THE LEHMAN TRILOGY Leads our Top Ten Shows for February

Head off the winter blues with some fantastic theatrical treats

By: Feb. 01, 2023
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THE LEHMAN TRILOGY Leads our Top Ten Shows for February

February is the shortest month and there's an awful lot of amazing theatre to be fitted in.

Head off the winter blues with some fantastic theatrical treats including the return of Sam Mendes' The Lehman Trilogy, the West End transfer of OKLAHOMA! and the very first show at Southwark Playhouse's new venue.

Make sure you check back on BroadwayWorld for all our news, interviews and reviews.


1. The Lehman Trilogy, Gillian Lynne Theatre

The National Theatre and Neal Street Productions' The Lehman Trilogy makes a triumphant return to London following an acclaimed season in Los Angeles and a highly lauded run on Broadway, winning 5 Tony Awards® including Best Play.

Directed by Sam Mendes, this revival features Nigel Lindsay, Hadley Fraser and Michael Balogun.

On a cold September morning in 1844, a young man from Bavaria stands on a New York dockside dreaming of a new life in the new world. He is joined by his two brothers, and an American epic begins. 163 years later, the firm they establish - Lehman Brothers - spectacularly collapses into bankruptcy, triggering the largest financial crisis in history.

The Lehman Trilogy is at Gillian Lynne Theatre until 20 May. Book tickets here.

THE LEHMAN TRILOGY Leads our Top Ten Shows for February 2. Sylvia, The Old Vic

Following its 2018 run as a work-in-progress, Kate Prince's Sylvia is back where it all began for its world premiere, uniting dance, hip hop, funk and soul to shine a light on a remarkable moment in history, with original music by Josh Cohen and DJ Walde.

This revolutionary story celebrates the life of Sylvia Pankhurst - feminist, activist, pacifist, socialist, rebel - the lesser-known Pankhurst at the heart of the Suffragette movement, who changed the lives of working women and men across the world.

Sylvia is at The Old Vic until 1 April. Book tickets here.

3. Duet for One, Orange Tree Theatre

Tara FitzGerald stars as Stephanie Abrahams, a world-renowned concert violinist at the peak of her career. But upon receiving life-changing news, Stephanie is forced to look for a new way to live. Her composer husband sends her to psychiatrist Dr Feldmann (Maureen Beattie), but Stephanie isn't interested in offers of help. As her beloved music falls silent, Stephanie must dig deep into her past to face an unknown future.

Tom Kempinski's moving and hopeful 1980 drama has triumphed in the West End and on Broadway, and was turned into a feature film starring Julie Andrews and Alan Bates.

Duet for One is at the Orange Tree Theatre from 11 February - 18 March. Book tickets here.

THE LEHMAN TRILOGY Leads our Top Ten Shows for February 4. Trouble in Butetown, Donmar Warehouse

Trouble In Butetown is an exciting world premiere by the award-winning playwright Diana Nneka Atuona, directed by Tinuke Craig.

In her illegal boarding house in Butetown, Cardiff, Gwyneth Mbanefo (Sarah Parish) toils tirelessly to keep afloat.

It's a port town during the war; home to souls from every corner of the globe. When Nate (BIFA winner Samuel Adewunmi), an African American GI, escapes his barracks and discovers this new world without segregation, can he find safe harbour in Tiger Bay? And with danger on every corner, who can he trust?

Trouble in Butetown is at Donmar Warehouse from 10 Feb - 25 March. Book tickets here.

5. Grenfell: System Failure, The Playground Theatre

Grenfell: System Failure asks further vital questions raised by the Grenfell Tower Inquiry since the critically acclaimed 2021 play Grenfell: Value Engineering.

Based entirely on the words of those involved in the final phase of the Inquiry, this new play interrogates why the testing regime failed to warn of the danger of installing inflammable materials, why manufacturers promoted such products with no regard to safety, why government regulations ignored the dangers and were not updated, and why politicians failed to ensure proper oversight. Through the testimonies of bereaved residents, it explores how they were failed by the London Fire Brigade on the night and abandoned by the Local Authority in the chaos of the fire's aftermath.

Grenfell: System Failure will tour to three West London venues: The Playground Theatre, The Tabernacle and the Marylebone Theatre, bringing the production closer to the communities affected by the tragedy than previously possible.

Grenfell: System Failure is at The Playground Theatre from 18 February - 25 February, The Tabernacle 27 February - 12 March and Marylebone Theatre 14 March - 26 March 2023. Book tickets here.

6. The Walworth Farce, Southwark Playhouse Elephant

This new revival of Enda Walsh's hilarious and shocking farce is the first major production to take place at Southwark Playhouse's brand-new venue at the Elephant Castle, sited, aptly, at the foot of the Walworth Road.

Holed up in a flat on the Walworth Road, Sean and Blake diligently recite their father Dinny's lines as they daily re-enact the moment they fled their home in Ireland. But today's performance is going to be different: Dinny's got a rage on because there's a sausage and Ryvita in place of the chicken dinner, Sean's head's not been in it since he came back from Tescos, and the three men are about to receive an unexpected visitor...

The Walworth Farce is at Southwark Playhouse Elephant from 17 Feb - 18 March. Book tickets here.

THE LEHMAN TRILOGY Leads our Top Ten Shows for February 7. Happy Meal, Brixton House

Fresh from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2022, Tabby Lamb's Happy Meal is a joyful queer rom-com where Millennial meets Gen Z and change is all around. Exhilaratingly staged by Roots and Theatre Royal Plymouth and directed by Jamie Fletcher in a Fringe First Award-winning production.

Billed as an online show in real life, we travel back to the quaint days of dial up and MSN, where you'll follow two strangers on their journeys to become who they always were.

A funny, moving and nostalgic story of transition.

Happy Meal is at Brixton House from 21 February - 11 March. Book tickets here.

8. OKLAHOMA!, Wyndham's Theatre

Forget what you think it is... this is Rodgers & Hammerstein's OKLAHOMA! as you've never seen it before - re-orchestrated and reimagined for the 21st century.

Winner of the Tony Award® for Best Musical Revival, Daniel Fish's bold interpretation recently enjoyed a sold-out run at the Young Vic following sold-out runs in New York and across the U.S. on tour.

OKLAHOMA! tells a story of a community banding together against an outsider, and the frontier life that shaped America. Eighty years after Rodgers & Hammerstein reinvented the American musical, this visionary production is funny and sexy, provocative and probing, without changing a word of the text.

As they say: the hype Is real, y'all!

OKLAHOMA! is at Wyndham's Theatre from 16 February - 2 September. Book tickets here.

THE LEHMAN TRILOGY Leads our Top Ten Shows for February 9. Romeo And Julie, National Theatre

A modern love story inspired by Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet comes to The National Theatre, starring Callum Scott Howells and Rosie Sheehy.

Romeo is a single dad hanging on tight. Julie is fighting to follow her dream of studying at Cambridge.

Two Welsh teens raised a few streets apart - but from entirely different worlds - crash into first love and are knocked off their feet. But at the crossroads to the rest of their lives, Julie's family fears the worst in a world of unequal opportunity.

Romeo And Julie is at The National Theatre from 14 February -1 April. Book tickets here.

10. Dance Me, Sadler's Wells

Dance Me is an exclusive creation inspired by the rich and profound work of Montreal-based poet, artist and songwriter, Leonard Cohen.

Approved by Cohen during his lifetime, and under the artistic direction of Louis Robitaille and the strong, bold dramaturgy of Eric Jean, this homage to the famed artist evokes the grand cycles of existence in five seasons, as described in Cohen's deeply reflective music and poems.

Three internationally renowned choreographers were entrusted with putting movement to Cohen's legendary songs: Andonis Foniadakis, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and Ihsan Rustem. Their powerful and profound choreographic world reflective of Cohen's singular work is brought to life by 14 BJM performing artists.

Dance Me is at Sadler's Wells from 7 - 14 February. Book tickets here.



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