King’s Head Theatre have today announced their Spring 2025 season, as the theatre goes into its second year in its brand-new home at Islington Square. The 220 seat auditorium will host a number of brand new plays and musicals from January – August 2025, all of which are world or UK Premieres and mark the productions’ first major outings.
Executive Producer and Acting CEO Sofi Berenger said “Less than a year into the new theatre it feels amazing to be able to announce this season of work and present not one, but three new full-length musicals Stalled, King of Pangea and The Show on the Roof, which will mark our first major musical productions in the new theatre; and four brand new plays. I’m especially excited that 50% of our season is written, directed and produced by female or non-binary creatives, and we continue to have predominantly LGBTQ+ work on our stages. This includes Firebird and a repertoire of two new plays by female writers, directors and producers featuring Puppy playing over Lesbian Visibility Week and our former artistic director Hannah Price making her debut on our new stage with (This is not a) Happy Room. And finally, with a Labour government back after 14 years we’re rounding off the season with The Gang of Three. But I can assure you, that’s not all we’re working on and there’s some more exciting casting and other announcements to come.”
First in the season, running from 9 January – 9February, is FIREBIRD by Richard Hough (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Southwark Playhouse; Our Man In Havana, Watermill Theatre) Directed by Owen Lewis (Olivier award nominated Eric and Little Ern, St James’ Theatre; Dad’s Army Radio Show, National Tour; Suggs; My Life Story, Garrick Theatre), the show draws on a true-life Cold War story of a young soldier and fighter pilot who embark on a clandestine affair in Soviet-occupied Estonia. The story comes alive on stage for the first time after an acclaimed film by Peeter Rebane and Tom Prior (2021) which premiered at BFI Flare: London’s LGBTQI+ Film Festival. The story is based on Sergey Fetisov’s memoir Firebird: The Story of Roman.
The theatre will be premiering three brand new full-length musicals in the season. The first of these, running from 13 February – 23 March, is Stalled: A New Musical by Liesl Wilke and Andy Marsh. In a bougie-ass Seattle ladies’ room, meet a frazzled mother, a neurodivergent daughter, a young, nonbinary poet and a terrified, queer computer scientist. With soul-stirring melodies and a rare authenticity, Stalled: A New Musical was developed in a full reading on Broadway and workshop production in LA. This production sees the world premiere of this new musical, with tickets on sale 22 October.
Former Artistic Director Hannah Price will make her directorial debut in the new building with Rosie Day’s (This Is Not A) Happy Room (26 March – 27 April). In this new dark comedy, we meet the Hendersons, a happily dysfunctional family reuniting for their father’s fourth wedding. However, when he dies in a car accident on the way there, the family rapidly switch the wedding to a funeral, unearthing secrets and confessions from their upbringing along the way. Hailed as Saltburn meets Schitt’s Creek, this is Rosie Day’s (known for her role as Mary Hawkins in Outlander) second play after Instructions for a Teenage Armageddon which premiered at Southwark Playhouse before transferring to the Garrick.
Playing in repertoire alongside this from 1 – 27 April will be Naomi Westerman’s Puppy, produced by Relish Theatre and directed by Kayla Feldman. Puppy explores boundaries of female and queer sexuality, following two women who set up their own feminist porn company and find themselves in a battle for their rights. The show is based around the controversial 2014 pornography legislation, which left many women working in the industry concerned that it would fall back on ‘boring male fantasy’. The month will thus be showcasing two brand new plays by female playwrights and directors, with audience members offered the chance to see both shows back-to-back every evening as a double bill.
From leading play-writing duo Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky (Brexit, Edinburgh Fringe, King’s Head Theatre; Kingmaker, Arts Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe & Brighton Fringe) comes The Gang of Three, (30 April – 1 June). This play follows Labour leader Harold Wilson’s shock resignation as Prime Minister in 1976, and the attempt by three feuding political giants – Roy Jenkins, Denis Healey and Tony Crosland – to replace him. The Gang of Three tells the story of how their fractured friendships and bitter rivalries instead ushered in eighteen years of Tory rule. This new political drama is directed by Kirsty Patrick Ward (The Children, Nottingham Playhouse; Strike!, Southwark Playhouse; The Sweet Science of Bruising; Southwark Playhouse & Wilton’s Music Hall; Groan Ups, Vaudeville Theatre, Manic Street Creature, Summerhall, Edinburgh Fringe; Spiderfly, Theatre 503).
Following this will be King of Pangea with book, music and lyrics by Martin Storrow (7 June – 6 July), the second full-length musical of the season and a breakout hit with audiences at the National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s New Musicals Festival. When Christopher Crow faces a tragic loss, he escapes to the only place that makes sense – Pangea, the imaginary island of his childhood. Based on the author’s authentic experience, this wholly original and soul-stirring folk musical is a celebration of the extraordinary power of hope.
This trio of new full-length musicals concludes with Tom Ford & Alex Syiek’s The Show on the Roof (11 July – 16 August). The show dramatises a series of investigations and arrests of queer men in Boise, Idaho in the 1950s. This toe-tapping new musical shines a light on a pivotal yet overlooked chapter of LGBTQ+ history, which remains a watershed moment in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights in the USA. Following its premiere in Boise in 2022, this will be the musical’s European premiere.
All productions except Stalled: A New Musical go on sale today at 10am. Exclusive Early Bird tickets (using code EARLYBIRD) are on offer for best available seats for £20 (off-peak) or £25 (peak times) if booking before November 30th for every show in the season, and every show will be part of the venue’s 10 for £10 offer.
This season also welcomes three new schemes to promote affordable access to the theatre: those under 35, N1 residents, and theatre artists will all be able to access new memberships, giving them discounted tickets as well as other benefits. This is on top of the existing KHT Club offer – club members will be able to access £20 tickets for all shows with their memberships at any point.
As previously announced, King’s Head Theatre itself will also be producing a brand-new pantomime offering this Christmas, with Little Angel Theatre: Cinderella. Islington’s only pantomime, the show will have both adult and family performances, and will be written and directed by Andy Pollard.
