Five Shows to See on Stage This Autumn
As the nights begin to draw in, theatres across Britain are heading into one of the busiest periods of the year. The West End is packed with established hits, while major touring productions are beginning journeys that will take them to audiences around the country.
From the decadent world of Cabaret and the supernatural spectacle of Stranger Things to circus showmanship, high-school politics and the sequins of Burlesque, here are five shows currently featured in the UK Theatre Network What’s On listings that are worth having on your radar.
Cabaret
Few West End productions have transformed their theatre quite as completely as Cabaret.
The Playhouse Theatre has become the Kit Kat Club, with audiences entering a world deliberately designed to begin the theatrical experience before they have even reached their seats. It is an approach that proved spectacularly successful when this revival opened, winning seven Olivier Awards including Best Musical Revival.
At its heart remains John Kander and Fred Ebb’s extraordinary musical, set against the increasingly ominous backdrop of Berlin during the final days of the Weimar Republic. The relationship between American writer Cliff Bradshaw and nightclub performer Sally Bowles unfolds while the world outside the Kit Kat Club becomes steadily darker.
Songs including Wilkommen, Maybe This Time, Money and the title number remain among musical theatre’s most recognisable, but the intimacy of this production gives familiar material a very different intensity.
Rather than simply watching Cabaret, audiences are invited into its world. That makes it one of London’s most distinctive theatrical experiences.
Where: Kit Kat Club at the Playhouse, London
Performances: Currently booking throughout the autumn
Tickets: From around £35 on selected performances
Stranger Things: The First Shadow
Turning one of television’s biggest streaming phenomena into a stage play could easily have felt like little more than an exercise in extending a franchise. Stranger Things: The First Shadow has proved considerably more ambitious.
The action moves back to Hawkins in 1959, decades before Eleven and her friends encounter the Upside Down. A young Jim Hopper is worrying about whether his car will start, Joyce Maldonado wants to escape the town and new student Henry Creel arrives with his family hoping for a fresh beginning.
Anyone familiar with the Netflix series will recognise just how significant that name becomes.
The production combines conventional theatre with elaborate illusions, lighting, sound and stage effects to create something much closer to a live supernatural blockbuster. Yet underneath the technical spectacle is a story that expands the mythology of Stranger Things and provides a new perspective on characters and events audiences thought they understood.
For people who still imagine theatre as primarily actors standing on a set delivering dialogue, The First Shadow is a fairly convincing demonstration of just how technologically ambitious modern stagecraft has become.
Where: Phoenix Theatre, London
Performances: Throughout September and beyond
Tickets: From around £25
Barnum
There are musicals with spectacle and then there is Barnum, a show in which the spectacle is rather the point.
Inspired by the life of 19th-century American showman P.T. Barnum, the musical follows an irrepressible dreamer determined to build something bigger, brighter and more extraordinary, frequently to the frustration of his long-suffering wife Charity.
The score by Cy Coleman, with lyrics by Michael Stewart and a book by Mark Bramble, includes Come Follow the Band, The Colours of My Life, Join the Circus and Love Makes Such Fools of Us All.
The new touring production stars Matt Rawle as Barnum and brings together more than 20 actor-musicians, alongside acrobats and circus performers. In a nod to one of British musical theatre’s legendary performances, Rawle also follows Michael Crawford in tackling Barnum’s famous on-stage tightrope walk.
There is something pleasingly old-fashioned about a musical that sets out simply to put on a show in the grandest possible sense. Barnum promises colour, music, circus and theatrical showmanship on a scale increasingly unusual on the touring circuit.
Where: Touring the UK, beginning at New Wimbledon Theatre
From: 29 September 2026
Tickets: From around £16
Burlesque The Musical
The 2010 film Burlesque built a sizeable following around Christina Aguilera, Cher, enormous musical numbers and an unapologetic quantity of glitter. Now that world has made the journey to the stage.
Executive produced by Christina Aguilera and written by the film’s creator Steven Antin, Burlesque The Musical follows Ali Rose as she arrives in New York searching for the mother she never knew. Her journey leads her into an underground club populated by performers, dreamers and outsiders, where discovering her own voice becomes part of discovering where she belongs.
The touring production stars Faye Brookes as Tess Richarde, with Ryan Carter as Sean and Ms Loretta, while Gracie O’Brien makes her professional stage debut as Ali Rose.
Music is inevitably a major part of the attraction. Songs associated with Aguilera are joined by material from Sia and Diane Warren, alongside new numbers by Todrick Hall and Jess Folley.
It isn’t aiming for theatrical minimalism. This is a show built around big voices, choreography, costumes and the kind of production numbers designed to send an audience out of the theatre considerably more awake than when they entered.
Where: Touring the UK, including The Alexandra, Birmingham
Birmingham dates: From 6 October 2026
Tickets: From around £25
Mean Girls
More than two decades after Tina Fey’s film first introduced audiences to Regina George and The Plastics, Mean Girls has developed a second life as a stage musical.
Following its West End run, the production is now touring the UK with Emily Lane as Cady Heron, Vivian Panka as Regina George and Jennifer Ellison among the company.
The essential story remains wonderfully simple. After growing up overseas, home-schooled Cady arrives at an American high school and discovers that surviving among wild animals may actually have been easier. She is drawn into the orbit of Regina, Gretchen and Karen, the apparently untouchable trio who dominate North Shore High, before deciding to bring their reign to an end.
Naturally, the plan goes spectacularly wrong.
Fey wrote the musical’s book, with music by Jeff Richmond and lyrics by Nell Benjamin. It retains the sharp social comedy of the film while turning Cady’s increasingly complicated journey through friendship, popularity and revenge into a full-scale musical comedy.
The language of teenage culture has changed enormously since the original film appeared in 2004. The uncomfortable truth at the centre of Mean Girls, that fitting in can sometimes turn you into exactly the person you disliked in the first place, has aged rather better.
Where: Touring the UK
Liverpool Empire: From 19 October 2026
Tickets: From around £16
A strong autumn for live theatre
What is striking about the current theatre calendar is its sheer range. Cabaret offers an immersive reinvention of a musical theatre classic, while Stranger Things demonstrates what can happen when stagecraft collides with the visual ambition of television and cinema. Barnum embraces traditional theatrical spectacle, Burlesque brings contemporary pop energy to the touring circuit and Mean Girls turns one of modern cinema’s best-known comedies into a live musical.
And these five barely scratch the surface.
With hundreds of performances currently listed across London and regional theatres, autumn 2026 is shaping up as a very good time to get away from the screen for a few hours and see something happen live.
Search shows, cities, venues and performance dates in the UK Theatre Network What’s On section.
UK Theatre Network
Currently Booking
From West End favourites to touring productions, discover what’s on and find your next night at the theatre.
Peter Pan (Pantomime) - Relaxed Performance
Soar into Neverland this Christmas with Peter Pan, Wendy and Tink, as they face the dastardly Captain Hook in this…
From £15
View DatesAn Evening with the Spurs Captains
SPURS CAPTAINS | Perryman, Mabbutt, Roberts & King
From £25
View DatesThe Princess Proms
Prepare for a show-stopping performance as we pay tribute to the iconic, heartwarming and nostalgic songs from animations including Frozen,…
From £23.92
View Dates