Broadway shows that premiered in London

Many of the hit plays and musicals on Broadway right now debuted in the West End.

You’ve heard of the “British Invasion” of the American rock and pop music scenes in the 1960s. Now, in the 2020s, it’s happening again — only this time in the theatre world. The past few Broadway seasons have all included the bows of productions that started in London’s West End.

Although some recent shows with origins across the pond, like Best Play Tony winner The Inheritance and Betrayal in the 2019-2020 season, had limited Broadway engagements, many productions that opened in past seasons are still enjoying success in New York today. Plus, some current West End hits are eyeing a Broadway transfer soon. Learn more about all the shows in New York that got their start onstage in London.

Get tickets to Broadway shows on New York Theatre Guide.

Hadestown

Way down … London Town? After premiering at New York Theatre Workshop in 2017, a new production of Hadestown opened at London’s National Theatre in November 2018 and ran through January 2019. That March, the production jumped back across the Atlantic and opened on Broadway with its West End cast in tow: Reeve Carney (Orpheus), Eva Noblezada (Eurydice), Amber Gray (Persephone), Patrick Page (Hades) and André De Shields (Hermes).The production won 8 Tonys out of 14 nominations in 2019, including Best Musical, and all five principal cast members have returned with the show.

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Six

No way! In a rather unorthodox path for a show, Six didn’t just hit the West End before it hit Broadway — the musical played across the U.K. and U.S. first. After selling out its premiere run at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, Six enjoyed two U.K. tours and a North American tour, plus an Australian premiere and a Norwegian Cruise Line engagement. In 2019, Six began a West End run that has spanned three theatres and is still going strong. The show finally started performances on Broadway in 2020. Its opening night was scheduled for March 12, 2020, the day all Broadway theatres shut down due to the pandemic, but it restarted performances again in the fall 2021 season.

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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Befitting of a franchise set in the U.K., Harry Potter and the Cursed Child had its premiere at the West End’s Palace Theatre in June 2016. The play moved to Broadway just under two years later, beginning performances in March 2018. Most of the original West End cast transferred to New York with the production, though a new cast is currently performing. The show was an awards favorite in both London and New York: The West End production won 9 Olivier Awards out of 11 nominations, and the Broadway production won 6 awards out of 10 nominations. At both ceremonies, the play won the coveted Best Play award.

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& Juliet

David West Read and Max Martin’s retelling of the Shakespeare classic is playing a pre-Broadway tryout in summer 2022, readying the musical for its Broadway transfer in October. & Juliet wonders what would have become of the title heroine had she not died at the end of the original play — and the alternative they offer is her riotous coming-of-age set to contemporary pop music. The show, which was nominated for nine Olivier Awards and won three, premiered in the West End at the Shaftesbury Theatre in November 2019. The pre-Broadway engagement marked the show’s North American debut, taking place at the Ed Mirvish Theatre in Toronto, Canada. Now, in fair New York will & Juliet soon lay its scene.

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Cabaret

Sixty years since the Kander and Ebb musical premiered, people still want to come to the cabaret. Most recently, London audiences flocked to the Playhouse Theatre there, which was completely transformed into the Kit Kat Club for director Rebecca Frecknall's award-winning, semi-immersive revival. Now, the August Wilson Theatre is getting the same treatment as the production comes to New York in spring 2024. Willkommen!

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