From feel-good musicals and gripping dramas to murder mysteries and comedy classics, our theatre reviewer picks 10 of the best shows touring the country this autumn.
Top-quality productions aren’t only available to theatregoers in London, they’re also a mainstay on the touring circuit.
These are the best musicals and plays that are making their way around the UK and Ireland now and in the coming months.
Welcome to The Jungle – a pub where a group of blokes converge for a singalong to everything from Guns N’ Roses to Luther Vandross via The Impossible Dream and Escape (The Piña Colada song).
Grab a pint at the onstage bar before the show (which is touring the country before a return to the capital in time for Christmas), then settle in for an always rousing, often raucous and sometimes deeply moving show that’s much more than mere karaoke.
It’s also an exploration of friendship and mental health as well as a salute to a great British institution.
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An exuberant Helen George heads the cast of this Cole Porter classic as Long Island socialite Tracy Lord. The role was made famous on screen by Grace Kelly but George very much makes it her own.
Also in the cast are Julian Ovenden, in fine voice as Tracy’s former flame who sails into town to upset her wedding plans, and Freddie Fox, who has an absolute ball in his musical theatre debut as undercover reporter Dexter.
The plot is thinner than a chiffon scarf but the show fizzes with the effervescence of the finest champagne and every Porter tune is a gem.
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Now in its 75th year in the West End, Agatha Christie’s legendary whodunnit is celebrating the landmark with a 2026-2027 anniversary tour.
Seven strangers find themselves holed up at Monkswell Manor guesthouse in atmospherically wintry weather, as a detective arrives to reveal that there’s a murderer in their midst.
Theatregoers are urged to keep the big reveal under wraps after they exit and, surprisingly in this social media age, most people still do. It would certainly be a shame to spoil it as it has such a typically cunning Christie conceit that you would never see it coming.
As cantankerous orphanage owner Miss Hannigan, Claire Sweeney is on top comedic form in this revival of the much-loved musical about Little Orphan Annie and her cheering rise from rags to riches.
Sophia Saravanan, June Young and Victoria Alsina share the title role in a Nikolai Foster-directed production that’s full of energy as well as great songs such as It’s A Hard Knock Life, Tomorrow, You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile and Little Girls, the latter of which Sweeney tears into with show-stealing gusto.
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Former Coronation Street stars Gray O’Brien and Bill Ward trade the cobbles for the courthouse in the return of Reginald Rose’s riveting drama. They’re among the dozen jury members tasked with deciding the fate of a young delinquent who’s been accused of killing his own father in what appears to be an open-and-shut case but turns out to be far from straightforward.
Written by Rose in the 1950s, the play is tense and claustrophobic, and its themes of prejudice and bigotry sadly feel just as timely today.
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If laughter is the best medicine then Paul Hendy’s cracking comedy about an imagined meeting between Eric Morecambe, Tommy Cooper and Bob Monkhouse in a backstage dressing room is the cure for many ills.
It’s a breezy run-through of these comedy titans’ greatest hits, catchphrases and schtick, with uncannily accurate performances by Steve Royle as Eric, Damian Williams as Tommy and Simon Cartwright as Bob.
There are poignant moments but writer Hendy is thankfully more interested in tears of laughter than delving too deeply into the sadness behind the clowns’ masks.
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Talking of uncannily accurate performances, Luke Baker as Frankie Valli hits every falsetto note and channels the 1960s pop idol’s stoic determination in this brilliant bio-musical about the Jersey-born singer and his Four Seasons sidekicks’ rise to worldwide fame.
The cracking songs come thick and fast but, as written by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, the show is more than just a hit-packed jukebox musical – it’s a warts-and-all saga featuring Mob connections, personal tragedies and a young whippersnapper named Joe Pesci’s surprising part in the story.
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Terence Rattigan and John Gielgud’s distillation of the Charles Dickens tome took a long time to reach the stage. They wrote it in 1935 but Gielgud cancelled the production to avoid competing with another adaptation and it wasn’t put on in a theatre until 2013.
Now it’s back with a tour that begins at the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury, with director Michael Fentiman promising a version honouring “the richness of the original while creating a staging that vibrates with all of the excitement and invention of the modern theatre”.
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Shirley Jackson’s spine-chilling 1959 novel provided the basis for a brilliant 1963 film, a woeful 1999 remake and a so-so 2018 Netflix TV series. Now Stef Smith’s stage adaptation promises to scare the bejeezus out of audiences as a bunch of paranormal investigators fetch up at the titular mansion and encounter all manner of unexplainable goings-on.
Jasper Britton and Jemma Churchill head a cast of seasoned theatre actors under the direction of Martin Constantine.
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Willy Russell’s musical about a single mum in Liverpool who gives up one of her children with ultimately tragic results wasn’t old-fashioned when it premiered in 1983 – in fact, it was groundbreaking in its depiction of working-class struggles.
Now it feels more like a period piece but it still sings with heart and humour, and its closing number, Tell Me It’s Not True, remains an almighty tug at the tear ducts. Barbara Dickson was the original Mrs. Johnstone and Vivienne Carlyle is a worthy successor.
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