Matthew Perry's Longing, Adrian Lester in Red Velvet & More in the London Datebook

February is a busy month for American accents in London, with multiple Broadway titles emerging on the scene alongside a bevy of stars that includes a TV favorite (Matthew Perry), a two-time Olivier Award winner (Janie Dee) and Tony winner (Tom Conti) back on the London stage. For more on these and other offerings, read on.

FEBRUARY 1-7
Seeing Red: The much-laureled Adrian Lester brings his wife Lolita Chakrabarti’s play Red Velvet to the West End, under the banner of Kenneth Branagh’s theater company, opening February 1 at the Garrick Theatre. The director is Indhu Rubasingham, who since this play’s previous London outing directed last summer’s National Theatre premiere of The Motherf**ker with the Hat.

Also: Fresh on the heels of Branagh’s since-closed The Winter’s Tale, with Dame Judi Dench, along comes the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe with its own production of the same late-career play about forgiveness and wonder. John Light and Rachael Stirling head the cast. The director is Michael Longhurst, who staged the glorious Constellations on Broadway last year. Opening night is February 4.

FEBRUARY 8-14
You’ve Got a Friend: TV’s Chandler Bing, otherwise known as Matthew Perry, returns to the West End for the first time since 2003, this time as the star of his own play The End of Longing, directed by Lindsay Posner and co-starring Lloyd Owen and American performer Jennifer Mudge, late of Fiasco Theatre’s Into the Woods. Opening night is February 11.

Also: The busy Michael Longhurst returns to the London stage on February 8 with his production of Joshua Harmon’s off-Broadway hit Bad Jews, this time to the Theatre Royal, Haymarket and with Ilan Goodman (son of Henry) once again in the male lead. First full post-opening week of the National Theatre revival of the seminal August Wilson play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom; Dominic Cooke directs a cast headed by Olivier winner Sharon D. Clarke (Ghost the Musical) as Ma Rainey.

FEBRUARY 15-21
Sock it to ‘Em: The sock puppet that made a Broadway sensation of Robert Askins’ explosive Hand to God have a West End perch at the Vaudeville Theatre, opening February 15 with Janie Dee and Neil Pearson among the cast. Harry Melling, better known as Harry Potter’s Dudley Dursley, plays the dual parts for which Steven Boyer was a 2015 Tony nominee.

Also: First full week of previews at the Shaftesbury Theatre of the West End premiere of Motown the Musical, starring Lucy St. Louis as Diana Ross and Cedric Neal as Motown founder Berry Gordy. Simon McBurney’s solo play about the Amazon rainforest, The Encounter, was the sensation of last summer’s Edinburgh Festival and transfers for a limited London run opening February 16 at the Barbican.

FEBRUARY 22-28
Life with Father: Kenneth Cranham brings his much-lauded performance as the mentally ailing patriarch of Florian Zeller’s The Father back to the West End, this time for a five-week run at the Duke of York’s starting February 24 prior to a U.K. tour. James Macdonald’s production will no longer feature Claire Skinner as Cranham’s daughter: she has gone on to lead the concurrent Hampstead Theatre premiere of David Lindsay-Abaire’s Pulitzer prize-winning play, Rabbit Hole.

Also: Graham Butler, a onetime Christopher in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, joins Olivier winner Michelle Terry in the National Theatre revival of Sarah Kane’s 1998 play Cleansed opening on February 23. Tony winner Tom Conti joins Laurence Fox in the Park Theatre premiere The Patriotic Traitor, written and directed by Jonathan Lynn. Opening is set for February 25.