London Datebook: Kristin Scott Thomas Reigns, Jonathan Groff Goes Corporate & The Elephant Man Comes Home

The sun is shining and as if to celebrate, the Dames are coming out to play on London stages this month. Fold in a musical theater favorite turning her attentions to Alan Ayckbourn and a former Lady Macbeth shifting gears in the direction of Cole Porter and you have a lineup that truly does offer something for everyone.

MAY 4-10
The Queen, Part 2: Where one Dame has led, can a second be far behind? Evidently not, what with Kristin Scott Thomas currently starring as Elizabeth II in a fresh London run of Peter Morgan’s play The Audience, while Olivier winner and newly crowned Tony nominee Helen Mirren continues on with the same play in New York. Nicholas Woodeson plays Harold Wilson—the role that brought an Olivier win and Tony nod to Richard McCabe—and opening night is May 5.

ALSO: The London premiere of cult favorite Carrie the Musical opens May 6 at Southwark Playhouse, with Evelyn Hoskins in the title role and UK-based American Kim Criswell as her maniacal mama. Last performance May 7 at the Donmar Warehouse of The Vote, a play pegged to the British elections that take place that very same night: James Graham, currently represented on Broadway with the book for Finding Neverland, is the author of a large-cast event that includes Judi Dench (another Dame!) and her daughter, Finty Williams.

MAY 11-17
A Swell Party: Kate Fleetwood was a 2008 Tony nominee for her Lady Macbeth opposite a murderous Patrick Stewart, and in the fall she will play the title role in Medea at north London’s Almeida Theatre. In between, the versatile performer will show her musical theater chops as socialite Tracy Lord in director Maria Friedman’s staging of the Cole Porter classic High Society, opening May 14 at the Old Vic. Jamie Parker, late of Assassins at the Menier, heads the supporting cast.

ALSO: The wonderful Rachel Tucker may have been overlooked for a Tony nod for her stirring Broadway turn in The Last Ship, but can be found alongside Lucy Briggs-Owen (Shakespeare in Love) and David Bamber (Harvey) in the Menier Chocolate Factory revival of Alan Ayckbourn’s Communicating Doors, opening May 13. Last performance May 17 of Ralph Fiennes’ bravura performance as Jack Tanner in the National Theatre’s epic staging of Shaw’s Man and Superman.

MAY 18-24
Tony Trio: Bradley Cooper, Alessandro Nivola and Patricia Clarkson all nabbed Tony nods for their now-completed Broadway run in The Elephant Man, and here the Scott Ellis-directed revival is heading to London’s Theatre Royal, Haymarket, so that Cooper can bring his performance as John Merrick in glory to the city where the play premiered. Previews begin May 19.

ALSO: Concert performances of Broadway classics are becoming a big London thing. And with the memory of the Albert Hall’s Follies still fresh in Londoners’ minds, May 19 sees a one-off concert version at the Royal Festival Hall of Frank Loesser’s How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. The starry cast is headed by Jonathan Groff as J. Pierrepont Finch alongside Hannah Waddingham, Cynthia Erivo, and Clive Rowe; Jonathan Butterell directs.

MAY 25-31
Going it Alone: Jim Dale’s solo show about his distinguished career both sides of the Atlantic delighted New York playgoers last summer and now Just Jim Dale pitches up on the West End, opening May 28 at the Vaudeville Theatre and bringing the Tony-winning star of Barnum back to his home country.

ALSO: May 30 marks the final performance of Bad Jews in the West End, the Joshua Harmon play featuring American actress Jenna Augen in a breakout performance as Daphna. The same night sees the first preview of A Damsel in Distress at the Chichester Festival Theatre south of London, directed and choreographed by Rob Ashford to the music of (who else?) George and Ira Gershwin. Richard Fleeshman, Summer Strallen, and The Last Ship's Sally Ann Triplett head the cast.