What's closing in London theatres this month (October 2024)

Posted on 25 September 2024

We’ve officially entered spooky season, but forget the cobwebs and creatures, every theatre kid knows that there’s nothing scarier than missing out on a hot new show! FOMO can’t be battled with or bested by cloves of garlic, wooden stakes or silver bullets. The only way to defeat the fear of missing out is not missing out (simple really). So make sure you catch these productions in the West End before they leave us for the other side (read: UK tours and well earned rests).

Shifters (12 October)

This ‘gorgeous piece of storytelling’ (The Stage) has been wowing theatregoers throughout its West End run. Debuting at the Bush Theatre to critical acclaim, this terrific transfer’s fluid, dreamlike structure has been transporting audiences to a world slightly away from our own. A world richer, tender, more intimate, and deeply moving.

Weaving personal and political narratives seamlessly, and blending elements of science fiction and drama, Shifters follows a couple who crash back into eachothers lives after eight years apart. 

An unapologetic exploration of race, power, and belonging. Dre and Des are young, gifted and Black. They’ve only just been reunited but the clock is already counting down until Des must leave again. Memories of their teen years collide with their present and they’re forced to question if destiny has brought them back together for a reason, it’s “the perfect bittersweet rom-com” (Evening Standard) 

The Real Thing (26 October)

‘Tom Stoppard's gem still shines’ (The Guardian) at the Old Vic! The Tony Award-winning play takes a dark and honest look at human relationships and the nature of fidelity and love, balancing brilliance with a beating heart. 

Henry, a successful playwright, has a complicated relationship with two actresses: one is his wife, Charlotte, and the other is his lover, Annie. Diving through layers of play and performance, reality and deceit, the characters wrestle with the blurred lines between reality and fiction. 

Stoppard's kaleidoscopic comedy is made even more intriguing by the semi-autobiographical elements. There are a number of parallels between Stoppard and his main character: both are middle-aged playwrights known for their exact use of language; both express doubts about Marxism and the politics of the left, and both undertake work outside the theatre to keep up their comfortable lifestyles and pay alimony to their ex-wives. Stoppard even went out with Felicity Kendal, the actress who played Annie (Max, the main character's wife) in the West End premiere of the show over 40 years ago! 

 

Princess Essex (26 October)

Commemorate Black History Month with the Princess Essex. A fast-paced, music-filled, empowering comedy based on the incredible true story of the first woman of colour to enter a beauty pageant in the UK. 

Celebrating unapologetic authenticity, audacity, and challenging the stereotypes that we still cling to, writer and performer Anne Odeke (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Globe) transports us back to 1908, and a very special beauty competition. 

Princess Dinubolu of Senegal struts into the iconic Kursaal, Europe’s biggest entertainment complex, and enters herself into the Edwardian pageant, and the lion's den. This inspiring story of bravery, beauty and belonging is a ‘saucy and subversive tale of pride, prejudice and petticoat power’ (The Times). With tickets starting from just £7, discover the past that helped shape the future for so many. 

Also closing in London theatres this month

Ghost in Concert closes at the Adelphi Theatre on 1 October 2024

Maria Caruso’s Incarnation closes at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane on 2 October 2024

Lucy Beaumont Live closes at the London Palladium on 4 October 2024

Our Country's Good closes at the Lyric Hammersmith on 5 October 2024

23.5 Hours closes at the Park Theatre on 5 October 2024

One Small Step closes at Charing Cross Theatre on 9 October 2024

Never Let Me Go closes at Rose Theatre Kingston on 12 October 2024

The Lightest Element closes at Hampstead Theatre on 12 October 2024

I Wish You Well: The Gwyneth Paltrow Ski-Trial Musical closes at the Criterion Theatre on 12 October 2024

Buyer and Cellar closes at King’s Head Theatre on 19 October 2024

La Boheme - ENO closes at the London Coliseum on 19 October 2024

Tink closes at the Other Palace Studio on 20 October 2024

Lucy Thomas Live in London closes at Theatre Royal Drury Lane on 22 October 2024

The Taming of the Shrew closes at Shakespeare’s Globe on 26 October 2024 

Pins and Needles closes at Kiln Theatre on 26 October 2024

Tattooer closes at Charing Cross Theatre on 26 October 2024

Pulman & Stilgoe - A Couple of Swells closes at the Other Palace Studio on 26 October 2024

The Comedy of Errors closes at Shakespeare’s Globe on 27 October 2024

West End Musical Halloween closes at the Lyric Theatre on 28 October 2024

The Turn of the Screw closes at the London Coliseum on 31 October 2024