‘Thelma & Louise’ Musical to Open Young Vic’s 2026/7 Season

Ben Whishaw. Kathryn Hunter. debbie tucker green. A “Thelma & Louise” musical.

The Young Vic has unveiled a 2026/7 season stacked with world and U.K. premieres running from September through July across the theater’s Main House and Maria Studio, artistic director and CEO Nadia Fall revealed Thursday.

The season opens with the world premiere of “Thelma & Louise” as a new musical, starring Rachel Tucker and Amy Lennox in the title roles, with an original score by Grammy-nominated artist Neko Case. The production carries a book by Callie Khouri, who wrote the Oscar and Golden Globe-winning screenplay on which it is based, and will be directed by Trip Cullman. Tucker (“Wicked,” “Come From Away”) leads as Louise opposite Lennox (“Cabaret,” “Kinky Boots”) as Thelma. It is a co-production between the Young Vic, Sonia Friedman Productions, Blue Spruce Productions, Ley Line Entertainment and Khouri, developed in association with MGM On Stage, with Mandy Greenfield and Sonia Friedman Productions serving as creative producers. It runs Sept. 3 to Oct. 24.

“It’s still a wild and emotional ride made even better by the contribution of the enormous talents of Neko Case, Trip Cullman and our amazing creative team,” Khouri said. “I can’t wait for audiences to experience this timely re-telling.”

The Main House slate continues in November with the English-language premiere of “Eurotrash,” adapted by Colin Teevan from Christian Kracht’s internationally bestselling novel and directed by Walter Meierjohann. Kathryn Hunter and Ben Whishaw – who shared the screen in Netflix’s “Black Doves” – play a son and his aging mother who set off on a chaotic Alpine road trip to dispose of a fortune whose origins neither can be proud of. The show is a co-production between the Young Vic and Red Peter Productions, the company formed by Hunter, Meierjohann and Teevan in 2025. It runs Nov. 13 to Jan. 9, 2027.

“I feel privileged to have been entrusted with bringing her to life – her eccentricities, contradictions, and complexities – opposite the brilliant Ben Whishaw,” Hunter said, noting that the production reunites her with Meierjohann and Teevan a decade after their last Young Vic collaboration, “The Emperor.”

Whishaw called the prospect of working with Hunter “thrilling,” adding that he was eager to explore “the rich, complex relationship between a mother and son that sits at the heart of Christian Kracht’s brilliant, unsettling and very funny novel.”

The U.K. premiere of “La Distance,” written and directed by Tiago Rodrigues – the Portuguese playwright who currently heads the Festival d’Avignon – arrives Jan. 22 to Feb. 13, 2027. Originally staged at Avignon in 2025, the play follows a father and daughter whose bond is tested across the vastness of space as one of them starts a new life on Mars while Earth deteriorates. Original cast members Adama Diop and Alison Dechamps reprise their roles. The production is performed in French with English surtitles.

Olivier and BAFTA Award winner debbie tucker green, whose previous Young Vic work includes “ear for eye,” returns with the world premiere of “dissent,” a new play that interrogates the conditions under which ordinary people become complicit in atrocity. It runs Mar. 5 to Apr. 24, 2027. The season closes with the first U.K. staging in 20 years of August Wilson’s “Gem of the Ocean,” directed by Fall herself, running May 14 to July 10, 2027.

In the Maria Studio, the immersive Edinburgh Fringe pop-up Shedinburgh makes its London debut Sept. 19 to Oct. 10, with a reconstructed shed venue hosting more than 40 shows from artists including Inua Ellams, Sara Pascoe, Bryony Kimmings and Rosie Jones. The production is presented by Francesca Moody Productions in association with the Young Vic. Ellams also headlines a stand-alone “R.A.P. Party” event on Oct. 14 honouring the late D’Angelo, with 10 contemporary poets responding to his debut album “Brown Sugar.” Later in the Maria, Ewa Dina – recipient of the 2026 JMK Award – makes her Young Vic directing debut with a revival of Theresa Ikoko’s “Girls,” which centers on three teenage friends whose lives are upended when armed insurgents abduct them from their homes. It runs Oct. 22 to Nov. 21.

“Our 2026/7 season welcomes powerful international storytelling into our unique shape-shifting spaces, transporting audiences from the American mid-west to Nigeria and from the Swiss Alps, to a red planet in the depths of our solar system,” Fall said. “From blockbuster musicals to experimental new work and a celebration of the creativity and anarchy of the Edinburgh Fringe, I can’t wait to share this new program with you all.”