August is, as ever, a quiet month for London theatre, with theatremakers distracted by the summer holidays or the action north of the border at the Edinburgh Fringe (see our preview recommendations here). However: this is London! There’s still bloody loads of great stuff opening in theatreland! And here’s our guide to the best of it.
Family and outdoor shows dominate: it is, after all, the month of the school holidays and the peak of the outdoor theatre season. There’s no doubt that the first ever UK revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre is the biggest deal, but there’s plenty more besides, from the stage debut of the extremely silly kids’ graphic novels Dog Man, to the spectacular outdoor wonderments of the returning Greenwich + Docklands International Festival.
The best new London theatre in August 2026
1. Cats
The last time we saw Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats it was via the fever dream of butt-holed furry homunculi that was the cat-astrophic 2019 film version. It’s had a happier last few years, with immersive US adaptation Cats: The Jellicle Ball a critical hit on Broadway. And now here comes the second-ever UK production, the first after the original 1981 version that ran in the West End for over two decades. Open Air Theatre boss Drew McOnie directs a fresh take on the lovable adaptation of TS Eliot’s feline-centric kids’ poetry. While it’s hard to imagine it’ll be a total reinvention of the wheel, it’ll doubtless feel fresher than the legwarmer-tastic original.
Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, until Sep 12. Buy tickets here.
2. Greenwich + Docklands International Festival
If the end of the London summer is a bittersweet affair then the Greenwich + Docklands International Festival is the perfect way to say goodbye to it, a three-week-long feast of spectacular (and free!) outdoor international theatre from around the globe. There are too many highlights to neatly pick out, but the obvious showstopper is Efectos Especiales from Argentina (pictured, Aug 29 and 30) which creates a stunning action movie – complete with weather, vehicles, the works – and thrusts you headlong into it.
Multiple venues, Aug 21-Sep 6.
3. Death Note the Musical
Since the pandemic, the Barbican has staged a single big musical per summer. But this year it’s doing something a little different with two wildly contrasting ones. We’ve already had the comforting old-school High Society. Now it’s time for something totally different: an all-singing adaptation of the Japanese anime about a boy who is given a notebook that kills anyone whose name is written in it, with far-reaching consequences for the future of humanity.
Barbican Centre, Jul 30-Sep 12. Buy tickets here.
4. How the Other Half Loves
Matthew Warchus’s slightly wayward goodbye season at the Old Vic – which is being drip-fed a show at a time – gives us a rare August opening at the venerable theatre, as Roger Allam and Dorothy Atkinson star in a major revival of Alan Ayckbourn’s dazzling early comedy about two married people having an affair whose attempts to enlist a third couple as an alibi to their spouses cause absolute chaos.
Old Vic, Jul 29-Sep 19. Buy tickets here.
5. Dog Man: The Musical
Dav Pilkey’s deliberately silly kids’ graphic novels about the wacky escapades of a policeman who has his head replaced by that of a dog are either something you know about because you have kids or something you don’t need to worry your pretty little child-free head about. If you fall into the former camp, this plucky transferring off-Broadway musical sounds like it’s a real hoot, and while you shouldn’t be expecting a massive budget, it should be the must-see kids’ show of the summer.
Queen Elizabeth Hall, Jul 29-Aug 16. Buy tickets here.
6. Now You See Me Live
This stage spectacular isn’t actually a true adaptation of the Jesse Eisenberg-led trio of films about grungy crime-fighting magicians. Rather, it’s a massive-scale internationally touring magic show that uses the Now You See Me IP to cast its performers as members of ‘The Horsemen’, the loose collective of mages the series centres on. Expect chic illusions and jaw-dropping feats performed by slightly awkward people fetchingly clad in black. It’s also billed as a family show that’s suitable for ages five and above.
London Coliseum, Jul 31-Sep 6. Buy tickets here.
7. As You Like It
Traditionally Shakespeare’s Globe tends to end its outdoor summer seasons with a more ‘challenging’ show, either a new play or one of Shakespeare’s deep cuts, with a shorter run that means reduced commercial pressure. This year it’s beloved forest-set mistaken-identity comedy As You Like It, and while it may be that Globe top brass have decided they just want to put bums on seats, the odds are reasonably strong that this production from Sean Holmes and Charlie Josephine – who also stars as Orlando – is actually going to be pretty weird if their previous works are anything to go by.
Shakespeare’s Globe, Aug 14-Oct 25. Buy tickets here.
8. A Slow Fire
A giant of the ’00s and ’10s, playwright Simon Stephens has of late largely devoted himself to splashy adaptations of the classics, with West End and Broadway hit Vanya and imminent Ian McKellen collaboration Lear. It’s a treat to get an actual bona fide new Simon Stephens play, though: A Slow Fire is a post-apocalyptic three-hander set in a ‘bunker at the edge of an imaginary city’. The production was first staged in Dublin and now transfers over here.
Jermyn Street Theatre, Aug 20-Sep 26.
9. I’m Every Woman: The Chaka Khan Musical
This musical based on the life and songs of the iconic singer Chaka Khan was supposed to open at the Peacock Theatre earlier this year but got stiffed by problems with the venue. Now it reemerges seemingly unscathed at the Troubadour in Wembley Park, with X-Factor winner Alexandra Burke playing Khan in a show that’ll be packed with her hits, from ‘Ain’t Nobody’ to ‘I’m Every Woman’, but also focus on her early life and affiliation with the Black Panther party.
Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre, until Sep 27. Buy tickets here.
10. Love’s Labour’s Lost/Much Ado About Nothing
It’s a weirdly massive summer for Shakespeare’s usually obscure Love’s Labour’s Lost: there have been three major productions in London! The last of those comes with this intriguing outdoor rep season from the Orange Tree Theatre, which has decamped to the grounds of Thomas’ College while the theatre is closed for a refurb. Tom Littler’s brace of productions explore the theory that Much Ado was at one stage intended as a sequel to Love’s Labour’s Lost, called Love’s Labour’s Won. Though you can watch them individually no worries, the pair follow the same characters, and are set in the same English country house on either side of the Second World War.
Thomas’ College (Richmond), Jul 31-Aug 22.
The best new London theatre shows to book for in 2026.
Plus: the Donmar Warehouse has announced its 2026 winter season.
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