November is when the Christmas shows move in and a run of autumn favourites moves out. Here are eleven West End and London shows to book for the month, from big openings to final performances.
Two things happen to London theatre in November. The festive season arrives, and several of the autumn's most talked-about runs reach their final week. This month brings plenty of both, so the list is split four ways: what opens, what closes, what is still worth the scramble for seats, and one pick for the family.
New this month
Pride reaches the Bridge Theatre on 12 November. The musical of the 2014 film tells how a group of London lesbian and gay activists raised money for a Welsh mining village during the 1984 strike, and it reunites the film's director and writer, Matthew Warchus and Stephen Beresford, after sold-out seasons at the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff and the National Theatre's Dorfman. Samuel Barnett leads the company. It is booking until 3 July 2027, with tickets from around £34, and our guide to Pride has the full cast.
The National Theatre's Christmas show is a new one this year. The Jungle Book, Anupama Chandrasekhar's adaptation of Kipling's stories, has its world premiere in the Olivier on 13 November, with Olivier winner Hiran Abeysekera as Mowgli. Indhu Rubasingham directs, and the animals are puppets by Finn Caldwell and Nick Barnes of Lume, the pair behind the tiger in Life of Pi. It runs until 6 February 2027, from around £30.
Anyone who has read David Nicholls' novel knows the trick: one couple, one date, revisited year after year. One Day keeps it and adds songs by Abner and Amanda Ramirez to a book by David Greig. Jamie Muscato and Sharon Rose, who created Dexter and Emma at the Royal Lyceum in Edinburgh, bring the musical to the Garrick Theatre from 17 November. It is booking until 14 March 2027, from around £36.
Caryl Churchill's Cloud 9 starts in colonial Africa in Victorian times and ends in 1970s London, and casts its seven actors across gender and across that century. Dominic Cooke's revival opens the month in the Lyttelton at the National Theatre on 2 November, with Sam Troughton, Charlotte Ritchie and Tom Mothersdale in the company. Until 13 January 2027, from around £30.
Tom Stoppard's Jumpers closes out the month. Blanche McIntyre's revival at Hampstead Theatre begins previews on 25 November, with James Corrigan as the philosopher George and Rhea Norwood as Dorothy: a murder, a marriage and a troupe of acrobatic academics. Press night is 7 December and the run ends on 23 January 2027, with tickets from around £30.
Last chance
Kimberly Akimbo was due to finish sooner. The European premiere at Hampstead Theatre added a week, and that week is now its last: the final performance is on Saturday 14 November. Maria Friedman plays a teenager who is ageing four times faster than everyone around her, in the musical by David Lindsay-Abaire and Jeanine Tesori that won five Tony Awards, Best Musical among them. From around £30.
Same date, very different evening. TRU also closes on 14 November at the Menier Chocolate Factory, where Jesse Tyler Ferguson plays Truman Capote alone in his New York apartment in December 1975, in Jay Presson Allen's 1989 play. The critics were close to unanimous about him, as our review roundup shows. From around £55.
The Globe's Much Ado About Nothing plays its final performance on 24 November. Chelsea Walker's production sends Beatrice and Benedick into battle once more while their friends scheme to pair them off.
Still the hottest tickets
Critics gave Into the Woods an average of 4.6 out of 5 when it moved from the Bridge to the Noël Coward Theatre this autumn, according to our roundup. Jordan Fein's Olivier-winning revival of the Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine musical has Kate Fleetwood back as the Witch, with John Dagleish and Laura Pitt-Pulford as the Baker and his Wife. It runs until 9 January 2027, from around £24.
Jesus Christ Superstar runs at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane until 9 January 2027. Tim Sheader's production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice rock opera has been handing Herod to a series of guest stars, and the last of them is Glenn Close, who takes the role for the final week, 4-9 January. Tickets from around £31.
Family pick
The Snowman is back at the Peacock Theatre, and it is not the show families remember. After 29 seasons of the old staging, Will Tuckett has rebuilt it from scratch, keeping Howard Blake's score and Walking in the Air. The story is told in dance and music rather than words, which suits the youngest audiences. It runs from 21 November to 3 January 2027, from around £22.
Planning further ahead? Our guides to West End shows closing soon and opening soon are updated every morning.
