Tom Stoppard's Jumpers returns to London for the first time in more than twenty years, with Rhea Norwood and James Corrigan leading Blanche McIntyre's revival at Hampstead Theatre from 25 November. Here is everything you need to know before you book.
Few modern comedies have been so admired and so seldom staged. Jumpers, which Tom Stoppard wrote in 1972, has been absent from the London stage for more than two decades, and Hampstead Theatre now gives it the seasonal Stoppard slot that has served the building so well. Blanche McIntyre directs, and the production runs on the Main Stage from Wednesday 25 November 2026 to Saturday 23 January 2027.
Who is starring in Jumpers?
Rhea Norwood plays Dorothy, the former musical star everyone calls Dotty, and James Corrigan plays her husband George, the philosopher labouring upstairs. Corrigan's credits include A Doll's House at the Almeida Theatre.
Tim McMullan is Archie, Jude Akuwudike is Crouch, Jason Thorpe is Inspector Bones and Scarlett Stitt plays the Secretary. McMullan's credits include Woman in Mind at the Duke of York's, the theatre that now bears Stoppard's own name; Akuwudike was part of the RSC company of Kyoto, and Thorpe is already known to Hampstead audiences from Fatherland. The acrobats of the title are Joshua Arkey, Alex Anthony Fevrier, Nick Godfrey, Alex Houston, Laura Kenyon, Ocean Navarro, Dominic Owen and Miguel Torres Umba. The full company was announced on 19 October.
Spotlight on Rhea Norwood
For a good part of the audience, Rhea Norwood will be the reason to look twice at a philosophical comedy written more than half a century ago. Norwood is best known from the Netflix series Heartstopper, and the stage credits include Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club; the credits also take in Pride and Prejudice. That musical-theatre grounding is not incidental here. Dotty is a star of musical comedy who has withdrawn from the world, a part written for a performer as much as for an actress, and it has to hold its own against a husband who talks in paragraphs. Casting from outside the familiar Stoppard company is a clear statement of intent, and a sensible one: it should bring a new audience to Jumpers, which has always rewarded those who come to it without reverence.
What is Jumpers about?
The Radical Liberals have won a landslide and Britain has just landed a man on the moon. George Moore, professor of moral philosophy, is sitting up late over a paper on whether man is good, bad or indifferent, and getting nowhere for the noise downstairs, where Dotty is throwing an election-night party with a band and a troupe of acrobats. He rings the police to complain, without giving his name. When officers arrive the next morning, it is not about the noise. One of the acrobats, a professor, was shot dead in the middle of the party; nobody saw who fired, and Dotty is the obvious suspect.
What follows is a murder mystery, a portrait of a marriage under strain and an argument about the existence of God, all conducted at full comic speed. The play was first staged by the National Theatre at the Old Vic in 1972 and won the Evening Standard Award for Best Play; reviewing that premiere in The Times, Irving Wardle found in it "more good lines a minute than any other modern comedy".
Who is behind the production?
Blanche McIntyre returns to Stoppard after directing The Invention of Love at Hampstead, part of the run of seasonal Stoppard revivals there, alongside Indian Ink, Rock 'n' Roll and Hapgood, that broke the theatre's box-office records. McIntyre's other Hampstead productions include Stage Kiss, The Assembled Parties and Letters from Max.
The design is by Robert Innes Hopkins, with lighting by Guy Hoare, sound by George Dennis, music by Tim Sutton and video by Ian William Galloway. Tim Claydon is movement and circus director, a credit that the play's gymnastic philosophers make essential rather than decorative. Casting is by Anna Cooper, and Jess Barton is assistant director. It is a Hampstead Theatre production.
When and where can I see it?
Jumpers runs on the Main Stage at Hampstead Theatre, on Eton Avenue in Swiss Cottage, from Wednesday 25 November 2026 to Saturday 23 January 2027, with press night on Monday 7 December 2026. Evening performances begin at 7.30pm, with 2.30pm matinees on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
A captioned performance follows on Wednesday 20 January 2027 at 7.30pm, and an audio-described matinee on Saturday 23 January 2027 at 2.30pm. Age guidance is 14+; the production contains nudity, sexual references, murder and an animal death. Several performances have already sold out. Tickets currently start at £30, with £10 tickets for under-30s and students, and Jumpers is booking now.
What else should I book if I like it?
- Cloud 9 at the National Theatre's Lyttelton, until 13 January 2027, is Caryl Churchill's 1979 comedy of empire, gender and desire, directed by Dominic Cooke: another restless classic from the same decade.
- Mother Russia at Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, from 11 December 2026 to 30 January 2027, is the UK premiere of Lauren Yee's comedy, with Lucy McCormick in the title role, a few steps from the Main Stage.
- Murder, She Didn't Write at the Duchess Theatre, on selected Monday nights until April 2027, is an improvised whodunnit built from the audience's suggestions, for anyone who prefers Stoppard's murder plot to his metaphysics.
- Speculations at the Marylebone Theatre, until 17 January 2027, is Torben Betts's new thriller, with Janie Dee as a reporter chasing the truth behind three famous deaths.
