Lyn Gardner's Weekly Picks
Published on 6 July 2026
Heathers is the cult musical that refuses to fade away. First seen in the West End in 2018, it returns again to London, this time playing at the new venue The Arts at Marble Arch. Clearly, like a lot of theatre at the moment, it has a fanbase from the 1988 movie, and it plays to that nostalgia, but it has also secured a genuine teenage fanbase for the show, so it cuts across the generations. It is not nearly as dark as the original movie, but it connects neatly to the delicious fantasies we all harbour about getting our revenge on the playground bullies who tormented us or made us feel we were never good enough.
Black is the Color My Voice returns briefly to the Garrick. Apphia Campbell’s full-throated excavation of the life and times and music of the great Nina Simone has been around for many years, but it’s a show that delivers and brings the audience to their feet. For another one-woman show, head to the Marylebone Theatre, where Christine Lahti’s The Smile of Her dissects what it means growing up in 1950s suburban America and being raised to be a good girl.
There is only another week left for High Society at the Barbican, a feast of fabulously frothy hijinks and gorgeous Cole Porter songs. It sets off on a national tour to be replaced later in the month by a very different and much darker musical, Death Note. It’s also your last chance to catch David Hare’s Grace Pervades with Miranda Raison and Ralph Fiennes, much praised as Ellen Terry and Sir Henry Irving in David Hare’s play about the magic of theatre. Only two more weeks for The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind at @sohoplace, the joyous musical based on the true story of the boy who saved his Malawi village from famine by building a wind turbine.
Good to see that the great August Wilson’s work continues to be seen in London with a major revival of his 1987 play Fences set in late 1950s Pittsburgh. It arrives at the Lyric Hammersmith in October. Ray Fearon plays 53-year-old Troy Maxson, who is still trying to live his dreams through his sons. His hopes of playing professional basketball were scuppered by racism. Daniel Bailey—he did a great job with Red Pitch, which transferred from the Bush to the West End—directs a meaty drama about how thwarted dreams can haunt the next generation.
By Lyn Gardner
Lyn Gardner is an acclaimed theatre journalist and former critic with decades of experience covering British theatre, from off-West End and fringe theatre to major West End productions.