Celebrities on stage in London

The X Factor winner · Not Thursday evenings or Saturday matinees.

Burke won The X Factor in 2008 and has built a West End career since, including Rachel Marron in The Bodyguard and Roxie in Chicago. She plays Chaka Khan at most performances.

Hotel Rwanda

Goodness Gracious Me

The Police

Sting wrote the score for The Last Ship, set in the shipbuilding town he grew up in, and plays Jackie White at every performance of this short run. He has stepped into the show before, on Broadway in 2015.

Oscar winner for Blue Jasmine

Two Oscars, and a stage career taking in Streetcar and The Present. She and Nina Hoss alternate the two leads, so which part she plays depends on the night you book.

Homeland and Tár

A major German screen actor, seen internationally in Tár and Homeland. She swaps roles with Blanchett performance by performance.

The X Factor

Oscar winner for Michael Clayton

An Oscar winner for Michael Clayton, and a rare presence on stage. Man to Man is a one-woman play: she is alone on it for the whole piece.

Black Panther

The Crown and Challengers

Line of Duty

Little Britain and The Great British Bake Off

Little Britain, Doctor Who, and four series of Bake Off. Fagin is a six-week stint covering Simon Lipkin’s paternity leave, so the run is short and fixed.

Olivier-winning star of Merrily We Roll Along

An Olivier winner as a performer and again as a director, for Merrily We Roll Along. Kimberly Akimbo asks its lead to play a sixteen-year-old with a condition that ages her four times too fast.

Britain's Got Talent

Modern Family

Mitchell in Modern Family, and a Tony winner for Take Me Out. Tru is a one-man play: Ferguson is Truman Capote, alone in his apartment over two days at Christmas.

I'm a Celebrity and Hollyoaks

Modern Family

Eleven seasons as Haley in Modern Family made Hyland a household face; Sally Bowles is her West End debut. The Kit Kat Club staging seats the audience around the action in a reconfigured Playhouse Theatre.

Pitch Perfect

Astin was Jesse in the Pitch Perfect films and started on Broadway in Spring Awakening. The Emcee is the part that won both Alan Cumming and Eddie Redmayne awards in this production.

The Good Wife and Mamma Mia!

Two Tonys, and known to most people as Diane in The Good Wife and The Good Fight, or as Tanya in Mamma Mia. Judith Bliss is Coward’s monstrous retired actress, holding court over a weekend from hell.

Withnail and I

Withnail and I made him, and Can You Ever Forgive Me? brought an Oscar nomination. He plays the other half of the Bliss household, opposite Baranski.

W1A

Skyfall and Years and Years

Royal Ballet principal

The X-Files and Sex Education

The X-Files, The Fall and The Crown, plus a formidable stage record: an Olivier for A Streetcar Named Desire at the Young Vic. Martha is one of the great parts, and @sohoplace puts the audience on all sides of it.

The Morning Show and Almost Famous

Crudup won an Emmy for The Morning Show and was the rock star in Almost Famous. He plays George opposite Anderson.

The Wanted

Broadchurch and Mr Bates vs The Post Office

Stooshe

Doctor Who and EastEnders

The X Factor and Loose Women

Stranger Things

Dustin in all five seasons of Stranger Things, and a Broadway performer long before that — he was in Les Miserables at nine. Mark Cohen is his West End debut.

Game of Thrones

The English Patient and Fleabag

The English Patient, Four Weddings, and Fleabag’s godmother. Ranevskaya, the landowner who cannot bring herself to save the estate, is one of the best-known parts in Chekhov.

Episodes and Green Wing

Episodes, Green Wing, and a long line of comic leads. Lopakhin is the merchant with the plan nobody in the house wants to hear.

Shameless and Sex Education

TV mentalist and illusionist

Brown has made television and stage shows about suggestion and misdirection for over twenty years, with two Oliviers for the stage work. Only Human is a strictly limited season.

McFly and Strictly Come Dancing

Pirates of the Caribbean and Atonement

Pirates of the Caribbean, Atonement and Pride & Prejudice — and almost no stage work since The Misanthrope in 2009. The play is drawn from the Oscar-winning German film about surveillance in East Berlin.

Game of Thrones and Killing Eve · One night only.

Bridgerton · One night only.

Doctor Who · One night only.

Eurovision runner-up with Space Man

Ryder went from posting covers online to representing the UK at Eurovision in 2022, where Space Man finished second — the best British result in a quarter of a century. Jesus Christ Superstar is his first stage role, and he sings it through the whole Drury Lane run.

White Collar and Magic Mike

Bomer played the con artist in White Collar and has since done Magic Mike and Fellow Travelers. Herod is a cameo: two numbers, a lot of glitter, and a different famous name in the part every week or two.

Gavin & Stacey and The Trip

Gavin & Stacey and The Trip made Brydon a fixture of British comedy, and he has sung on a West End stage before, in A Chorus Line. He takes Herod for a single week.

Inside No. 9 and The League of Gentlemen

RuPaul's Drag Race winner

Singer and Radio 2 presenter

Ball originated Marius in Les Miserables, won an Olivier for Hairspray and presents on Radio 2. His fortnight is the longest of the guest Herod stints.

The Death of Stalin and Spooks

One of the most decorated stage actors in the country, and familiar from The Death of Stalin and Spooks. He turns up twice this season — a week as Herod, then Hirst in No Man’s Land.

Comedian and actor

Bad Education and Strictly Come Dancing

Desperate Housewives

Susan in Desperate Housewives and Lois in Lois & Clark. She takes over Miranda Priestly, the part Meryl Streep played on film, for the winter.

Ghosts and Call the Midwife

Olivier winner for Hamilton

Paddington and No Time to Die

Q in the Bond films, the voice of Paddington, and an Olivier winner for Against. Eurotrash puts him back with Kathryn Hunter at the Young Vic.

Poor Things

EastEnders and Waterloo Road

The Chuckle Brothers

Black Books and Strictly Come Dancing champion

Black Books, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, and the 2020 Strictly champion. Vaudevillean mixes stand-up with the musicianship his tours are built on.

Phantom Thread

An Oscar nomination for Phantom Thread, a Tony for Long Day’s Journey into Night, and four series of Mum. Violet Weston is the part at the centre of the play that won Letts the Pulitzer.

Motherland and Line of Duty

Birds of a Feather

The Death of Stalin and Spooks

My Best Friend's Wedding

Olivier winner and Hackney panto dame

The Vicar of Dibley

The Vicar of Dibley, and one half of French and Saunders. She and Jennifer Saunders play the Ugly Sisters — their first stage appearance together in seventeen years.

Absolutely Fabulous

Absolutely Fabulous, French and Saunders, and Spice World. The Palladium panto puts her back on stage with Dawn French.

Comedian and presenter

Chariots of Fire

Doctor Who and EastEnders

This Morning and Strictly Come Dancing