Pride, the musical drawn from the friendship between London's gay and lesbian activists and a Welsh mining community in 1984, arrives at the Bridge Theatre next month with Samuel Barnett at the head of the company. Here is everything you need to know before you book.
It is the first production at the Bridge Theatre since Trafalgar Entertainment took over the 900-seat house beside Tower Bridge, and it comes with an unusual pedigree. Pride reunites the director and the writer of the 2014 film, Matthew Warchus and Stephen Beresford, and reaches London after sold-out seasons at the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff and in the National Theatre's Dorfman earlier this year.
Who is starring in Pride?
Samuel Barnett returns as Jonathan, and fourteen more of the company come back with him: Matthew Durkan (Mike), Gillian Elisa (Gwen), Daniel Forrester (Carl), Robin Hayward (Martin), Chris Jenkins (Gethin), Darren Lawrence (Cliff), Kirsty Malpass (Hefina), Madeleine Morgan (Debbie), Catherine Morris (Mrs Bromley), Sarah Pugh (Siân), Caroline Sheen (Maureen), Courtney Stapleton (Steph), Mared Williams (Margaret) and Matthew Woodyatt (Dai).
Four principals are new for the Bridge. Ryan Kopel, whose credits include Dear Evan Hansen, plays Mark, the young activist whose idea sets the story in motion. Dan Hand, from Oliver!, is Bromley; Grant Neal, from The Last Ship, plays Mr Bromley; and Carl Spencer, from Hamilton, is Reggie. The swings are Joe Boyle, Billy Cullum, Ben Heathcote, Sorelle Marsh and Shannon Quarini, who makes a professional debut, with Michael Larcombe as swing and assistant dance captain and Samantha Thomas as dance captain. The full company was confirmed this week.
Spotlight on Samuel Barnett
For many theatregoers Samuel Barnett will always be Posner, the role he created in the National Theatre premiere of Alan Bennett's The History Boys and then took to Broadway and on to the film. He has been involved with that play since its very first reading. The years since have been notably varied: Women Beware Women at the National; the Globe's all-male Twelfth Night and Richard III opposite Mark Rylance, which went from Bankside to the West End and then to Broadway, where he played Viola; Bennett's Allelujah! at the Bridge itself in 2018; and the one-man Feeling Afraid as If Something Terrible Is Going to Happen, first at the Edinburgh Fringe and then at the Bush. Television viewers know him from Penny Dreadful and as the lead in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. He played Jonathan at the National this year, and the transfer brings him back to a building he already knows, this time at the centre of Pride.
What is Pride about?
The story is true. In the summer of 1984, with the miners' strike under way, the activist Mark Ashton and a group of friends in London decide that one embattled community ought to stand with another, form Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, and begin raising money, which they decide to send directly to a small mining village in South Wales, and two worlds that have never had much to say to each other start, warily, to find common cause.
Stephen Beresford, who wrote the screenplay, has written the book and lyrics, and the score by Christopher Nightingale, Josh Cohen and DJ Walde draws on protest songs, pop, rock, disco and the Welsh choral tradition. The age guidance is 12+.
Who is behind the production?
Matthew Warchus directs; his West End record runs from Matilda The Musical to the Old Vic's annual A Christmas Carol, whose new season begins on the same day (we set out everything you need to know about it here). Bunny Christie designs the set and costumes, Lizzi Gee choreographs, Hugh Vanstone lights the show and Bobby Aitken designs the sound, with hair, wigs and make-up by Campbell Young Associates. Tom Kelly is music supervisor and orchestrator alongside Christopher Nightingale, with additional orchestrations by Josh Cohen and DJ Walde. Casting is by David Grindrod CDG CSA.
P&P Productions presents the transfer in association with the National Theatre, Pathé, Calamity Films and David Binder Productions, with Nia Janis as executive producer and Playful Productions as general manager. "A true story of hope that we need now more than ever," is how Matthew Warchus has described it.
When and where can I see it?
Pride runs at the Bridge Theatre, on the south bank by Tower Bridge, from Thursday 12 November 2026, with the opening night on Monday 23 November and booking currently until Saturday 3 July 2027. Evening performances are Monday to Saturday at 7.30pm, with matinees on Thursday and Saturday at 2.30pm, and the running time is 2 hours 40 minutes including one interval. Tickets currently start at £34.
Three access performances are scheduled, all at 7.30pm: captioned on Wednesday 3 February 2027, audio-described on Wednesday 10 February 2027 and signed on Wednesday 24 February 2027.
What else should I book if I like it?
- Billy Elliot: the other great musical of the 1984 strike, seen from a pit village in the North East, comes back to the West End at the Adelphi Theatre from Friday 12 February 2027.
- A Christmas Carol: Matthew Warchus again, with Christopher Nightingale, Hugh Vanstone and Lizzi Gee also on the team, at the Old Vic until Saturday 9 January 2027.
- Sylvia: Josh Cohen and DJ Walde's musical about the suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst, at the Royal Albert Hall on 13-15 November 2026.
- Operation Mincemeat: another home-grown musical built on an improbable true story, at the Fortune Theatre.
Pride is booking now at the Bridge Theatre until Saturday 3 July 2027.
