Going to the theatre has always been an important part of any trip to London. Not only does the city boast some of the great theatres but ticket prices are usually reasonable. It is also home to the world’s longest-running play, The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie. The story has been at St Martin’s Theatre for over seventy years. London also hosts the world’s two longest-running musicals. Les Miserables and The Phantom of the Opera have been running on the London stage for nearly forty years. Les Mis, as it is commonly known, celebrates its fortieth birthday in October 2025, and Phantom passes the forty-year mark a year later.

The theatres these popular musicals have been performed at have actually changed their names more often than their productions. Les Miserables began life at the Barbican Theatre in 1985 before moving to Shaftesbury Avenue. It played at the Queen’s Theatre which, since 2019, has been called The Sondheim Theatre in honour of the composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim. He first made his name with the lyrics to West Side Story in 1957, the music for which was composed by Leonard Bernstein. It is based on William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet but the story has been moved to New York with gangs replacing warring families.

So popular has Les Miserables become that it still plays to packed houses at the Sondheim and the cast were even persuaded to put on a special performance at Windsor Castle in 2004 to celebrate the centenary of the Entente Cordiale, the alliance between England and France. The then French President Jacques Chirac was a guest at this staging of the show.

Les Miserables at London’s Sondheim Theatre. Photo Credit: © Ursula Petula Barzey.

Phantom of the Opera’s venue has also undergone a small name change, going from ‘Her’ to ‘His’ Majesty’s Theatre after the accession of King Charles. The music was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber, a composer and entrepreneur who dominates the musical scene in London. With his childhood friend Tim Rice, he composed music for popular shows like Evita and Jesus Christ, Superstar. He has since branched out on his own and written music for not only Phantom of the Opera but the long-running Cats which set a series of poems by the Anglo-American poet T S Eliot to music. Lloyd Webber has truly become the major musical force in London and has even bought and redeveloped the London Palladium.

Most musicals start life as a story. Les Miserables is based on a novel by Victor Hugo about the 1871 revolution in Paris and was turned into a musical by the French composer Claude Michel Schonberg with lyrics by the late Herbert Kretzmer from South Africa. Phantom of the Opera is based an old story about an imaginary disfigured character who lives in Notre Dame Cathedral (also in Paris). The story was written by the French author Gaston Leroux and was turned into a musical by Lloyd Webber with lyrics written by Richard Stilgoe.

Instead of taking an already existing story and using it as the basis for a musical, there is a tendency these days to write a story and shoehorn it into a show that features the work of a major artist or group. The most famous example of this is Mamma Mia which has been playing in London since 1999, first at Leicester Square and, since 2012, at the Novello Theatre. It is little more than an excuse to sing along to Abba songs like Take a Chance on Me, Dancing Queen and the title track. The story is of a single mother trying to work out who the father of her child is and it has been turned into a film starring Meryl Streep, Julie Walters and Pierce Brosnan. This proved so popular that a follow up was made with Cher.

The Tina Turner Musical at Aldwych Theatre in London. Photo Credit: © Ursula Petula Barzey.

Near to the Novello is the Aldwych Theatre where the songs of Tina Turner have been worked into the story of her life. Tina has been playing there since 2018 despite the fact that the singer herself passed away in 2023. Carole King was given the same treatment at this theatre. Her story was told in the musical Beautiful which was named after one of her songs.

Another now deceased songwriter who has had his life turned into a hagiographical musical is Michael Jackson. Called simply MJ, it features the work of the ever-popular singer-songwriter who, despite accusations of child abuse against him, has legions of fans who have packed out the show. His music and life story is at the Prince Edward Theatre in Soho.

Many musicals playing in London are based on Hollywood films and successful shows given a new lease of life by transferring to the stage have included the Lion King, Back to the Future and Mrs Doubtfire. Hollywood often becomes involved with popular musicals, many of its successes based on stage shows that have been remade as films after success with theatre-goers. The cross-fertilisation of the two media of films and stage musicals continues apace with plays like Wicked and Road Dahl’s Matilda starting life on the stage before being filmed. Sometimes this works and the films win Oscars. At other times it is less successful – as with the film of Lloyd Weber’s Cats, which was a flop when it was released in late 2019.

MJ The Musical at Prince Edward Theatre in London. Photo Credit: © Ursula Petula Barzey.

Wicked opened at the Apollo Theatre in the Victoria area in September 2006 and is based on The Wizard of Oz story. Hamilton at the nearby Victoria Palace Theatre is also a show that has been playing to packed houses since it opened in 2015. Despite an unsympathetic portrayal of the British king George the Third, Lin Manuel Miranda’s musical has been a great hit in London. It is an original musical based on the story of Alexander Hamilton and is set at the time the USA was becoming an independent nation. Miranda, moreover, departed from tradition by using the techniques of rap in the play, thus creating a revolutionary new genre.

Another new departure has seen Girl From the North Country, a play by the successful Irish playwright Conor McPherson. The cast sings the songs of Bob Dylan, and it takes its name from one he first recorded in 1963. McPherson insisted on writing an original play interspersed with Dylan songs and he had the singer’s backing for this idea. McPherson set it in the winter of 1934 in a run-down hotel in the town of Duluth in the USA. The story of Girl From the North Country has multiple strands and was performed at the Old Vic in London, on Broadway and on a world tour before it was recorded for posterity in a film made in front of an audience. It successfully combined a good story with the songs of Bob Dylan..

These are just some of the musicals gracing London’s West End. You can always see a new – or an old – show if you come to London, one of the world’s great places to enjoy theatre.

The Lion King musical at the Lyceum Theatre in London. Photo Credit: © Ursula Petula Barzey.

Hamilton the Musical at Victoria Palace Theatre in London. Photo Credit: © Ursula Petula Barzey.

Mrs Doubtfire Musical at Shaftsbury Theatre in London. Photo Credit: © Ursula Petula Barzey.