King’s Head Theatre announces 2025 season, including three musical premieres

The King’s Head Theatre has revealed its spring 2025 season, its second in the newly established venue at Islington Square.

The season will run from January to August, with three new full-length musicals and four new plays.

It opens with Firebird, written by Richard Hough and directed by Owen Lewis, which runs from 9 January to 9 February. The production, based on the memoir Firebird: The Story of Roman by Sergey Fetisov, tells the story of a clandestine affair between a soldier and a fighter pilot in Soviet-occupied Estonia during the Cold War. The memoir was previously adapted into a film that premiered at the BFI Flare festival.

The theatre will then present Stalled: A New Musical, running from 13 February to 23 March. Written by Liesl Wilke and Andy Marsh, the musical is set in a women’s bathroom in Seattle, where a group of strangers, including a mother, a neurodivergent daughter, a nonbinary poet, and a queer computer scientist, navigate the complexities of modern life.

From 26 March to 27 April, former artistic director Hannah Price will make her directorial debut in the new space with (This is not a) Happy Room, a dark comedy by Rosie Day. The play follows a family gathering for a wedding, which quickly shifts into a funeral following a car accident. The production is Day’s second play, following her West End run of Instructions for a Teenage Armageddon. 

Running in repertoire with (This is not a) Happy Room is Puppy, by Naomi Westerman, from 1 to 27 April. Directed by Kayla Feldman, the play follows two women who set up a feminist adult material company and find themselves battling legislation aimed at curbing female sexual expression.

The programme continues with The Gang of Three, a new political drama by Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky, which runs from 30 April to 1 June. Set in the mid-1970s, the play explores the rivalry between Labour Party politicians Roy Jenkins, Denis Healey, and Tony Crosland, following Harold Wilson’s resignation as Prime Minister. The production is directed by Kirsty Patrick Ward.

The season’s second musical, King of Pangea, runs from 7 June to 6 July. Written by Martin Storrow, the story follows Christopher Crow as he retreats to an imaginary island following the death of his mother. Directed by Richard Israel, the production was originally presented at the National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s New Musicals Festival.

The final musical in the programme is The Show on the Roof, which runs from 11 July to 16 August. Written by Tom Ford with music and lyrics by Alex Syiek, the show is set in 1950s Boise, Idaho, and examines a wave of moral panic and its effects on the local queer community. The production marks the musical’s European premiere, having debuted in Boise in 2022.

In addition to the productions, the theatre is introducing new schemes to promote affordable access, including memberships for under-35s, N1 residents, and theatre artists.

Exclusive early bird tickets are available for £20 (off-peak) or £25 (peak times) for bookings made before 30 November.

Executive producer and acting CEO Sofi Berenger said: “Less than a year into the new theatre it feels amazing to be able to announce this season of work and present not one, but three new full-length musicals Stalled, King of Pangea and The Show on the Roof, which will mark our first major musical productions in the new theatre; and four brand new plays.

“I’m especially excited that 50 per cent of our season is written, directed and produced by female or non-binary creatives, and we continue to have predominantly LGBTQ+ work on our stages. This includes Firebird and a repertoire of two new plays by female writers, directors and producers featuring Puppy playing over Lesbian Visibility Week and our former artistic director Hannah Price making her debut on our new stage with (This is not a) Happy Room. And finally, with a Labour government back after 14 years we’re rounding off the season with The Gang of Three. But I can assure you, that’s not all we’re working on and there’s some more exciting casting and other announcements to come.”