Feature
A night at the theatre that does not take the whole evening: shows that run for an hour and a half or so, from fringe plays of an hour to short musicals, with the running time up front and the best current deal.
A short show is easy to fit around work, a dinner or a long journey home, and it suits anyone who would rather not commit to three hours in the dark. Everything here runs for an hour and a half or so, and a few shows stretch to the hundred-minute mark. The running time on each card comes from our listings, which do not yet have a time on file for every show, so a short show can be missing from this page until its time is added. The list grows as they are.
The shortest nights in London: small rooms, one performer or a small cast, and nothing padded. Most are on the fringe, which is where a lot of the best new writing starts.
Sadler's Wells East · 10 Nov – 14 Nov
Seven performers from different countries make the stage a tornado, in a piece of fluid, synchronised movement set to a cinematic soundscape. It is dance with a clear idea at the centre, human resilience, and it needs no knowledge of dance to follow.
Worth knowing. A dance piece with no spoken story.
Tickets and dealsPark Theatre · 16 Nov – 21 Nov · from £18
A solo satire in which an ambitious young woman invents a new identity to talk her way into an elite art gallery, and then finds the persona taking over. Written and performed by Honor Santa Barnes, it comes to London from Edinburgh, where it drew strong notices.
Tickets and dealsArcola Theatre · 17 Nov – 19 Dec · from £20
Marius von Mayenburg’s black comedy about a successful man who learns that he is hideous, has his face rebuilt, and finds that being beautiful is not the same as being himself. It is sharp, absurd and quick, and a good example of a play that needs only a short evening to make its point.
Worth knowing. A satire with surgery as its subject. It is a comedy, but not a gentle one.
Tickets and dealsThe Other Palace · 22 Oct – 3 Jan · from £20
A clown sets out to save books from extinction by performing every Penguin Classic, in not much more than a pair of flippers. It is an Edinburgh Fringe hit built on a very silly idea and committed performance, so it suits a night when you want to laugh and go home.
Worth knowing. A comedy for adults, recommended for ages 18 and over, with nudity.
Tickets and dealsThe Other Palace · 19 Nov – 10 Jan · from £20
A neurotic stand-up comedian finally meets Mr Right and does everything he can to ruin it. Marcelo Dos Santos’s play won a Fringe First at Edinburgh and returns to London with Steven Webb in the lead, and it is funnier and more anxious than its title promises.
Worth knowing. Age guidance is 14 and over.
Tickets and dealsSoho Theatre Walthamstow · 19 Oct – 24 Oct
The comedian and poet best known for Alan Partridge and his Late Night Poetry Programme in a brand new show of poems, stamping and howling. A deadpan, odd and very short way to spend an evening, if you already like how he works.
Worth knowing. A stand-up and poetry set, not a play.
Tickets and dealsFinborough Theatre · Until 24 Oct · from £18
A struggling actor and a celebrity footballer, ex-classmates, meet on a ferry back to Belfast, and the banter turns into a reckoning with old resentments. It is a two-hander in the intimate Finborough, so there is nowhere for either of them, or you, to hide.
Worth knowing. Expect confrontation rather than comfort.
Tickets and dealsPark Theatre · 25 Nov – 12 Dec · from £18
Tom Powell’s Papatango Prize-winning play follows two neglected teenagers, Daize and Ben, who find an unexpected connection while trying to protect the people around them. It is a small, compact play with two young actors, and a good way to see new writing at the Park.
Worth knowing. It deals with neglect and drug dealing.
Tickets and dealsPark Theatre · 17 Nov – 5 Dec · from £15
A dark, comic solo show about a 15-year-old emo kid in 2000s America and his destructive relationship with an older reality TV star. Derek Mitchell, who writes and performs it, is known online as @derekscottmitchell, and the show is about obsession and being seen.
Worth knowing. Aimed at adults, with dark themes including a destructive relationship between a teenager and an older reality TV star.
Tickets and dealsA little longer, still without a break in the middle. Each of these plays holds you from beginning to end, with no break to lose the thread.
The Other Palace · Until 15 Nov · from £20
Tim Crouch’s play about a bereaved father confronting the stage hypnotist involved in his daughter’s death. A different guest actor joins Crouch each night and sees the script for the first time, so no two performances are the same, and the evening feels as unrehearsed as it is.
Worth knowing. About grief and loss, with a hypnotist at its centre.
Tickets and dealsTrafalgar Theatre · from £25
Cole Escola’s Olivier-winning comedy imagines Mary Todd Lincoln as a foul-tempered, hard-drinking First Lady who only wants to return to cabaret. It is outrageous, fast and silly, and it has no slack in it.
Worth knowing. An adult comedy about a hard-drinking, unhappily married First Lady.
Tickets and dealsKiln Theatre · Until 24 Oct · from £15
Two exes who were once engaged meet for dinner to find out whether their relationship deserves a second chance, and carry seven years of baggage to the table. A sharp new comedy at the Kiln that fits a weeknight easily.
Tickets and dealsPark Theatre · 26 Oct – 14 Nov · from £29.50
Neil Anthony Docking’s Olivier-nominated play tells the true story of mothers in Aberfan who, after the 1966 disaster, secretly invited a Revlon representative to talk about beauty. It is funny and compassionate, and it won an Off-West End Award for Best New Play.
Worth knowing. Based on the Aberfan disaster, so it is moving as well as funny.
Tickets and dealsArcola Theatre · Until 7 Nov · from £20
A world premiere from Julia Pascal about three German Jewish women, Hannah Arendt among them, arrested in France in May 1940 and sent to Camp Gurs. It mixes satire, physical theatre and cabaret to tell a history that is rarely staged.
Worth knowing. A play about internment and persecution in 1940.
Tickets and dealsBarbican Theatre · 31 Oct – 23 Jan · from £18
Shakespeare’s tragedy and Radiohead’s album collide in a frenetic distillation, with the music as part of the story and Elsinore a surveillance state. It is Hamlet without the usual length, at the Barbican.
Worth knowing. A tragedy told through movement and music rather than a conventional staging.
Tickets and dealsSongs, dancing and spectacle, kept tight. If a three-hour musical is the sticking point, these are the answer.
Vaudeville Theatre · from £34.50
The six wives of Henry VIII as a pop concert, with an all-female band on stage. It began as a student show at the Edinburgh Fringe, and it is the most obvious answer to a musical that does not go on all night.
Worth knowing. Loud, with flashing lights.
Tickets and dealsThe Vaults Theatre · 14 Nov – 31 Jan · from £30
An immersive nightclub musical by Jack Holden in which Peter Pan’s party is a 2000s pop night, and a runaway bride, Wendy Darling, has to decide what she wants. It arrives from a sold-out Edinburgh run, and it plays more like a night out than a night at the theatre.
Worth knowing. An immersive club show, with a pop score.
Tickets and dealsHippodrome Casino · from £55
A dance and acrobatic show based on the Magic Mike films, conceived by Channing Tatum and staged all around the room at the Hippodrome Casino in Leicester Square. It is performed around the room rather than just on a stage, and it is made for a group night out.
Worth knowing. For over-18s only. Audience members who look under 25 must bring photo ID.
Tickets and dealsABBA Arena · from £40
A concert in a purpose-built arena at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, in which digital versions of ABBA perform with a live band. It is a concert rather than a play, so it belongs here as a spectacle, and the staging is the reason to go.
Worth knowing. A concert in an arena, not at a theatre.
Tickets and dealsEmpress Museum · from £50
A circus and musical theatre show inspired by The Greatest Showman, with the film’s songs performed live by aerial artists, acrobats and musical theatre performers in a 700-seat Big Top at Earl’s Court. Doors open an hour early for a pre-show, so the evening is longer than the show.
Worth knowing. Suitable for children aged 5 and over; under-5s are not admitted.
Tickets and deals
