January on the London Stage: A Brand-New Producers, a Stoppard Classic, Céline Dion at Sea and More

January can be a sleepy time for stage activity in some cities. Not London, though, which is riding high from a wealth of high-profile, pre-Christmas holdovers, alongside a trio of dynamic if very different openings that promise to get the new year off to a potent theatrical start.

HE CAN DO IT
You might think The Producers was forever wedded to its original Broadway and West End productions from two decades ago, both directed by Susan Stroman and starring Nathan Lane. In fact, Mel Brooks’ giddy and glorious joyride has been happily reborn in director Patrick Marber’s revival, through March 1, for the Menier Chocolate Factory—the same venue that birthed the reappraisal of Merrily We Roll Along that stormed Broadway last season. Andy Nyman (Elphaba’s screen dad in Wicked) is in gleeful, go-for-broke form as Max Bialystock, with Marc Antolin as his aptly antic sidekick, the accountant-turned-accomplice, Leo Bloom.

“Most of my time onstage is spent trying not to laugh at everyone else,” the warmly responsive Antolin told Broadway.com in an interview during a four-day break in performances, having returned home to Wales for the holidays. “It’s just complete joy.” Were he and his castmates worried that some of the show’s risqué humor might not land in today’s more sensitized era? “The writing is so good, and we’re doing it in this intimate setting and with so much love. It is a very fine line, but I think that’s Mel Brooks: his genius is that he toes the line.”

LOVE AND LOSS—AND LATIN
Tom Stoppard’s 1997 drama The Invention of Love is surely among the brainier plays from the much-feted 87-year-old dramatist—which is saying a lot. But Blanche McIntyre’s deeply felt revival for north London's Hampstead Theatre, extended through February 1, proves once again that Stoppard can appeal directly to the heart and not just the head. Tony winner Simon Russell Beale (The Lehman Trilogy) joins Matthew Tennyson as the older and younger versions of the sexually conflicted poet and classicist A. E. Housman in a play that, an impassioned McIntyre told Broadway.com, shouldn’t feel like homework: “The thing about The Invention of Love is that it’s really about love, and all of us have some experience of that in one way or another.”

SAIL ON, CÉLINE
The musical parody Titanique has established a solid perch off-Broadway and is now sailing its way to numerous destinations, among them the West End for a January 9 opening at the Criterion Theatre. The name-heavy cast includes Rob Houchen (The Light in the Piazza, Les Miz) as Jack and Layton Williams, a recent Emcee in Cabaret, as, yes, the Iceberg, with Lauren Drew occupying pride of place as Céline Dion. Does this feel for Drew like a date with destiny? “Interestingly, I have been told over the years that I remind people of Céline Dion, and I’ve seen her live: she’s definitely one of my biggest inspirations.” For the audition, the Welsh native (from the same town, in fact, as Marc Antolin) thought “what would Céline do,” so showed up in a full catsuit with a v-neck, sequins and feathers. How might Drew respond were the pop diva to appear one night in the audience? “I swear to God there’s a chance I would die; I think my heart would just stop on the dot.”

OOM-PAH-PAH
Every New Year benefits from a big new show to kickstart the West End, and 2025 has one in this latest iteration of Lionel Bart’s beloved Oliver!, produced by the indefatigable Cameron Mackintosh and directed and choreographed by Matthew Bourne—the same duo behind Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends, due on Broadway this spring. Seen last summer at the Chichester Festival Theatre south of London, the production opens January 14 at the Gielgud Theatre, and stars Simon Lipkin (Assassins, Avenue Q) as Fagin and Shanay Holmes (Miss Saigon) as Nancy. Holmes, 35, said in a wide-ranging interview that the role was “a joy to play. Nancy may have been born on the wrong side of the tracks but she’s inherently good, very self-sacrificing.” As for sharing the stage with kids, Holmes has experience with that as one of 28 grandchildren herself. “I’m used to having loads of children around me; that’s something I can easily identify with.”

IAGO ADJACENT
Kyoto got raves in its world-premiere engagement last June at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s home base in Stratford-upon-Avon and this month hits the West End, opening January 16 at @sohoplace, bringing this pressing treatment of climate change to a London public. The co-authors are Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson, of The Jungle renown, with Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin co-directing before they turn their attentions to restaging Stranger Things for Broadway. Leading the cast is 2010 Tony nominee Stephen Kunken as the Republican lawyer, Don Pearlman, whose impact within the play has led some to compare the part to Shakespeare’s Iago. “I’d love to play Iago,” said the immediately engaging Kunken, who is nonetheless thrilled to be playing Pearlman, the oil lobbyist who died in 2005. “This is such a fantastic role for an actor,” and it comes with a play, he adds, that is “highly exciting to watch. At its core is the burning center of humanity: it’s about the choices we make and what we value out of life.”