It can’t just be me who gets massive FOMO when a new production rolls into town and it’s a play or an actor that I simply have to see. There’s a new show announced every week that’s immediately considered ‘unmissable’ in my mind – it’s an affliction.
Worse is the feeling when you’ve already missed out and production has departed before you could see it. I’m not sure what the acronym for that is. Should we make SOLAHMO a thing? (Sense of loss at having missed out). Probably best not to.
Luckily, there’s sometimes a second chance when a production earns a West End transfer or a second run or simply appears again without any real explanation for why (I have two productions like that on this list).
Theatre to see in 2025 – Part 4: Second Chances
Giant at the Harold Pinter Theatre, London
Tony and Golden Globe-winner John Lithgow stars as Roald Dahl in Mark Rosenblatt’s new play, which transfers to Harold Pinter Theatre following its sold-out run at the Royal Court Theatre last year.
Tickets for last year’s run were very hard to get your hands on as soon as glowing reviews appeared for the play, so there will be plenty of punters happy to have a second chance to catch this play which explores Dahl’s antisemitism and the difference between considered opinion and dangerous rhetoric.
Despite a prolific acting career with plenty of stage performances in the US, Lithgow doesn’t appear very often on the London stage so it’s a real treat to have him back for another go in the West End. I missed Giant at the Court so I’ll see you there.
Giant at the Harold Pinter Theatre, London from 26 April to 2 August 2025
The Years at the Harold Pinter Theatre, London
This is another that I missed. Based on Nobel Prize winner Annie Ernaux’s novel Les Années, The Years about the multitudes of womanhood has been adapted and directed by Internationaal Theater Amsterdam’s new Artistic Director Eline Arbo and opened to rave reviews at the Almeida last year.
Early previews saw (mainly male) audience members feeling faint and seeking medical assistance following an abortion scene with complaints about the lack of warning the scene was about to happen. Guess, what – content notes were available.
That little hoo-ha hasn’t dampened the play’s success, with the full original all-female cast—Deborah Findlay, Anjli Mohindra, Gina McKee, Harmony Rose-Bremner, and Romola Garai (who appeared in Giant at the Royal Court)—returning for the West End run.
The Years at the Harold Pinter Theatre, London from 24 January to 19 April 2025
Save up to 29% on tickets to The Years with LoveTheatre here
4.48 Psychosis at the Royal Court Theatre, London and The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon
Sarah Kane’s final play is one of those productions that is returning practically out of nowhere. The original production opened at the Royal Court in June 2000, over a year after Kane died in 1999. Guardian theatre critic Michael Billington described the play as “a 75-minute suicide note.”
25 years later, it returns to the theatre with the entire original cast and creative team – director James Macdonald and cast members Daniel Evans, Jo McInnes and Madeleine Potter reprising their roles. It’s as big a surprise second chance as you could expect.
The production transfers to The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon following its run at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs. Tickets for the Royal Court run are already sold out but check for returns (our mantra in this feature) or book for Stratford-upon-Avon and treat yourself to a day out – but you’ll need to be quick.
4.48 Psychosis at the Royal Court Theatre, London from 12 June to 5 July, then The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon from 10 to 27 July 2025
My Neighbour Totoro at the Gillian Lynne Theatre, London
This is a third chance for any fans of My Neighbour Totoro as it lands in the West End following two sell-out runs at the Barbican where it earned glowing five-star reviews and picked up six Olivier Awards.
Based on the 1988 animated feature film, The Royal Shakespeare Company’s production, written by Tom Morton-Smith, brought back Joe Hisaish, who provided the score for the original film, to provide the music for the stage version.
With a long run in the spacious Gillian Lynne Theatre, don’t expect sell-out audiences on its third outing which means a good chance to pick up reasonably priced tickets. Click our link below to find cheap seats for the enchanting and magical coming-of-age story.
My Neighbour Totoro at the Gillian Lynne Theatre, London from 8 March to 2 November 2025
Hadestown’s original cast at the Lyric Theatre, London
All of the dates for the return of the original National Theatre and Broadway cast to Hadestown sold out in the presale for those who signed up for tickets in advance, meaning if you weren’t in early you may have already missed out on this second chance… except there’s always another chance while the show is still on. The run sees Reeve Carney as Orpheus, André De Shields as Hermes, Amber Gray as Persephone, Eva Noblezada as Eurydice and Patrick Page as Hades.
If you need any tips for getting tickets, I have only two: Tip #1: Keep checking the website for returns – they will come up but you have to be quick. Tip #2: Apply for £30 rush tickets on TodayTix. We’ve got our fingers crossed for you (and us – yes, I didn’t get tickets either. Again).
In the meantime, you can read our review of the West End production. “There is something inherently likeable about Anaïs Mitchell’s musical. The songs feel familiar but original, toeing a line between American folk, jazz, blues and musical theatre,” I wrote about the musical last year in a three-star review. Three stars meaning “good.”
Hadestown’s original cast at the Lyric Theatre, London from 11 February to 9 March 2025 tickets for the original cast’s run are sold out (it’s worth checking for returns) but you can get tickets for the show beyond 9 March here
A Streetcar Named Desire at the Noël Coward Theatre, London
Paul Mescal is back on stage reprising his role as Stanley Kowalski opposite Patsy Ferran and Anjana Vasan in the West End transfer of Rebecca Frecknall’s fantastic production of Tennesse William’s masterpiece which played at the Almeida in 2023.
You’ll have to be quick though because it’s only around for three weeks – 24 performances in total – before it heads across the Atlantic to play off-Broadway at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York.
If you need any tips for getting tickets, I have only one for Streetcar. It’s a repeat of Tip #1 from my Hadestown advice: Keep checking the website for returns – they will come up but you have to be quick. Tip #2 doesn’t apply here, at least not yet. No day ticket policy has been announced for Streetcar.
A Streetcar Named Desire at the Noël Coward Theatre, London from 3 to 22 February 2025
London Road in the Olivier Theatre at the National Theatre, London
To round us off, we have two returning productions at the National Theatre. The first is an unexpected chance to see the verbatim musical London Road which originally opened at the theatre back in April 2011.
Outgoing National Theatre artistic director Rufus Norris is again set to direct the musical which takes during the period during and after the Ipswich serial murders, set on the street where the killer Steve Wright, known as the Suffolk Strangler, lived as the community rallies together following the tragedy.
It’s a timely production as Wright was charged with the 1999 murder of Victoria Hall earlier this year.
London Road in the Olivier Theatre at the National Theatre, London from 6 to 21 June 2025
Nye in the Olivier Theatre at the National Theatre, London
Finally, it’s another chance to see Michael Sheen take on the role of Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan in Tim Price’s play about the Labour politician who founded the National Health Service.
It follows Bevan’s life from his childhood in Wales where he struggles with his stutter to the heights of his political career and the creation of the National Health Service in 1948, each event in his life told in the form of hallucinations from his death bed in one of the hospitals he himself helped to establish.
Read our four-star review of Sheen’s “wonderful central performance” here.
Nye is in the Olivier Theatre at the National Theatre, London from 3 July to 16 August 2025 then in the Donald Gordon Theatre at the Wales Millennium Centre from 22 to 30 August
