The History Boys is back. Nicholas Hytner's original National Theatre production of Alan Bennett's play opens at the Theatre Royal Haymarket on 10 April 2027 for 16 weeks.
Two decades after it last played the West End, The History Boys returns in the staging that made its name. Nicholas Hytner is reworking his own production of Alan Bennett's play for a limited run at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. Previews begin on Saturday 10 April 2027, opening night is Monday 19 April and the final performance is on 24 July.
Price is the headline: 20,000 tickets across the run will cost £25. The cast has not been named yet, with casting due in January 2027.
Bob Crowley is back as set designer, reuniting the creative partnership behind the 2004 original. The play premiered at the National Theatre that year, went on to the West End and Broadway, and picked up three Olivier Awards and six Tony Awards along the way. It also gave a generation of young actors their first big break.
Set in a Sheffield grammar school in the 1980s, it follows eight bright sixth-formers being coached for university entrance, pulled between teachers with very different ideas of what an education is for. Expect plenty of laughs alongside frank talk about sex, class and adolescence, and some pointed questions about who gets to write history.
"More than 20 years after it opened at the National Theatre, it's the right time to be bringing this great and much loved play back to the London stage," said Hytner. "My collaboration with Alan Bennett has been central to my creative life, and it's a delight to be back in the theatre with him again."
Bennett called it "one of the happiest plays I've written", adding: "I welcome its return under Nicholas Hytner."
The revival is presented by Brian & Dayna Lee, the producers of Giant in the West End and on Broadway, with Nicholas Hytner and Len Blavatnik & Danny Cohen for Access Entertainment. It is the latest project from the Lees and Hytner after The Standard of Living, which is currently playing the same theatre. Mark Rubinstein is executive producer, and general management is by Short Street Productions Ltd.
Tickets for The History Boys at the Theatre Royal Haymarket go on sale at 9am on Friday 23 October 2026.
