London Datebook: Feast on Classics with Kenneth Branagh & Say Farewell to Imelda Staunton's Turn in Gypsy

The nights are drawing in, so all the better reason to feast on a month that sees a Broadway classic (the acclaimed revival of Gypsy) enter its final weeks even as another Broadway entry (Elf) opens for the holiday season. That, plus Shakespeare at every turn, Sir Richard Eyre directing Ibsen, and Sex and the City's Kim Cattrall back once more on the London stage.

NOVEMBER 2-8
Sir Ken's Season: Five-time Oscar nominee Kenneth Branagh launches his yearlong residency at the Garrick Theatre on November 7 with a daylong opening first of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, with a supporting cast headed by the venerable Judi Dench, and then a Terence Rattigan double bill that includes the 1948 backstage comedy Harlequinade and with a cast headed by Branagh and Zoe Wanamaker. Broadway's own Rob Ashford is on hand as co-director.

Also: Ben Forster, Jessica Martin and Joe McGann star in the West End version of Broadway's popular Elf, opening November 5 at the Dominion Theatre in time for the holiday trade.

NOVEMBER 9-15
Waste Not, Want Not: One of the great plays of the early part of the last century gets a major revival when film director Roger Michell (Notting Hill, Changing Lanes) returns to his stage roots to direct the National Theatre revival of Harley Granville Barker's Waste. A story of scandal among the political elite of 1920s England, this production stars Charles Edwards and Olivia Williams and opens November 10 in the Lyttelton auditorium.

Also: Final performance November 14 at the Young Vic of Joe Hill-Gibbins' freewheeling production of Measure for Measure, Shakespeare's play here including inflatable dolls and film and stage star Romola Garai as the anguished Isabella. Calling it quits the same night on the Royal Court mainstage is American director Rachel Chavkin's touring production of RoosevElvis, a two-hander first seen in March, 2013, at the Bushwick Starr in Brooklyn.

NOVEMBER 16-22 Unto the Breach: First full opening week at the Barbican of the latest Royal Shakespeare Company staging of Shakespeare's fiery Henry V, a play that launched the career of a very young Branagh some 30 years ago. The English king is played this time around by the fast-rising Alex Hassell, last seen on the West End playing Biff to Antony Sher's Willy Loman in director Gregory Doran's expert RSC revival of Death of a Salesman.

Also: Final performance November 21 at the St. James Theatre of Pig Farm, the off-Broadway play from Tony winner Greg Koris (Urinetown) here starring Charlotte Parry and The Twilight Saga's Erik Odom. The same day sees the end of Richard Jones's ambitious Old Vic Theatre revival of Eugene O'Neill's expressionist classic The Hairy Ape, with Tony nominee Bertie Carvel (Matilda) transforming himself yet again to play the rabidly masculine Yank.

NOVEMBER 23-29
Goodbye to Blueberry Pie: Imelda Staunton sings her final "Rose's Turn" on November 28 at the Savoy Theatre in a star turn that many have ranked among the finest musical theater performances ever. Luckily, Jonathan Kent's revival of Gypsy exists on CD and has also been recorded for broadcast on TV, so its power will linger on well after Staunton has given her lungs a deserved rest.

Also: The National Theatre's former artistic director Richard Eyre returns to north London's Almeida Theatre to direct Ibsen's little-known play Little Eyolf, with Jolyon Coy and Tony nominee Lydia Leonard (Wolf Hall) leading the cast. Performances start November 25 for Kim Cattrall's return to the London stage in Linda, written by Penelope Skinner and directed by Michael Longhurst.