Brilliant West End Musicals to See in London this summer
From long-running classics to blockbuster newcomers, Saga's theatre reviewer picks the West End musicals worth booking.
Johan Persson
From long-running classics to blockbuster newcomers, Saga's theatre reviewer picks the West End musicals worth booking.
As Saga Magazine's theatre critic, I've seen more West End musicals than I can count – the brilliant, the disappointing and everything in between.
If you're planning a trip to London to take in a show this year, here are my picks of the best the West End has to offer.
Rap, hip-hop, soul and show tunes collide in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s ingenious musical about American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton’s rise to political prominence.
Featuring predominantly non-white actors apart from the buffoonish King George III, it’s an electrifying retelling of history with fantastic staging and a soundtrack that’s both an homage to musical theatre and a reinvention of the form.
Hamilton is at the Victoria Palace Theatre
Get ticketsSam Ryder is perfectly cast as a benevolent, questioning Jesus in this dazzling revival of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s rock opera, although the show is almost stolen by Tyrone Huntley’s ragingly angry Judas.
The fantastic score is delivered at a roof-raising full pelt, the choreography is stupendous, and there’s a regularly changing conveyor belt of King Herods (including Richard Armitage, Julian Clary, Rob Brydon and Michael Ball) that will make repeat visits very enticing.
Jesus Christ Superstar is at London Palladium until 5 September then Theatre Royal Drury Lane from 16 October
Get ticketsNearly three decades since it arrived at the Lyceum Theatre in a blaze of Tony awards, this adaptation of the Disney film about exiled cub Simba returning to his homeland to avenge the murder of his father and take his rightful place on the throne remains a marvel.
Julie Taymor’s jaw-dropping puppets bring the animals to vivid life for youngsters and adults alike, and Elton John’s pop score is enhanced by South African composer Lebo M’s majestic new compositions.
The Lion King is at the Lyceum Theatre
Get ticketsWith Tim Minchin’s eclectic score and mischievous lyrics, the Matilda musical is as much of an upstart as its bookish, rebellious, telekinetic title character.
School head Miss Trunchbull is played by a man in drag, terrorising the tearaway kids – who fly above the front stalls on swings in one of many delightful moments – while Roald Dahl’s pint-sized heroine unleashes her powers in visually inventive ways.
Currently marking its 15th anniversary in the West End, it’s a show that preserves Dahl’s gleeful comedy but deepens the emotions.
Matilda The Musical is at the Cambridge Theatre
Get ticketsThe exclamation mark is well and truly earned in this whirligig of a musical. In eye-popping style, the love story between English poet Christian and nightclub star Satine in 1890s Paris is set to a delirious contemporary pop and rock soundtrack and set in a replica of the legendary Moulin Rouge.
It's complete with a stuffed elephant and a windmill in the boxes and a thrust stage for the dancers to do their high kicks. Why? Because they can-can!
Moulin Rouge! The Musical! is at the Piccadilly Theatre
Get ticketsNever mind one day more – this cast-iron classic musicalisation of Victor Hugo’s novel looks set to run forever. Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil’s blockbuster about dastardly Inspector Javert’s ruthless pursuit of ex-con Jean Valjean against a backdrop of the 1830s Paris student uprising is hardly a barrel of laughs.
But given its sheer spectacle and ability to stir the emotions, it’s hard to believe that most critics hated it when it had its English language premiere in 1983.
Les Misérables is at the Sondheim Theatre
Get ticketsAnother show with a built-in exclamation mark, although this one is a wonderfully reverent staging of Lionel Bart’s classic take on the Dickens saga about an orphan boy who falls in with the wrong crowd.
If you like traditional musicals done as intended, with no pesky revisionism, then consider yourself at home in the Gielgud Theatre. There are so many tunes glorious tunes and the staging is so sublime that you’ll be asking for more by the end.
Oliver! is at the Gielgud Theatre
Get ticketsMichael Bond’s Paddington Bear is looked after with affection to spare in a musical that’s as comforting as a marmalade sandwich and wallows in vast sets, dazzling colours and hummable songs (courtesy of McFly’s Tom Fletcher).
As we said at the time of its opening, to watch the bear dancing around with a maraca in each hand is a deliriously wacky experience. And to see this on stage is to enjoy musical theatre at its funniest, cleverest and most delightful.
Paddington The Musical is at the Savoy Theatre
Get ticketsThe theatre may have had a name change (from Her to His Majesty’s) and the sound design has been given a makeover, but basically this is the same production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s longest-running show that first took up residence in 1986. And why mess with success?
The tale of disfigured genius Phantom and his reluctant protégé Christine remains musically magnificent and dramatically beguiling, its special effects thrillingly old-fashioned and its gigantic chandelier as iconic as the score itself.
The Phantom of the Opera is at His Majesty’s Theatre
Get tickets
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