake Up Dead Man. Which means the only question mark that remains is the material. He’s chosen well. This is a classic American play by Clifford Odets, set in 1930s Depression-era New York, directed here by Sam Yates. The protagonist, Joe Bonaparte, is right in O’Connor’s hangdog wheelhouse too: a talented Italian-American violinist who is lured into the cut-throat world of boxing. The cast joining our favourite dirt-bag challenger on stage at North London’s Almeida this autumn is yet to be announced and tickets go on sale later this year.
Want more London theatre tips? Try our top picks for 2026...
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