00:00 I'm Nancy Darren, I'm the Culture Editor of The Evening Standard.
00:02 And I'm Nick Clark, the Deputy Culture Editor.
00:04 We're the co-hosts too of the Standard Theatre Podcast,
00:06 and these are our theatre picks for 2024.
00:09 Well, let's jump right in.
00:11 January, the big E is Plaza Suite.
00:13 Oh my god, it's huge.
00:15 So this is Sex and the Cities,
00:17 Sarah Jessica Parker and her husband Matthew Broderick,
00:19 like also quite famous, I think.
00:22 Well, fans of Ferris Bueller, there are still some around.
00:25 Yeah, very excited about this one.
00:26 And they're playing three separate couples, I think,
00:28 in this take on love and marriage,
00:31 which did really, really well on Broadway.
00:33 That's coming to the Savoy Theatre in, well, in a few days, I think.
00:37 And if you can get tickets, that is, they are going fast.
00:39 Yeah, and they're going for quite a lot of money,
00:41 but you can still get them for about, I don't know,
00:43 like, I think 95 quid, some of them, probably starting.
00:45 So give it a go.
00:46 I'm very excited about this, The Hills of California,
00:51 which is a new play by Jez Butterworth,
00:53 who wrote The Ferryman and Jerusalem.
00:56 It's always a big event for British theatre,
00:58 and also what's even more exciting is that The Ferryman director,
01:01 Sam Mendes, is back on board to direct.
01:04 This story about, well, it's not about California.
01:08 It's about Blackpool.
01:09 Yes.
01:09 And a family in the, I think, late '60s or possibly '70s,
01:14 and in which, no doubt, there will be much psychodrama,
01:18 much familial disputes.
01:20 Possibly some sort of slightly weird kind of folky stuff, conceivably.
01:24 It's probably going to be pretty good.
01:26 I think it's going to be really, really good.
01:28 I'm also super excited about this new production of The Picture of Dorian Gray,
01:33 which is basically going to be done entirely by one person,
01:36 and that person is Sarah Snook of Succession fame.
01:39 She's going to be playing all the characters,
01:41 which, I mean, to be honest, I've no idea how it's going to work.
01:44 Well, it was out in Australia beforehand, not with Sarah Snook,
01:47 but it was, it paid huge acclaim out there.
01:50 So she is such a brilliant actor.
01:52 Yeah, that's true.
01:53 You know, fans of Succession know her as Shiv, of course.
01:57 And I think there will be a scramble to get tickets for that as well.
02:00 Yeah, exactly.
02:01 That one's at the Royal Theatre Haymarket from February the 6th.
02:04 And then there's an anime of the people.
02:09 Yeah, so fans of Matt Smith, and I hear there are quite a few of those,
02:13 former Doctor Who and The Crown star is appearing in this Ibsen classic,
02:17 but it is not going to be like a staid, normal Ibsen production,
02:21 because it is directed by Thomas Ostermeyer,
02:24 the sort of famed German auteur who has brought this production
02:28 to the UK before, about 10 years ago.
02:31 Oh yeah, it was at the Barbican, wasn't it?
02:32 Exactly, they loved it.
02:34 And now with Matt Smith in there,
02:36 you can't imagine anything but an absolute hit.
02:38 Now, another one that is going to be so brilliant,
02:42 our first musical on the list is Opening Night,
02:45 which is a musical adaptation of John Cassavetes' film.
02:49 It's going to have Sheridan Smith in it,
02:51 which is frankly enough reason to go and see pretty much anything.
02:54 And it's directed by Ivo van Hove,
02:57 and it has music and lyrics by Rufus Wainwright.
02:59 So I really don't think there's anything not to like in that one.
03:02 Well, and Sheridan Smith recently seen in Shirley Valentine,
03:05 and pretty much every single ticket was sold.
03:07 So it shows that she has real star power in the West End.
03:10 Oh, she really does. Yeah, so that's at the Gielgud.
03:11 We have a returning favourite of ours,
03:15 which is for black boys who have considered suicide
03:17 when the hue gets too heavy.
03:18 It's an amazing show.
03:19 It started in the tiny new diorama, went to the Royal Court,
03:22 last year hit the Apollo Theatre in the West End.
03:25 And if you didn't see it, you are in for a treat,
03:27 and it's so lucky that it's coming back.
03:29 Book tickets now.
03:30 Yeah, it's brilliant.
03:31 That's at the Garrick Theatre from February the 29th.
03:34 Ian McKellen is back again.
03:38 I don't know why I always say he's back,
03:39 because he's always there.
03:41 But he's going to be playing Falstaff,
03:42 which is one of the few Shakespeare roles he hasn't played,
03:45 in Player Kings,
03:46 which is a sort of mash-up of Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2,
03:50 by the visionary director Robert Eich.
03:53 His Oresteia was one of the best things
03:56 I have ever seen in a theatre.
03:57 He's really incredible.
03:58 So that one is going to be brilliant.
04:01 I'm kind of coping that they're going to cut out
04:03 all the really boring bits of those two plays.
04:06 But since it's Robert Eich,
04:08 I think that's probably what's going to happen.
04:09 That's at the Noel Coward Theatre from April the 1st.
04:14 Then, after that, we have Mean Girls the Musical.
04:17 So's that.
04:18 I'm glad you said that.
04:20 Yeah, so this is the Broadway adaptation of the Tina Fey film,
04:25 which itself is being made into a film again.
04:29 Yes.
04:30 And now it's coming to England in the West End as the Broadway...
04:34 I don't know, I'm getting confused with the whole thing.
04:36 It's a Broadway musical of Mean Girls.
04:38 It's going to be popular.
04:39 It's going to be brilliant.
04:40 You know what Mean Girls is.
04:41 It's at the Savoy.
04:42 Book your tickets now.
04:43 One of the things I'm super excited about is Waiting for Godot with Lucien...
04:49 Couldn't be further away from Mean Girls the Musical.
04:51 No, that's so true.
04:53 But this is going to have Lucien and Samarti,
04:55 who people will know if they have watched his Dark Materials
04:59 and also Gangs of London.
05:01 And Ben Whishaw.
05:02 I just think the charisma coming off that stage is going to be unbelievable.
05:07 Book tickets now before it's too late.
05:09 And that's at the Theatre Royal Haymarket from September.
05:12 And the last one we've got of the year is another film to stage adaptation.
05:17 Yep.
05:18 The Devil Wears Prada.
05:21 It ought to be brilliant.
05:23 I mean, it should be.
05:26 Will they get Marilyn to do it?
05:27 Well, yeah, I mean, that would be ideal, wouldn't it?
05:29 But they do have Elton John doing music and lyrics by Shaina Taub.
05:33 It's doing the lyrics and, I mean, it just ought to be really fun, don't you think?
05:40 That's at the Dominion coming in November.
05:42 Worth booking now, though, probably, even though it's massive,
05:45 because I think that one's going to be a good one.
05:48 That's all of our top 10 theatre picks for 2024.
05:52 Get booking!
05:53 And for many, many more, go to standard.co.uk, where there is a much expanded list.
05:59 [music]
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