The countdown to Christmas has officially begun, and we’re delighted to welcome back two festive family favourites to The Drum and The Lab this December!
The Star Who Danced (ages 0-3)
A sensory delight, featuring beautiful dance, live music and light.
Raymond Briggs’ Father Christmas (ages 3-7)
Join Father Christmas as he prepares for his deliveries with Dog and Cat, before taking flight into the snowy night.
Raymond Briggs’ Father Christmas
The Drum | 27 Nov – 28 Dec 2025
Join Father Christmas as he awakes from a dream of sun, sea and sand only to find it is the busiest day of the year: Christmas Eve.
Watch as he prepares for his Christmas deliveries, feeds his reindeer and finally takes flight into the snowy night.
Back for another brilliant year, Christmas isn’t Christmas without this Lyric Hammersmith family favourite, co-produced with the Olivier Award-nominated Pins & Needles Productions.
The Star Who Danced
The Lab | 04 – 24 Dec 2025
A sensory delight for 0-3 year olds, this non-verbal show will engage young audiences through beautiful dance, live music and light. The performance will end with space for further exploration, play and festive photos.
Children must be accompanied by at least one adult.
The best reviewed show in West End history, Operation Mincemeat is joining us next year as part of its first ever globe-spanning World Tour as well as the legendary Legally Blonde The Musical and Mrs. Doubtfire The Musical.
Dance fans are sure to enjoy English National Ballet‘s UK premiere of Body & Soul. Or if drama is more your thing, you’ll love our next Agatha Christie instalment Death on the Nile.
That’s not all! With true stories, reimagined classics and something for the little ones, we have plenty of shows to choose from!
Operation Mincemeat
The Lyric | 29 Jun – 04 Jul 2026
Operation Mincemeat is the 2024 Olivier Award-winning Best New Musical.
The year is 1943 and right now we’re losing the war. Luckily, we’re about to gamble all our futures on a stolen corpse.
Singin’ in the Rain meets Strangers on a Train, Operation Mincemeat is the fast-paced, hilarious and unbelievable true story of the twisted secret mission that won us World War II.
Legally Blonde The Musical
The Lyric | 02 – 06 Jun 2026
The iconic international West End and Broadway smash hit musical comedy Legally Blonde The Musical is back in fashion with a huge new production.
This ultimate feel-good rom-com, based on the award-winning film starring Reese Witherspoon, follows Elle Woods on her transformation from It girl fashionista to legal ace at Harvard Law School, all in the name of love.
Mrs. Doubtfire
The Lyric | Oct 2026
Out-of-work actor Daniel will do anything for his kids. After losing custody in a messy divorce, he creates the alter ego of Scottish nanny Euphegenia Doubtfire in a desperate attempt to stay in their lives. As his new character takes on a life of its own, Mrs. Doubtfire teaches Daniel more than he bargained for about how to be a father.
The Bodyguard
The Lyric | 06 – 11 Jul 2026
The international, award-winning smash-hit musical The Bodyguard is back!
Starring international leading actor Sidonie Smith (Sister Act, Chicago, Jesus Christ Superstar) as Rachel Marron, Olivier Award nominated Adam Garcia (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Wicked, Ugly Coyote) and Matt Milburn (Coronation Street, Hollyoaks) as Sy Spector.
Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story
The Lyric | 14 – 18 Apr 2026
This sensational multi award-winning West End show first opened in 1989 and has been thrilling audiences around the world ever since. Now it triumphantly visits returns to Plymouth as part of its 2025/26 UK Tour.
Forget feel good, Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story is FEEL GREAT! Experience the drama, passion and excitement as a multi-talented cast of actor-musicians tell Buddy Holly’s story, from his Texas rockabilly beginnings to international stardom and his legendary final performance at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, before his tragic death at the age of just 22.
English National Ballet’s Body & Soul
The Lyric | 30 Apr – 02 May 2026
Get ready to be immersed in two resonant premieres from Crystal Pite and Kameron N. Saunders.
How do we interpret the world around us? How do we respond and react, in our bodies and in our minds? Crystal Pite and Kameron N. Saunders create two powerful works which go to the very core of the human experience.
BACH Re-imagined
The Drum | 20 – 22 Nov 2025
Bach Reimagined is a collaboration between James Wilton Dance, one of Europe’s premier touring dance companies, and Canadian Cellist Raphael Weinroth Browne. The work will explore everything from Bach’s means of composition as a form of divine worship, to the scientific advancements of his contemporary Sir Isaac Newton.
MÁM
The Lyric | 03 – 04 Mar 2026
MÁM is international dance-theatre at its finest. Described as ‘90 minutes of ritualised ecstasy’ by The Irish Times, this visionary piece playfully and provocatively takes you on an otherworldly journey steeped in the landscape and culture of West Kerry in Ireland.
This rapturous production now embarks on its debut UK tour for Dance Consortium.
Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile
The Lyric | 19 – 23 May 2026
Bitter Rivals. Buried secrets. A love to die for.
On board a luxurious cruise under the heat of the Egyptian sun, a couple’s idyllic honeymoon is cut short by a brutal murder. As secrets that have been buried in the sands of time finally resurface, can the world-famous detective, Hercule Poirot, untangle the web of lies and solve another crime?
Sorry (I Broke Your Arms and Legs)
The Drum | 19 – 20 Sep 2025
Sam Wilson, Class 8C, is obviously the correct choice for Head Boy. He’s got the PowerPoint to prove it. But amidst school discos, playground football, and machiavellian scheming, the road to the top will certainly be no Geography with Mr Baker (Geography with Mr Baker is massively easy). As the race intensifies, will Sam cause another boy grievous bodily harm? See title.
After sell-out shows at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2024, this 5-star, ‘painfully funny’ (The Stage) comedy that ‘exudes originality’ (The Recs) comes to Plymouth.
Stories From An Invisible Town
The Drum | 05 – 08 Nov 2025
This collection of dark comic stories woven together by BBC award-winning writer, “the great Welsh storyteller” (The Stage), Shôn Dale-Jones is as much about the imagination as it is about innocence and not knowing what to do with the things we know.
Shôn takes us from the empty swimming pool up the hill to behind the woods, introducing us to five-foot Tarzan, Double Delyth and Lord Ivor as we feel the magnetic pull of the river sucking us in. As this made up town starts to feel more real, Shôn wonders what’s happening to his imagination – it’s running riot. Joyous, stomach-turning, moving and very funny – could this be the best show Shôn has ever made? It could be.
Lovett
The Drum | 26 – 27 Sep 2025
The newly-widowed Mrs Lovett needs to find a way to survive. Using the skills she learned from her whaler father, Eleanor “recalibrates”.
An origin story set before she encounters Sweeney Todd, we discover what ultimately led her to turn his victims into pies.
You may think you already know Mrs. Lovett, but this new play invites you to dig into what made her: the brutal choices of a life in poverty.
Handle With Care
The Drum | 11 – 13 Nov 2025
Handle with Care is theatre stripped down to its essence. No actors, no technicians. Just a box. And you.
In Handle with Care, Ontroerend Goed puts you in control. We provide the structure; you shape the experience
A Theatre Royal Plymouth and Ontroerend Goed co-production.
Derren Brown – Only Human
The Lyric | 26 – 30 May 2026
Prepare to be astonished! The multi award-winning master of mind control and psychological illusion, Derren Brown, returns to Plymouth with his brand new live show, Only Human.
The content of Only Human is still under wraps, but we can guarantee you a mind-blowing experience that’ll take your breath away!
Tickets for Derren’s shows always sell out fast, so don’t miss out.
The Colour of Dinosaurs
The Drum | 28 Oct – 01 Nov 2025
Dr Jakob Vinther, the famous paleontologist, changed the world with his mind-blowing scientific discovery when he figured out what colour dinosaurs actually were. Now Dr Jakob swaps the lab for the stage alongside 5 musicians, who through catchy tunes and soaring stories, learn all about Jakob’s roarsome discovery!
The Colour of Dinosaurs brings the story of Jakob’s extraordinary science to life and celebrate everyone’s identities, including disability, cultural identity, and of course, how much we all love dinosaurs!
Truth’s A Dog Must to Kennel
The Drum | 14 – 15 Nov 2025
The Fool leaves King Lear before the blinding. Before the killing starts. Before the ice-creams in the interval.
In this new solo work, Tim Crouch draws on ideas of virtual reality to send him back to the future of the play he left. Back to a world laid waste by division and trauma; a world where the revolution will take place on a screen.
Truth’s a Dog Must to Kennel is a daringly unaccommodated piece of theatre that switches between scathingly funny stand-up and an audacious act of collective imagining. It’s a celebration of live performance and a skewering of the state we’re in now.
King Lear meets stand-up meets the metaverse.
King Arthur
The Lyric | 01 Nov 2025
Camelot is in trouble. King Arthur knows that if he doesn’t turn things around, this civilisation will be forgotten, and be known as nothing more than a rather dull time in British history. But when three hapless squires approach him about changing that legacy… a legend is born.
Teaming up with one of UK theatre’s best comedy writers and directors, John Nicholson, award-winning funny men Le Navet Bete are back with a brand-new laugh-out-loud show for the ages.
Josh Widdicombe: Not My Cup of Tea
The Lyric | 21 Apr 2026
Josh Widdicombe is back on tour… not again!
By now he has almost certainly mastered the art of stand-up, either that or he has wasted the last 15 years of his life. Come along and decide for yourself. Expect it to be shorter and with lower production values than Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, but funnier and with more references to tea.
That’ll Be The Day
The Lyric | 07 Mar 2026
Don’t miss this unforgettable performance celebrating the 40th Anniversary of That’ll Be The Day and Trevor’s farewell tour.
Experience a unique blend of rock ‘n’ roll, pop, and comedy, featuring timeless hits from the 50s through to the 80s.
Ordinary Decent Criminal
The Drum | 09 – 11 Oct 2025
Starring political comedian Mark Thomas, join Frankie as he enters the brave new world of a liberal prison experiment. His fellow convicts aren’t what they seem, and he discovers: the revolution is not dead. It’s just sleeping.
We Are Here To Share
The Drum | 25 Oct 2025
Beyond Face presents an evening showcasing two brand new works in development from Beyond Face Associate Artists Lau Batty and Rozelle Gemma.
This We are Here to Share event is the culmination of our Associate Artists programme, the chance to watch the full-length instalment of these two brand new shows, which draw on the artists’ personal experiences, telling unique, compelling and powerful stories.
Jessica Hepburn’s Great Adventure (with Special Guests)
The Drum | 11 – 13 Sep 2025
Jessica Hepburn is an unlikely adventurer and she wants to tell you her story in her own words – with music – because every great adventure needs a soundtrack!
Join us for an extraordinary theatrical journey from sea to summit.
A Theatre Royal Plymouth production.
Pub Grub
The Drum | 16 – 17 Sep 2025
Fun + filthy poems from someone who knows what they’re doing. If there were any justice he’d be Poet Laureate, or King.
After selling out shows across the country with JOY!, Luke Wright is back with a sticky-floored celebration of the ordinary. Here the poet conjures up a world of Tuesday lunchtimes and small town boozers in poems that burst with inventive language.
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Dear England
The Lyric | Mon 15 – Sat 20 Sep 2025 |
Dear England tells the inspiring, at times heart-breaking, and ultimately uplifting story of Gareth Southgate’s revolutionary tenure as England manager.
Dick Whittington
The Lyric | Fri 12 Dec – Sat 10 Jan 2025 |
Join our hero Dick Whittington (and his trusty cat!) as he seeks fame, fortune and happiness journeying to become Lord Mayor.
Matilda
The Lyric | Tue 13 Jan – Sat 07 Feb 2026 |
An extraordinary little girl who, armed with a vivid imagination and a sharp mind, dares to take a stand and change her own destiny.