Women to watch in the West End in 2025

We take a look at some of the most exciting female talent in theatre today, including Indhu Rubasingham, shortly taking the top job at the National Theatre.

As we celebrate International Women’s Day on 8 March, we take a look at some of the notable women creating brilliant work in theatre today, both on stage and in creative roles.

The 2025 Olivier nominations include Lindsey Ferrentino for Best New Play for The Fear of 13, and Eline Arbo nominated for both Best New Play (in an English version by Stephanie Bain) and Best Director (the only woman in that particular category) for The Years. MJ the Musical, with its book by Lynn Nottage, and Why Am I So Single, co-written by Lucy Moss with Toby Marlow have been nominated for Best New Musical. Julia Cheng, Es Devlin, Frankie Bradshaw, Sachiko Nakahara, Paule Constable, and Aideen Malone have also been nominated in creative categories, but gender parity is still a way off.

Read our list of women causing a stir in 2025. This list is, of course, by no means exhaustive.

Tamsin Greig

The star of Black Books, Green Wing, Friday Night Dinner, and much more, Tamsin Greig plays the role of Hester Collyer in The Deep Blue Sea by Terence Rattigan (who wrote brilliantly for women) for a limited season at Theatre Royal Haymarket. Greig is an Olivier winner for her Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing and was further nominated for The Little Dog Laughed and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. She is currently starring alongside Celia Imrie in Backstroke at the Donmar Warehouse, with our reviewer stating "Celia Imrie and Tamsin Greig bring a sparking yin-yang energy to Anna Mackmin’s play [...] they are always gripping to watch." Before that, she was in Peggy for You at Hampstead Theatre, giving what LondonTheatre.co.uk’s reviewer called “nothing less than one of the best performances of 2021”.

Book The Deep Blue Sea tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk.

Amy Heckerling and KT Tunstall

Jane Austen, born 250 years ago this December, is one of the greatest writers of all time and her novels continue to have universal resonance. Many will know that the 1995 teen favourite Clueless is based on Emma, arguably her masterpiece. Two fantastic women are bringing the film to the stage: Amy Heckerling, who wrote the original screenplay, provides the book, and multi-award-winning singer-songwriter KT Tunstall has written her first score for a musical.

Book Clueless tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk.

Kait Kerrigan

American playwright Kait Kerrigan has provided the book for the musical adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, which is sure to be one of the glitziest shows of the year. And that isn’t all – her earlier Drama Desk-nominated work The Mad Ones (formerly known as The Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown), written with her long-time collaborator Bree Lowdermilk, comes to The Other Palace in May.

Book The Great Gatsby tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Jane Krakowski

One of Stephen Sondheim’s greatest strengths was his exceptional writing for women. In the UK premiere of his last work, the cryptic Here We Are, the National Theatre productions welcomes stage and screen star Jane Krakowski back to London, after winning an Olivier for her Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls two decades ago. While best known for her television work in Ally McBeal, 30 Rock, and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Krakowski created the role of Dinah in the original Broadway production of Starlight Express; she won a Tony for Nine, and has starred in Once Upon a Mattress, Damn Yankees, She Loves Me, and more. A true Broadway baby.

The show's other leading ladies include Tracie Bennett (Follies), Martha Plimpton (The Good Wife), and Chumisa Dornford-May (recently Olivier nominated for Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812), who’s a real rising star.

Book Here We Are tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk.

Suzie Miller

Australian playwright Suzie Miller is known for plays that explore social justice issues and Prima Facie, in which Jodie Comer played a sexual assault survivor, was a huge talking point when it was performed in the West End in 2022. A film adaptation starring Cynthia Erivo is in the works. Miller’s next play Inter Alia, in which a judge’s son is accused of rape, will premiere at the National Theatre this summer. The luminous Rosamund Pike stars (you can read our profile of Pike here).

Book Inter Alia tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk.

Amy Ng

Also a published historian and skilled linguist, British-Hong Kong playwright Amy Ng has had work produced by Storyhouse Chester, Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre, Hampstead Theatre, and the Finborough Theatre. In 2023, her play Girl, Disappeared was shortlisted for the Women's Playwriting Prize. Ng’s new play Shanghai Dolls, premiering at the Kiln Theatre next month, explores how the friendship between communist revolutionary Jiang Qing (Madame Mao) and theatre director Sun Weishi influenced the course of 20th-century Chinese history.

Book Shanghai Dolls tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk.

Georgina Onuorah

Since making her debut as the Alternate Cinderella in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical of the same name, Georgina Onuorah has showcased extraordinary flair and versatility in all the roles she’s undertaken, including Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, Angelica in Hamilton, and Lois Lane/Bianca in Kiss Me, Kate. Her next project is playing Lulu in the UK premiere of Shucked at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. Alex Newell, who is non-binary, won the Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for the role. Perhaps there’ll be a Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Musical nod for Onuorah in the 2026 Oliviers?

Book Shucked tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk.

Indhu Rubasingham

No list would be complete with Indhu Rubasingham, who takes up the role of artistic director of the National Theatre in spring 2025. She is the first woman and person of take to hold this post. As artistic director of the Kiln Theatre, Rubasingham’s mission was to platform underrepresented voices and to be a local theatre with an international vision. Her appointment at the National is inspired and we look forward to finding out more about her first season in charge in due course.

Book tickets to shows at the National Theatre on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Rosie Sheehy

Since graduating from RADA, Rosie Sheehy has performed in the West End and at the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre. Her performance as Helen in Machinal, Sophie Treadwell’s expressionistic masterpiece, has earned her a richly deserved Olivier nomination. LondonTheatre.co.uk’s reviewer described her performance as “an astonishing feat”. Sheehy is shortly appearing in Conor McPherson’s 1980s-set new play The Brightening Air, alongside Chris O’Dowd and Brian Gleeson.

Book The Brightening Air tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk.

Imelda Staunton and Bessie Carter

Dominic Cooke’s new production of George Bernard Shaw’s Mrs Warren’s Profession, about an idealistic young woman who learns that her Cambridge education was funded by her mother’s work in the sex industry, features a real-life mother and daughter in the lead roles. Imelda Staunton needs no introduction, being one of the most acclaimed and beloved performers of her generation, and currently Olivier-nominated for her performance in Hello, Dolly!. LondonTheatre.co.uk’s reviewer observed that “the small-but-mighty Staunton can command the Palladium all by herself.”

Best known so far for playing the dim-witted Prudence Featherington in Bridgerton, Staunton’s daughter Bessie Carter enchanted LondonTheatre.co.uk’s reviewer with her “beautifully detailed and delicate performance” in Dear Octopus at the National Theatre last year. She also plays novelist Nancy Mitford in the upcoming Outrageous, a biographical series about the notorious Mitford sisters.

Book Mrs Warren’s Profession tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Photo credit: Indhu Rubasingham. (Courtesy of National Theatre)