Catalyst Theatre’s Nevermore – The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe will play a limited London season at Charing Cross Theatre next summer, from 19 July to 9 October 2027.
The Canadian musical play Nevermore – The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe is coming to Charing Cross Theatre for a limited season in summer 2027. Tickets went on sale on Thursday 15 October 2026.
Jonathan Christenson, Artistic Director of Catalyst Theatre, is the show’s writer, composer and director, and Bretta Gerecke is its designer. Their subject is Poe himself: the piece sets the facts of his life beside invented episodes, songs and traces of the stories and poems he left behind, among them The Raven, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Fall of the House of Usher and The Pit and the Pendulum.
The action starts on a rainy night in Richmond, Virginia, as Poe takes a steamship north towards New York. He does not arrive. The voyage turns into a passage back through his ambitions, his loves and his bereavements, and ends with Poe realising that nothing he invented was as grim as the life he led.
Catalyst Theatre, based in Edmonton, Canada, created the show. It has since toured Canada and played internationally, including a London visit to the Barbican for the London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT). In 2015 it ran Off-Broadway at New World Stages in New York, where it received three Lucille Lortel Award nominations, Outstanding Musical among them.
M. Kilburg Reedy, who produced that Off-Broadway run, said: “I first produced Nevermore Off-Broadway in 2015, so it’s wonderful to be returning to the piece and bringing it to Charing Cross Theatre. Nevermore has been called ‘haunting’ and it’s fair to say that I have been ‘haunted’ by Jonathan’s singular creation – a musical play that is visually stunning, deeply theatrical and full of wit and darkness, the layers of which have only deepened through his continued work over the years. I’m very excited for London audiences to see this best-ever version of the show in 2027 and, as a co-producer of Come From Away, I’m especially proud to be bringing another extraordinary Canadian musical to the London stage.”
Christenson said: “Edgar Allan Poe turned his own tortured life into some of the most macabre stories and poems ever written and it’s this intriguing relationship between his life and his work that inspired Nevermore. Blurring the lines between history, memory and imagination, Nevermore uses poetic text, expressive movement, haunting music and whimsical design to get under the skin of a man who remains an irresistible mystery. I’m thrilled that we’ll be sharing that mystery with London audiences at Charing Cross Theatre.”
Alongside Christenson and Gerecke, the creative team includes choreographer Laura Krewski, sound effects designer Wade Staples and sound designer Andrew Johnson, with Neil Rutherford handling London casting. Christenson wrote the orchestrations with Matthew Skopyk.
The London season is produced by M. Kilburg Reedy for MKR Entertainment Group Ltd, Martin Hummel, Rose Caiola for Caiola Productions, and Catalyst Theatre. The London cast will be chosen in spring 2027 and announced after that.
Nevermore is booking now at Charing Cross Theatre, with performances from Monday 19 July to Saturday 9 October 2027 and press night on Tuesday 27 July 2027.
