London’s spring season strikes a nostalgic chord, as three landmark musicals return to the West End to mark milestone anniversaries. From raw 1970s rebellion to puppet-powered satire and a devastatingly intimate love story, these revivals prove that great theatre doesn’t date – it evolves.
Leading the charge is Teeth ‘N’ Smiles, revived for its 50th anniversary at the Duke of York’s Theatre (13 Mar-6 Jun). David Hare’s blistering play-with-music, first seen at the Royal Court Theatre in 1975, plunges into the wreckage of a once-radical rock band as idealism curdles into disillusionment.
At its centre is Maggie Frisby – a ferocious, self-destructive frontwoman whose voice refuses to go quietly. She is played by Rebecca Lucy Taylor, aka musician Self Esteem, who makes her West End play debut. With original music by Nick and Tony Bicât plus new material from Taylor herself, this revival aims to feel as urgent now as it did half a century ago. As Taylor says, she ‘can’t wait to slap you round the face with Maggie’.
A very different kind of anniversary celebration follows with Avenue Q, which arrives at the Shaftesbury Theatre (20 Mar-29 Aug) to mark 20 years since it was first performed in London. The three-time Tony Award-winning musical, famed for its Sesame Street-style puppets and gleefully adult humour, reunites much of its original Broadway creative team – including director Jason Moore and the original puppets.
Moore says it’s a chance to bring the musical ‘into this modern decade with tweaks and surprises that make the original show glisten with even more relevance and humour’. Packed with its trademark irreverence and unexpected warmth, this musical is a hilarious take on growing up, paying the bills and discovering that life rarely goes to plan.
Completing the trio is a strictly limited, concert-style revival of The Last Five Years at The London Palladium (24-29 Mar), celebrating 25 years of Jason Robert Brown’s modern classic. Tony, Grammy and Emmy Award winner Ben Platt stars opposite Hollywood star Rachel Zegler in a stripped-back staging conducted and directed by Brown himself.
Originally told through two intersecting timelines – one forwards, one in reverse – this achingly personal portrait of love and loss looks set to be as raw and intimate as ever.
Three anniversaries, three very different musicals – and a reminder that some shows still have plenty to sing about.
SAM ROGG
