The best UK theatre to see in February 2024
From Candace Bushnell's one-woman tour to the one-man show Future Queer, Simon Button rounds up this month’s must-sees
By Simon Button
We’re back again with another round-up of some of the best theatre to see across the UK this February.
Enjoy!
True Tales of Sex, Success, and Sex and the City
It’s not a tell-all by SJP (she’s too busy with Plaza Suite) or Kim Cattrall. Nope, this is a show featuring SATC author Candace Bushnell taking audiences on a whirlwind tour of NYC from the comfort of their local theatre. She’ll be telling her life story as well dishing all the deets about how she came to create the fabulous Carrie Bradshaw and her gal pals.
True Tales of Sex, Success, and Sex and the City is touring the UK from 2 to 15 February. Get tickets here.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Succession star Sarah Snook takes on the daunting task of playing 26 characters in Kip Williams’ adaptation of the Oscar Wilde novel. We’re promised a modern take on the tale featuring an interplay of theatre and video through a carefully choreographed array of on-stage cameras. If anyone is gifted enough to pull it off it’s Snook and a man as ahead of his time as Wilde would surely have loved such a daring venture.
The Picture of Dorian Gray is at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, London, from 6 February. Get tickets here.
Standing at the Sky’s Edge
The brilliant, heartbreaking musical gets a well-deserved West End transfer after acclaimed seasons in Sheffield and at the National Theatre. Richard Hawley provides the music for a show about the various inhabitants of a council flat across a 60-year span. Director Robert Hastie deftly juggles all their stories in the best British musical since Everybody’s Talking About Jamie.
Standing at the Sky’s Edge is at the Gillian Lynne Theatre, London, from 8 February. Get tickets here.
Edward Scissorhands
Matthew Bourne has devised an entrancing ballet based on Tim Burton’s marvelous 1990 movie. Liam Mower and Stephen Murray take turns as the boy with blades for fingers in a fractured fairy tale that feels very timely. As Bourne himself says “In an era when uniqueness and identity is both celebrated and reviled” the story of how we treat anyone who is different is as relevant as ever.
Edward Scissorhands is currently touring the UK. Get tickets here.
Future Queer
Soundtracked by Donna Summer’s seminal ‘I Feel Love’, Alexis Gregory’s one-man show fast forwards to 2071 to speculate what queer life will be like 47 years hence. Previously performed as a work-in-progress at the King’s Head and a pop-up performance in Bethnal Green, it’s a mix of theatre, stand-up, lecture, commentary on pop culture, and “a very queer romp through an imagined LGBTQ+future’.
Future Queer is at the King’s Head Theatre, London, from 4 February to 2 March. Get tickets here.