27 December 2024 (released)
26 December 2025
The 2025 London theatre season has been defined by a breathtaking collision of Hollywood star power and radical directorial reinventions. As the final curtain calls of the year approach, the Top 28 list reveals a West End that is both honoring the classics and ruthlessly modernizing them for a new generation.
The Pinnacle of Tragedy: All My Sons
Taking the definitive top spot is Ivo van Hove’s shattering revival of All My Sons at Wyndham’s Theatre. This extraordinary production is anchored by a cast that critics have hailed as a perfect ensemble: Bryan Cranston, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, and a career-defining Paapa Essiedu. Eschewing the traditional interval, van Hove presents Arthur Miller’s masterpiece as a relentless, two-hour-and-fifteen-minute descent into the rot of the American Dream. The production’s best moment—a visceral, bone-chilling confrontation between Cranston’s Joe Keller and Essiedu’s Chris—left audiences in such a stunned silence that the atmosphere in the stalls felt completely breathless.
Radical Reinterpretations
The upper echelons of the list are dominated by bold takes on the canon. At the Barbican, The Seagull (Ranked #2) saw Cate Blanchett return to the London stage in a production that balanced "melancholic absurdity" with modern hipster aesthetics. Meanwhile, the Old Vic’s Oedipus (Ranked #3) proved to be the year’s most debated spectacle; starring Rami Malek and Indira Varma, it famously replaced the traditional Greek chorus with percussive, ritualistic contemporary dance, heightening the play’s sense of inevitable doom.
High Camp and New Forms
Comedy and innovation also found their place in the sun. The Importance of Being Earnest (Ranked #4) at the Noel Coward transformed Wilde’s drawing-room wit into a "fabulously unhinged" queer fest, featuring Stephen Fry as a resplendent Lady Bracknell and pop star Olly Alexander opening the show in pink tulle astride a piano. For those seeking the cutting edge, the Barbican’s In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats (Ranked #17) offered a VR-led odyssey into rave culture, proving that the future of theatre might just be immersive.
From the quiet, haunting echoes of The Weir (#6) to the family drama of Till The Stars Come Down (#16), 2025 has been a year where the stage felt more alive, and more necessary, than ever.
The London Theatre Top 28 of 2025
1 All My Sons - Wyndham's Theatre
2 The Seagull - Barbican
3 Oedipus - The Old Vic
4 The Importance of Being Earnest - Noel Coward Theatre
5 Inter Alia - National Theatre
6 The Weir - Harold Pinter Theatre
7 The Line of Beauty - Almeida Theatre
8 Paddington The Musical - The Savoy
9 Kenrex - Southwark Playhouse
10 Kyoto - SohoPlace
11 (the) Woman - Park Theatre
12 Salty Brine - Soho Theatre
13 Garry Starr - Arts Theatre
14 Handle With Care - Battersea Arts Centre
15 Oh, Mary - Trafalgar Theatre
16 Till The Stars Come Down - Haymarket Theatre
17 In Pursuit Of Repetitive Beats - Barbican
18 Meow Meow - Soho Theatre
19 The Producers - Garrick
20 Moby Dick - Barbican
21 Slava's Snow Show - Richmond Theatre
22 The Empire Strips Back - Riverside Theatre
23 Just for One Day - Shaftesbury Theatre
24 Bill Bailey - Thoughtifier - Drury Lane Theatre
25 The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives - Arcola Theatre
26 Baachae - National Theatre
27 Lacrima - Barbican
28 Sicilian Vespers - Royal Opera House
