The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?
The late, great American playwright Edward Albee is enjoying a West End renaissance this year. The much anticipated revival of his controversial Tony Award-winning play is showing around the corner from a new production of his 1962 masterpiece Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, starring Imelda Staunton. In The Goat, Damian Lewis plays architect Martin, a man whose seemingly idyllic life is thrown into disarray when he embarks on a passionate and improbable love affair.
Theatre Royal Haymarket, until 24 June; trh.co.uk
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Obsession
A more conventional yet equally deadly affair is the premise of a new stage adaptation of Italian director Luchino Visconti's 1943 film Ossessione, based on the James M Cain novel The Postman Always Rings Twice. Jude Law is perfectly cast as Gino, a handsome, brooding drifter who falls madly in love with roadside-restaurant owner Giovanna. The two quickly give in to temptation and plot to get rid of Giovanna's controlling older husband – with devastating consequences.
Barbican, 19 April-20 May; theatre.barbican.org.uk
The Philanthropist
Simon Callow directs an all-star cast of Britain's brightest comedy talent in a new adaptation of Christopher Hampton's smash-hit 1970 'bourgeois comedy'. Inbetweeners star Simon Bird makes his stage debut alongside Friday Night Dinner co-star Tom Rosenthal, veteran comedy writer and actor Matt Berry, Call the Midwife star Charlotte Ritchie and model-turned-actress Lily Cole. Set in one room over a 24-hour period, the fierce and funny plot sees a group of university academics assemble at a dinner party while the world outside their intellectual bubble falls apart.
Trafalgar Studio One, until 22 July; atgtickets.com
Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes
Oscar-nominated actor Andrew Garfield sinks his teeth into the lead role of Tony Kushner's complex two-part drama set in 1980s New York at the height of the AIDS crisis. This 25th-anniversary production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Angels in America is directed by Marianne Elliott and co-stars Denise Gough and Russell Tovey in surreal, intertwining stories that examine life, love and loss.
National Theatre, 11 April-9 August; nationaltheatre.org.uk
Woyzeck
Not content with conquering Hollywood in his breakout performance in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, John Boyega takes to the Old Vic stage this spring in his first major theatre role. Acclaimed screenwriter Jack Thorne, whose impressive writing credits include This is England '90 and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, breathes new life into Georg Buchner's unfinished masterpiece Woyzeck, the story of a downtrodden soldier, this time set in 1980s Berlin.
Old Vic, 15 May-24 June; oldvictheatre.com
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