Dog Man: The Musical is coming back to the Southbank Centre in London from 29 July - 15 August 2027, the final stop on a 20-venue UK tour that opens in Brighton in January.
Dog Man: The Musical returns to the Southbank Centre for summer 2027, running from 29 July - 15 August. Tickets for the London dates go on sale on 3 December 2026 at 10am. The musical, adapted from Dav Pilkey’s best-selling graphic novels and aimed at anyone aged five and up, spent last summer at the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall.
The London run closes a 2027 tour of 20 venues. It opens at Theatre Royal Brighton on 16-17 January and reaches the Everyman in Cheltenham on 2-4 July before heading to the capital. Most tour dates are on sale now. Leeds Playhouse is listed as on sale soon, and Cheltenham opens its booking on 23 October.
Four performers return to the company. Vanessa Dumatey plays Flippy; her credits include I’m Every Woman at the Hackney Empire and on tour, and The Tina Turner Musical at the Aldwych Theatre. Sam Kipling, whose credits include Les Misérables at the Sondheim Theatre and The Mikado at Wilton’s Music Hall and on tour, is Petey. Shannon Bourne (Becoming Nancy at Birmingham Rep, Stranger Sings on tour) covers Flippy and Li’l Petey. Robert Wilkes (La Traviata at the Royal Opera House, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on its UK and Ireland tour and at Leeds Playhouse) plays Dog Man and covers Petey. More casting is still to come.
The story is a show within a show. Best friends George and Harold, now ten, decide their comic-book hero deserves a musical. That hero is Dog Man, a police officer with a dog’s head, a weakness for chewing furniture and two villains to stop: Flippy, a cyborg fish leading an army of Beasty Buildings, and Petey, a cat who has cloned himself to get even. The boys also have to finish the show before lunchtime.
Kevin Del Aguila, a two-time Emmy winner for the PBS series Peg + Cat, wrote the book and lyrics, with music by Brad Alexander. Jen Wineman directs and choreographs. The original design team is Timothy R. Mackabee (set), Heidi Leigh Hanson (costumes), David Lander (lighting) and Emma Wilk (original sound), with orchestrations by Lloyd Kikoler. For the European premiere, Paul Herbert is musical director, Alison Pollard associate director and Pearson Casting handles casting.
The musical began in New York. First produced by TheaterWorksUSA, it opened off-Broadway at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in June 2019, extended its run, and came back to the city at New World Stages in March 2023. Pilkey’s books, launched in 2016, now have more than 70 million copies in print across 48 languages; a DreamWorks animated film followed in 2025, and the next title, A Sprinkle in Time, is published on 3 November.
The UK production comes from Roast Productions and Tilted, by special arrangement with TWTheatricals. Bristol Old Vic had already included the visit in its 2027 season.
The 2027 dates in full:
- 16-17 January: Theatre Royal Brighton, Brighton
- 22-24 January: Woking Theatre, Woking
- 28-30 January: Palace Theatre, Manchester
- 5-7 February: Anvil Arts, Basingstoke
- 12-14 February: Malvern Festival Theatre, Malvern
- 19-21 February: Storyhouse, Chester
- 26-28 February: Royal and Derngate, Northampton
- 5-7 March: Festival Theatre, Edinburgh
- 12-14 March: The Alhambra, Bradford
- 19-21 March: Waterside Theatre, Aylesbury
- 1-4 April: Rose Theatre, Kingston
- 30 April - 2 May: Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford
- 6-8 May: Leeds Playhouse, Leeds
- 14-16 May: Grand Theatre, Blackpool
- 30 May - 1 June: Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury
- 4-5 June: Mayflower Theatre, Southampton
- 11-13 June: Lichfield Garrick, Lichfield
- 24-27 June: Bristol Old Vic, Bristol
- 2-4 July: Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham
- 29 July - 15 August: Southbank Centre, London
For more information, visit the official website.
