May on the London Stage: 1536, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, Jinkx Monsoon as Judy Garland & More

Spring is truly in the London air, and with it has come an uptick in openings big and small. The titles embrace the familiar and the unknown, adaptations of films alongside an off-Broadway play rooted in a love of the stage. For more on the offerings on view over the next month, read on.

Tudor Trio
1536 has been all but unstoppable over the past year, scooping up nominations and prizes aplenty for its author Ava Pickett and now transferring for a commercial run to the Ambassadors Theatre. Opening night is May 13, and the original trio of women (Siena Kelly, Liv Hill and Tanya Reynolds) are on board for the West End. Set in Tudor England in the aftermath of the execution of Anne Boleyn, the play, Kelly told Broadway.com, is “really really relatable: Ava has managed to capture friendship—particularly female friendship—really well, and I find that exciting to see.” As for Kelly’s continued commitment to the stage despite gathering acclaim in TV shows like Black Mirror, the clearly enthused actress knows what she wants: “I love collaboration, which I don’t think people get to do onscreen. Theater is how I grew up, and it’s what I’m best at, I think.” 

Wind Beneath Their Wings
New British musicals are to be encouraged, and few come as widely anticipated as The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, which follows on from the 2019 film of the same name and opens May 14 at @sohoplace after bowing earlier this year under the auspices of the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon. The source is William Kamkwamba’s 2009 memoir (co-written with Bryan Mealer) about growing up amid famine conditions in Malawi, where he built a salvific wind turbine at age 13. “It’s not often that one gets to be the custodian of a story that has such a reach to it,” the show’s impassioned composer-lyricist, Tim Sutton, told Broadway.com. “For me as a songwriter, this is an opportunity to speak from the heart and put my best foot forward; I’m as proud of this, if not more so, than anything else I’ve ever created.”

Kiss and Tell
Stage Kiss was acclaimed off-Broadway a decade ago, and here Sarah Ruhl’s play is anew, at the same venue (the Hampstead Theatre) that last year hosted the U.K. premiere of her play Letters from Max. Both productions are under the expert eye of director Blanche McIntyre. A two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, Ruhl is also the author of Eurydice and Dead Man’s Cell Phone. How does she describe this play, regarded as one of her frothiest? “It’s my love letter to the theater,” an immediately warm Ruhl told Broadway.com with regard to her script’s play-within-a-play structure, “and I adore my job so much that my delight must partly account for the joy in the play, and the levity, too.” MyAnna Buring takes on the role originated in New York by Jessica Hecht, and May 14 is opening night. 

Horse Play
Peter Shaffer’s era-defining Equus was important to my own theatrical education on Broadway back in the day and is being revived afresh at the Menier Chocolate Factory, opening May 18 and directed by Lindsay Posner. Toby Stephens stars as Dr. Dysart, the emotionally reined-in psychiatrist, opposite newcomer Noah Valentine as his anguished patient, Alan, a stable boy who has blinded six horses with a metal spike. “I’ve tried to take it in my stride,” a keenly spoken Valentine, who turns 24 in June, said of this opportunity, adding that the play's “themes are so mature, I don’t think I would have been able to do this at 17”—Alan’s age in the play. “I feel like I’m in really good hands,” Valentine said of his second-ever professional stage gig. “It’s been nerve-wracking but I’m trying to take it in my stride.”

Somewhere, Over in Walthamstow
End of the Rainbow, Peter Quilter’s play with music, has traveled extensively since its Australian premiere in 2005, including stints in London and on Broadway that resulted in Olivier and Tony nods for Tracie Bennett’s seismic performance as Judy Garland. Jinkx Monsoon has inherited that iconic role for Rupert Hands’ upcoming revival, opening May 21 at Soho Theatre’s additional space in Walthamstow, East London. The protean Monsoon told Broadway.com that she was “very very flattered” to be offered the part: “I don’t think I’m the best singer in the world, but I feel confident in my ability to tell a story through song, and Judy’s strength was not just a masterful musicality, but she knew how to effectively communicate to an audience.” What’s more, Monsoon added, Garland’s tragic tale is no less relevant to the here and now: “You don’t have to think hard to find other women torn apart by society. We haven’t learned our lesson; it still happens today.”

Cliff Notes
The stage musical of the seminal 1972 film The Harder They Come played off-Broadway’s Public Theater in 2023. Its separate British iteration, directed by Matthew Xia, is having an encore engagement that opens May 21 at Theatre Royal, Stratford East, the recent London home to Here There Are Blueberries. The reggae musical set in Kingston, Jamaica once again stars Natey Jones as Ivan—the legendary Jimmy Cliff’s screen role. “Sometimes you get a second chance to build on what’s really strong,” said the mighty talent that is Suzan-Lori Parks, the Pulitzer Prize winner (Topdog/Underdog) who adapted the film for the stage and has written three new songs along the way. “Some musicals take a long time, and I think this one’s even greater at Stratford East,” Parks told Broadway.com. “[The show] makes you want to dance in your seat and believe in something greater than yourself. It’s a beautiful and joyous night out.”