Theatre round up: 15 of the best plays coming in November

At age 24, writer/performer Matt Haig’s world collapsed under the weight of depression. An ultimately uplifting exploration of living and loving better, this is the true story of his journey out of that crisis. A play with music and movement, it’s an adaptation of Haig’s bestselling book.

Artistic Director Sarah Frankcom’s farewell production for the RX is a play by Simon Stephens, featuring original music by Jarvis Cocker. Connecting five relatives in disparate English towns, this layered play is about facing death and how our love survives us after we’ve gone.

The classic children’s book by Raymond Briggs and the animated short film are reinvented for the theatre. The show features music and lyrics by Howard Blake, including the classic Walking in the Air. It was first staged 20 years ago and has been a hit ever since.

Written by Imogen Stubbs, the story centres on a group of female actors touring Shakespeare plays round Britain during World War II. It’s based on a real-life acting group, the Osiris Players. The play is presented by the students of the Manchester School of Theatre.

A story that could be ripped from the headlines, this play explores how black footballers deal with racial abuse and physical threats. It’s a dramatization of the career of 1970s soccer star Laurie Cunningham. Incorporating funk music and political oratory, it recreates a tense period in our social history.

Set in the 1920s, this is the story of Honey Grey, a singer in her father’s band. She is a master of ragtime and the blues and belts out many hits of the day. But she’s living a lie, and that’s a dangerous thing in the South.

This trio of shows begins with Puccini’s classic La bohème, with the action transposed to the 1960s. Next is Handel’s Giulio Cesare (Julius Caesar), and then it’s the turn of Martinu’s The Greek Passion. With a season ticket you can see multiple shows and save money.

Beset by social anxiety, Mark is a young gay man who agonises over the best way to be himself and connect with other people. A humorous look at vulnerability, the play sees Mark spend the night in alone, far from the glamour of his carefully curated Instagram feed.

Based on true events, the play begins as a love story at the bottom of the social ladder. This soon becomes an abusive and violent relationship from which the female partner cannot escape. When she unexpectedly falls pregnant, her desire to protect her son takes a tragic turn.

Christopher Marlowe’s classic tale centres on a man who summons the devil to grant his every wish. But the devil has a price: it will cost Faustus his soul. In this irreverent retelling, a cast of three squeeze the whole story into an hour, with laughs, music, and magic.

Six characters and their shadow counterparts are swept into different stories and places, revealing inner worlds and motivations. The un-evolved, primitive, inferior and awkward parts step into the light. Inspired by Carl Jung’s model of the psyche, the play aims to delve into the theme of unconscious desire.

The critically acclaimed cult film is even campier now it’s a musical. Starring Strictly Come Dancing winner Joe McFadden, this hit show features an array of glamorous costumes, fabulous feathers and a parade of dance-floor classics, including It’s Raining Men and I Will Survive.

This double Olivier Award-winning show is based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, by way of the Powell & Pressburger film. A dance extravaganza, it’s all set to the music of Bernard Herrmann. Early booking is crucial, as last time around this production smashed box office records.

This blackly comic urban folktale centres on two complete strangers locked in a room in a high-rise flat. As a blurry Friday night crawls towards an agonising dawn, and with no salvation in sight, it becomes clear that one man’s dreamland may be another’s dystopia.

This classic Broadway musical was inspired by the memoirs of striptease artiste Gypsy Rose Lee. With lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, it features hits such as Everything’s Coming Up Roses. Melissa James plays the lead, and West End legend Ria Jones is the stage mother from hell.