December on the London Stage: Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Kate Fleetwood Goes Into the Woods, Oh, Mary! Lands

The festive season is fast approaching, and with it comes the usual cavalcade of openings keen to get in before the holidays proper: just think of the numerous prospects for tickets as presents! Among the bustling lineup on tap are Fallen Angels, a Noël Coward play that will receive a separate New York production on Broadway next spring and the latest from Mischief Theatre’s “goes wrong” stable—this one bearing the seasonal title, Christmas Carol Goes Wrong. Among the many other shows jockeying for position is the heady quintet that follows below.

Tiger Country
Rajiv Joseph’s Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo provided a rare Broadway outing in 2011 for the late Robin Williams, playing the Tiger of the title. That role is now being taken in the director Omar Elerian’s Young Vic production of the play by two-time Tony nominee David Threlfall, who heads a cast that includes Arinzé Kene (Misty) and the splendid Syrian actor Ammar Haj Ahmad (The Jungle). Opening night is December 9. “I like the business of transformation and pretend,” the expert Threlfall told Broadway.com of the necessity indicated in the script that the tiger be played without any funny feline business. (This isn’t Cats.) “I sort of remember Robin being onstage doing some interesting, odd play,” Threlfall said of his prior awareness of the title. “It’s one of the shames of life that [Williams] is not with us anymore.” As for the relevance of a play set in the aftermath of the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, Joseph’s writing, said its star, “sadly still has a resonance today about the awful business of war; things haven’t changed.”

Words, Not Music
Playwright Michael McKeever had an off-West End success earlier this fall with his unexpectedly biting The Code, starring Tracie Bennett as Tallulah Bankhead, and is represented anew by the U.K. premiere of his 2017 off-Broadway play Daniel’s Husband, opening December 9 at the Marylebone Theatre and directed by Alan Souza. A notably name-heavy cast includes Cabaret’s onetime Fraulein Schneider, Liza Sadovy, Cock alumnus Joel Harper-Jackson and three-time Olivier winner David Bedella, who last year spent five months on Broadway in & Juliet. On this occasion, the musicals veteran was sounding pleased to be shifting his energies to a play. “It’s such a pleasure not to have to wake up and test my voice first thing in the morning to see how much is there.” As for the appeal of this look at the rocky terrain of relationships, Bedella told Broadway.com that he first read the script in three hours—a process that often takes him several days. “I couldn’t see the pages, I was crying so hard. It’s just a moving and brilliant piece of theater.”

No One Is Alone
The Bridge Theatre follows up its long-running success with Guys and Dolls with their second-ever musical and first Sondheim: a star-packed revival of Into the Woods, starring 2008 Tony nominee Kate Fleetwood (Macbeth, 101 Dalmatians) as the Witch and two-time Olivier award winner Katie Brayben as the Baker’s Wife. The recent alternate Eva Peron in Evita, Bella Brown, is on hand as Rapunzel. “Even saying it sort of surprises me that I’m lucky enough to get to direct Into the Woods at this level with this creative team at this theater with this cast,” said the show’s impassioned director Jordan Fein, the American expat whose gorgeous revival of Fiddler on the Roof won three Oliviers this past April. Fein himself played the Baker back in the day—2017 Olivier winner Jamie Parker has that role here—and directed the show while a student at NYU. This time around, he said, “it’s definitely a completely fresh thing. To be working on a piece that was so formative for me at a young age and that continues to be part of my life is quite special.” Opening night is December 11.

Marry Me a Little
J.B. Priestley’s 1938 comedy When We Are Married is a perennial favorite and has over the years attracted the likes of Dawn French, Maureen Lipman and the late, great Patricia Routledge. This portrait of three couples thrown into crisis now comes to the Donmar, directed by Tim Sheader and opening December 17. The current cast is headed by Samantha Spiro, Siobhan Finneran and Sophie Thompson. “She’s not the most satisfied person,” Spiro said of Clara Soppitt, the nag who is among those none too keen to discover that her marriage of 25 years may be invalid. By comparison, the performer herself is thrilled to be back where she played Mary Flynn in Merrily We Roll Along 25 years ago, leading to the first of her two Olivier Awards. “It’s like a gift,” she said of the shape of a career that has swung between musicals to plays and back again. “I’m loving acting as much or more than I ever have. Long may it continue.”

‘Mary’ Me a Lot
Oh, Mary! remains an extraordinary Cinderella story on Broadway. This month it reaches the West End, once again directed by 2025 Tony winner Sam Pinkleton and here starring the American non-binary performer Mason Alexander Park (Cabaret) in writer Cole Escola’s star-making role as Mary Todd Lincoln. Opening night is December 18 at the Trafalgar Theatre. “I feel like every step of this show has been, ‘Really, are you sure?’” a clearly delighted Pinkleton said to Broadway.com with regard to the ongoing trajectory of this unexpected smash. Relaunching the play in the West End, with a cast including onetime Hamilton lead Giles Terera as Mary’s Husband (a.k.a. Abe), has felt “like starting over in the best possible way. Part of the fun is getting to begin from zero and not making this a copy.” What has Pinkleton learned over time about the presidential first lady of the title? Very little, he explained with a laugh: “When Cole and I first started working on this, I bought a book online about her but it never got delivered—so I didn’t know a thing about Mary and luckily, I still don’t.”