Features

10 new productions we're looking forward to this Autumn

We take a look at some upcoming shows worth getting excited about

It's time to admit it, Summer is over and Autumn is here. But as the temperature falls with the leaves on our trees, the new season brings with it a wealth of new productions to get excited about. We take a look at the top ten new productions we are looking forward to most over the next few months.

Cillian Murphy and Mikel Murfi
Cillian Murphy and Mikel Murfi in Ballyturk at the National
© Richard Gilligan
1. Ballyturk

Cillian Murphy returns to the National, following his solo performance in Misterman, in Enda Walsh's new play Ballyturk. Walsh’s long-time collaborator Mikel Murfi also appears along with the internationally acclaimed Stephen Rea.

The lives of two men unravel quickly over the course of 90 minutes in a play that is described as "gut-wrenchingly funny, achingly sad and featuring jaw-dropping moments of physical comedy."

National Theatre, 16 September – 11 October. More info and buy tickets.

2. Teh Internet is Serious Business

This new play by Tim Price presents a fictional account of the true story of Anonymous and LulzSec, the collective swarm who took on the most powerful capitalist forces from their bedrooms. A 16-year-old London schoolboy and an 18-year-old recluse in Shetland meet online, pick a fight with the FBI and change the world forever.

Royal Court, 17 September – 25 October. More info and buy tickets.

Kristin Scott Thomas in Electa at the Old Vic.
3. Electra

Kristin Scott Thomas stars in the title role of Sophocles' Electra at the Old Vic alongside Amanda Drew (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) and Olivier Award-winning Jack Lowden (Ghosts).

Scott Thomas reunites with director Ian Rickson, who directed the actress in Pinter's Old Times, to bring Frank McGuinness' charged adaptation of this classic tale of power and revenge to The Old Vic in the round.

Old Vic, 1 October – 20 December. More info and buy tickets.

4. Henry IV

Phyllida Lloyd's upcoming all-female production of Henry IV at the Donmar Warehouse features Harriet Walter in the title role. The cast also features Cynthia Erivo (Poins and the Earl of Douglas), Jade Anouka (Hotspur), Clare Dunne (Hal) and Jennifer Joseph (Sir Walter Blunt).

Lloyd's production will encompass action from both Henry IV Part I and Part II to create "a single narrative of Shakespeare's monumental history plays".

Donmar Warehouse, 3 October – 29 November. More info and buy tickets.

5. Gypsy

Imelda Staunton stars in Gypsy at Chichester Festival Theatre, reuniting the actress with director Jonathan Kent following their WhatsOnStage Award-winning version of Sweeney Todd.

With a book by Arthur Laurents, music by Julie Styne and lyrics from Stephen Sondheim, Gypsy is based on the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee and is considered by many to be the greatest of the Broadway musicals and features classics such as "Let Me Entertain You", "Rose’s Turn" and "Everything's Coming Up Roses"

Chichester Festival Theatre, 6 October – 8 November. More info and buy tickets.

Here Lies Love at the National Theatre.
Here Lies Love at the National Theatre.
6. Here Lies Love

David Byrne and Fatboy Slim's musical Here Lies Love has been given the honour of opening the new Dorfman Theatre (formerly the Cottesloe) at the National, and will instantly transform it into a pulsating club for this immersive theatrical event.

The show, which plots the meteoric rise to power and subsequent descent into infamy and disgrace of infamous former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos, premiered at the Public Theater in New York last year.

Dorfman Theatre, 13 October – 8 January. More info and buy tickets.

7. East is East

Jane Harrocks stars in the second production of Jamie Lloyd's Trafalgar Transformed season, following Martin Freeman's run as Richard III.

Ayub Khan Din's play, which was made into a successful 1999 film starring Om Puri and Linda Bassett, looks at the tensions in a family in Salford.

Trafalgar Studios, 4 October – 3 January. More info and buy tickets.

8. Memphis

Following her stage debut in The Bodyguard, Beverley Knight leads the cast for the West End premiere of Memphis, playing opposite Killian Donnelly who recently appeared in The Commitments.

Winner of four Tony Awards including Best Musical, Memphis centres on a black singer whose career is on the rise, but who can't break out of segregated clubs of 1950's Memphis Tennessee.

The show features a story by Joe DiPietro and an original score by DiPietro and Bon Jovi's David Bryan.

Shaftesbury Theatre, 23 October – 28 March. More info and buy tickets.

Gemma Arterton in Made in Dagenham
Gemma Arterton in Made in Dagenham
9. Made in Dagenham

Gemma Arterton stars in the musical adaptation of Made in Dagenham, directed by Almeida artistic director Rupert Goold, with a book by Richard Bean (One Man, Two Guvnors), music from David Arnold and lyrics by Richard Thomas (Jerry Springer: The Opera).

The show dramatises the Ford sewing machinists strike of 1968 that aimed for equal pay for women. The film was released in 2010 starring Sally Hawkins.

Adelphi Theatre, 5 November – 28 March. More info and buy tickets.

10. Behind the Beautiful Forevers

Meera Syal returns to the National Theatre to star in David Hare's new play Behind the Beautiful Forevers.

The show, which is directed by NT artistic director-in-waiting Rufus Norris, is adapted from Pulitzer Prize-winner Katherine Boo's book about the interconnected lives of people living in a Mumbai slum.

Olivier, National Theatre, 18 November – January 14. More info and buy tickets.