Lyric Hammersmith Theatre Reveals 2027 Season Lineup

Lyric Hammersmith Theatre Artistic Director Rachel O'Riordan has announced her 2027 season, bringing together world-class directors and writers from across the UK and the world with a year's worth of programme. With three World Premieres, three London Premieres and a returning smash hit, this new season showcases bold storytelling from a wide range of artists across a rich diversity of form. From musicals, to stage adaptations, to animation, to new classics, this season reaches across the world while remaining firmly rooted in West London and its local communities.

Rachel O'Riordan, Artistic Director of the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, said: “This 2027 season at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre is a statement of intent: a big, bold celebration of our audience and the artists who make such incredible work here. Three World Premieres, three London Premieres and one returning favourite, this year of incredible work represents the Lyric's eclectic, imaginative, ambitious spirit.

New plays are the lifeblood of theatre and this year we are proudly sharing six major new works, including Stewart Pringle's innovative Brock's Mill and Inua Ellams's Once Upon a Time in Sokoto. Adaptations of much loved novels, both contemporary and classic, are a vibrant part of our programme. These stories have moved, delighted and challenged readers on the page; now we look at them again on-stage, reimagined by exceptional artists. Conor McPherson adapts global sensation Before the Coffee Gets Cold; we present the London premiere of the musical based on the beloved bestseller The Book Thief; and Alistair McDowall brings Shirley Jackson's iconic We Have Always Lived in the Castle to life. Sarah Frankcom will direct this World Premiere production, who joins the extraordinary group of directors whose work will appear on our stage in 2027: Monique Touko, Roy Alexander Weise, Tom Jackson Greaves and Rufus Norris, with his first London show since his tenure at the NT. We cannot wait to welcome them and their work to West London next year.

Personally, I am so proud to be directing Kieran Hurley's stage version of The Young Team by Graeme Armstrong. The novel is a cultural phenomenon - heartbreaking, vital and hilarious - and I cannot wait to bring this new version to audiences in Scotland and London in partnership with National Theatre of Scotland. Partnership is at the heart of this season. I am so pleased to be working with NTS, RSC. Fuel, Melting Pot, Deus Ex Machina Productions and more. In addition, we are introducing a brand-new creative partnership with the powerhouse Hackney Showrooms. Watch this space for cutting edge new work in our Studio throughout 2027. We can't wait to welcome you. Come in and be moved, thrilled, entertained and delighted. ”

The Tony Award-winning Jaja's African Hair Braiding, which ran to critical acclaim at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre in 2026 is remounted, driven by powerhouse director-writer duo Monique Touko (Wedding Band; Marie and Rosetta) and Jocelyn Bioh (The Ladykillers Love Story; Nollywood Dreams), the team behind smash hit School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play.

Internationally acclaimed poet and playwright Inua Ellams' (Barber Shop Chronicles) Once Upon a Time in Sokoto has its London Premiere at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre. Roy Alexander Weise (Nine Night, Hot Wing King) directs this Alfred Fagon Award-winning epic story about the beautiful but unlikely friendship forged between an enslaved woman and her former master, produced by Fuel.

In association with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Stewart Pringle's (The Bounds, Trestle) Brock's Mill brings former National Theatre Artistic Director Rufus Norris back to direct in London for the first time since leaving his post. Brock's Mill is a poignant new family drama and a love letter to the craft of stop-motion film-making.

Toshikazu Kawaguchi's international bestselling novel Before the Coffee Gets Cold is adapted for the stage by Conor McPherson (The Weir), transporting the iconic time-travelling Funiculi Funicula to London. Before the Coffee Gets Cold began its life as a play, before it was adapted into the hit novel, so this production returns Kawaguchi's modern classic to its original form in this brand new adaptation.

The critically acclaimed musical adaptation of Markus Zusak's global hit The Book Thief has its London premiere,  with music and lyrics from Elyssa Samsel and Kate Anderson, libretto by internationally renowned author Jodi Picoult (My Sister's Keeper) and award-winning playwright Timothy Allen McDonald (Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka, The Musical), and directed by Tom Jackson Greaves (FAME The Musical).

Graeme Armstrong's ground-breaking, bestselling debut novel The Young Team is adapted by Kieran Hurley (Beats) in a searing world premiere production which brings this cultural phenomenon to the stage for the first time, directed by Lyric Hammersmith Theatre Artistic Director Rachel O'Riordan in co-production with the National Theatre of Scotland.

Alistair McDowall (all of it, The Glow), adapts Shirley Jackson's seminal gothic thriller and final novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle, directed by Sarah Frankcom in a world premiere production about the social and psychological implications of societal ostracisation and family tragedy on two sisters.

Jaja's African Hair Braiding

By Jocelyn Bioh
Directed by Monique Touko

Wednesday 20 January - Saturday 27 February 2027
Press night: Tuesday 02 February, 7pm

'Are we making money today or what?'

Welcome to Jaja's! This bustling Harlem braiding salon is where neighbourhood women come to have their greatest hairstyle dreams come true, all in the hands of a lively group of West African immigrant braiders.

Across one hot summer's day, these women experience everything in the pressure cooker of the sweltering shop: from demanding customers to secrets and lies, laughter and betrayal. But each of these women has big dreams as well, dreams which increasingly pit them against the city they call home.

Following its sold-out run in 2026, the UK premiere production of this Tony Award-winning comedy returns to the Lyric in 2027, reuniting the team behind smash-hit School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play in writer Jocelyn Bioh and director Monique Touko.

Writer Jocelyn Bioh said: 'Words cannot begin to describe how thrilled I am that Jaja's African Hair Braiding will be re-opening its shop doors once again at the Lyric Hammersmith! Under the stunning direction of my dear collaborator, Monique Touko, I was so moved by how much U.K. audiences embraced the play with so much love and admiration. In many ways, Jaja's is about the power of community and I'm honored to feel like I am now a part of this beautiful U.K. theatre community.”

Director Monique Touko said: “Jaja's African Hair Braiding is back by popular demand. It was an absolute honour to stage the UK premiere of Jocelyn Bioh's smash hit and welcome UK audiences into the shop earlier this year. To be back in such quick succession and re-engaging with audiences again is something I don't take for granted, and I truly appreciate all the love and support that has already been expressed for the show. Round two at Lyric Hammersmith is testament to the work and its power to unite and represent. Everyone is welcome back again to 2019's Harlem to listen, learn and laugh.”

Fuel presents

Once Upon a Time in Sokoto

By Inua Ellams
Directed by Roy Alexander Weise

Tuesday 13 April - Saturday 08 May 2027
Press night: Friday 16 April, 7pm

'There are powers that bind the world together, softer than spirits yet stronger than stone, that tie the river to the tree, the tree to rain clouds, rain clouds to the land, and people to each other.'

The award-winning Once Upon a Time in Sokoto tells the epic story of a beautiful but unlikely friendship forged between an enslaved woman and her former master. Differences in faith, culture and heritage are overcome in the face of new enemies, in a gripping family drama set against the backdrop of events leading to the creation of Nigeria.

Winner of the 2024 Alfred Fagon Award for Once Upon a Time in Sokoto, Nigeria-born Inua Ellams is an internationally celebrated poet, playwright, and artist. He has published four poetry collections, and his plays include the hugely popular and critically acclaimed Barber Shop Chronicles (Fuel/National Theatre, UK and International tour) and the award-winning The 14th Tale (Fuel/UK tour) and his retelling of Three Sisters (Fuel/National Theatre).

Writer Inua Ellams said, “I'm really excited that Once Upon a Time in Sokoto is coming home to London, where so many of the women who helped shape the story live; I've been dying to show them what we made and the Lyric is a perfect, perfect space.”

Director Roy Alexander Weise said, “This play is an important part of Nigerian history and African history but it is also British history and world history. To be able to make more stops around the country shedding light through this epic story is a gift; to see auditoriums filled with ecstatic and diverse audiences celebrating a lost African civilisation is a blessing.

I've not had a show on in our capital city since The Hot Wing King in 2024 and I'm buzzing to get back, to give audiences something fresh and to Raise the Roof with my communities. There may be tears. There will be laughter. And certainly loads to think and talk about.”

The Royal Shakespeare Company in association with the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre presents

Brock's Mill

By Stewart Pringle
Directed by Rufus Norris

Thursday 13 May - Saturday 05 June 2027
Press night: Tuesday 18 May, 7pm

'Please don't do that. Address anything difficult to a stuffed animal.'

Forty years ago, Bluebell Studios was the heartbeat to a nation's childhood, the home-workshop where Bernard painstakingly animated the inanimate, bringing iconic children's television to life, frame by careful frame. His wife Annie sewed the costumes – waistcoats for badgers, a hat for Mirabel the tortoise – while their daughter May played out in the sunshine.

Or maybe that's just how Bernard remembers it.

These days, the workshop is a mausoleum to his career in make-believe. In the rafters, a homespun puppet slumps in enforced hibernation. Shelves are stuffed with armatures, old scripts, boxes, dusty books, models. Bernard's alone, his life in aspic – but soon, the past will have to be unpacked. Because May is all grown up, and she has questions.

A reckoning is coming.

Former Artistic Director and Chief Executive of The National Theatre, Rufus Norris directs RSC Writer-in-Residence Stewart Pringle's acutely observed, poignant new family drama in The Other Place. A homage to the craft of stop-motion film-making and an exploration of the corrosive power of nostalgia, Brock's Mill investigates the ownership of memory and the importance of being present.

Director Rufus Norris said, “I'm very excited to be working with Stewart on his play for the RSC, and doubly so because it will be coming to the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre. Brock's Mill is a rich, complex beauty of a play, will breathe perfectly in that wonderful house, and I look forward very much to sharing it with the audience there; it's a fantastic theatre that I have enjoyed countless times, and to be finally bringing work here is a privilege.”

Writer Stewart Pringle said, “I'm so delighted that Mr Brock will be travelling to London after his time in Stratford, and it's a massive honour to have it at the beautiful Lyric where I have had so many of my very best nights in the theatre. I've been coming to the Lyric since my very first week living in London back in 2010, and it's just gone from strength to strength. Being part of what Rachel, Matthew and their team are bringing to it means the world. Brock's Mill is a strange and haunted sort of play, about time and craft and the sacrifices we make to tell stories, and I can't wait to share it with London audiences.”

A Lyric Hammersmith Theatre production

Before the Coffee Gets Cold

By Conor McPherson
Adapted from the novel by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Thursday 17 June - Saturday 17 July 2027
Press night: Wednesday 23 June, 7pm

'Even if nothing changes and everything stays the way it is. I still want to go back.'

In many ways the Funiculi Funicula is a café like any other. It has regulars, like Mr Owen, sitting quietly and flicking through his magazines; it has waitresses, like Freya, who always pours the coffee when it's nice and fresh; and it has Nicholas, the café owner who is used to managing the varied demands of locals and tourists alike.

But it also has rules.

Rule one: there's a single seat that allows you to travel in time. Rule two: while you're travelling you cannot move from that seat. And rule number three: you must return to the present before your coffee gets cold.

Based on the bestselling novel by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, this major new adaptation by Conor McPherson (The Weir, The Brightening Air) brings this beloved story to the UK stage for the first time.

In association with Melting Pot, Gail Berman/SK Global, and Lombardo & Zell Productions.

Writer Conor McPherson said, “It's been a genuine privilege to adapt Toshikazu Kawaguchi's moving, funny, and deeply human novel for the stage. I'm tremendously excited to share this magical story with audiences at the Lyric very soon.”

Toshikazu Kawaguchi, author of Before The Coffee Gets Cold, said: “My story began its life as a play, in a small Tokyo theatre. I could never have dreamed then that, years later, Before the Coffee Gets Cold would become a novel that millions of people would read. It's a story about regret, redemption and learning to live with the choices we make, and the ones we didn't. And now it is set to begin a new life, again as a play, in a reimagining by Conor McPherson, on the stage at the Lyric, I couldn't be more excited and more thankful to Conor and the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre for bringing my story to life for theatre audiences in London.”

A Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, DEM Productions, and Writers' Cage co-production with Andrew Paradis, in association with Bethany Cooper Productions, and based on the original Octagon Theatre Bolton production

The Book Thief

Music and lyrics by Elyssa Samsel and Kate Anderson
Libretto by Jodi Picoult and Timothy Allen McDonald
Based on the novel by Markus Zusak
Directed by Tom Jackson Greaves
Originally directed by Lotte Wakeham

Saturday 24 July - Saturday 28 August 2027
Press night: Friday 30 July, 7pm

The Acclaimed Musical Based On The Global Bestseller

Germany, 1940, and Death is busier than ever. Having carried away more souls than they can count, they yearn for a story that renews their faith in humanity.

That story belongs to Liesel Meminger, twelve years old and unafraid to take what matters: a book she lifts from a gravedigger's pocket at her brother's graveside, another she snatches from the flames of the bonfire in the town square.

But these are dangerous times. Down in the cellar, her foster family is hiding Max, a Jewish boxer. He teaches Liesel the power of words, inspiring her to pick up a pen, determined to prove that human existence is worthwhile.

With a libretto by bestselling author Jodi Picoult (My Sister's Keeper) and Timothy Allen McDonald (Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach), and a soaring score by Elyssa Samsel and Kate Anderson (Apple TV's Central Park), The Book Thief transforms Markus Zusak's modern classic, directed by Tom Jackson Greaves (FAME The Musical).

Director Tom Jackson Greaves said, 'I am thrilled to be leading this incredible musical into its next chapter, alongside our brilliant writers and creative team. It's a story that needs to be heard now more than ever and I cannot wait for a London audience to experience it.”

Writers Jodi Picoult and Tim McDonald said, “We couldn't be prouder to present this new, gorgeous incarnation of The Book Thief in London. As Americans, we are very much aware of how quickly fascism can take hold of a country — this show is the right story, at exactly the right time.”

Elyssa Samsel and Kate Anderson, Lyrics and Music, said, 'We are so excited to bring this score back to life on stage, with some new songs that have grown and changed with the show's evolution.'

Markus Zusak, author of The Book Thief, said, “What a beautiful theatre for The Book Thief to be playing in. I can't wait to see it come to life.”

A Lyric Hammersmith Theatre and National Theatre of Scotland co-production

The Young Team

By Kieran Hurley
Adapted from the novel by Graeme Armstrong
Directed by Rachel O'Riordan

Tuesday 31 August - Saturday 25 September 2027
Press night: Friday 03 September, 7pm

'You're loyal Azzy Williams. You're loyal to your mates. That's good. You'll no be runnin aboot wae that lot forever but, surely?'

Welcome to Scotland in 2005.

For Azzy, born and bred in North Lanarkshire, the Young Team Posse (YTP) seems to promise everything he could possibly want: excitement, community, freedom. It's where boys become men, and he's hungry to grow up.

Soon he's rising up the ranks, showing the world what he's made of. It's fast, furious – and dangerous. Is the Young Team where Azzy belongs, or just where he's ended up? Either way, the YTP is for life. Getting in is easy, not so finding a way back out…

Based on the award-winning novel by Graeme Armstrong, this searing new adaptation by Kieran Hurley (Beats) is directed by Artistic Director Rachel O'Riordan (Iphigenia in Splott, The Children), in a co-production with National Theatre of Scotland.

The Young Team has also been adapted for television, with a six-part series currently being filmed for BBC iPlayer, BBC One and BBC Scotland, produced by BAFTA winning and EMMY nominated Synchronicity Films (The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Mayflies, The Cry), in association with FOX Entertainment Global and Screen Scotland.

Writer Kieran Hurley said, “I'm thrilled to be working with Rachel O'Riordan to create the stage adaptation of The Young Team for the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre and the National Theatre of Scotland. Graeme's brilliant novel is a powerful example of the epic stories that unfold in ordinary people's lives, and it has been an honour to be allowed to spend time living in its world. As well as an uncompromising and brutally honest account of violence and gang life, it's really a wonderful story of young male friendship, its loyalty, rivalry, and surprising tenderness. I can't wait to see Azzy Williams take over the Lyric's stage, bringing these uniquely Scottish voices into the room, and for audiences to feel the pull of the Young Team: the love and allegiances that bind these boys together, and the damage and hurt they inflict and endure. I hope it will move and provoke, and ultimately open a conversation about our young men and their vital, dangerous, and often unrequited search for recognition and belonging.”

Graeme Armstrong, author of The Young Team, said, “'I'm excited to see The Young Team adapted for stage and look forward to working with both Rachel and Kieran to bring the complex world of Scottish territorial violence to a new audience, particularly those who may have never seen their lives or communities depicted in a theatrical production before.”

Director Rachel O'Riordan said, “I'm thrilled to be bringing Graeme Armstrong's phenomenal book The Young Team to the stage, in an electric new adaptation by Kieran Hurley. Set against the backdrop of early 2000s Scotland, audiences can expect a raw and compelling story of loyalty, camaraderie and territory. There is love, and there is violence. There is music, girls and the charged prospect of becoming a man. I'm delighted to be partnering with the National Theatre of Scotland to bring it to audiences in Scotland and London.”

A Lyric Hammersmith Theatre production

We Have Always Lived in the Castle

By Alistair McDowall
Adapted from the novel by Shirley Jackson
Directed by Sarah Frankcom

Thursday 07 October - Saturday 06 November 2027
Press night: Wednesday 13 October, 7pm

'I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the middle two fingers on both my hands are the same length.

I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead.'

There once were seven Blackwoods. Now there are only three.

Agoraphobic Constance, bewildered Uncle Julian, and resourceful eighteen-year-old Merricat live in peaceful isolation, Merricat's powerful 'web of protection' keeping the house safe from the enemies beyond the garden gate.

For six years Merricat has kept the outside world at bay, but now Cousin Charles has come to stay, having heard rumours of a hidden Blackwood fortune...

Based on the classic psychological horror novel by Shirley Jackson (The Haunting of Hill House), this thrilling new adaptation by Alistair McDowall (Pomona; all of it) is directed by Sarah Frankcom (Fun Home; The Last Stand of Mrs. Mary Whitehouse).

Writer Alistair McDowall said, “From the very first time I read Shirley Jackson's novel I knew I wanted to collaborate with it - I've harboured that wish for nearly a decade. I'm delighted and terrified to have been given the chance to bring her masterpiece to the stage.”

Director Sarah Frankcom said, “I'm a lifelong fan of Shirley Jackson's writing and particularly of her final masterpiece We Have Always Lived In the Castle. From the first moment I read it, I fell in love with Merricat, the most fearless and unreliable of narrators and was completely bewitched by the world she conjures. The Lyric feels the perfect space to bring this story to life and Ali has created a wonderful version for the stage. It captures all of the novel's magic and mystery in the most theatrical of ways that gets under your skin and claims your heart and I can't wait to share it with audiences.”