Gillian Anderson and Billy Crudup will lead the full cast of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at @sohoplace in London's West End, running from 21 September to 19 December 2026, with a press night on 30 September.

Anderson plays Martha and Crudup plays George, the warring academic couple at the centre of Albee's 1962 play. Josh Dylan takes the role of Nick, the young biology professor drawn into their late-night sparring, and Phoebe Horn plays his wife Honey. The production is directed by Marianne Elliott in the round — meaning the audience surrounds the stage on all sides — at @sohoplace, the 600-seat venue on Charing Cross Road built specifically for in-the-round work. Sonia Friedman Productions and Nica Burns produce. (WhatsOnStage)

The production has also released 5,500 front row seats across the engagement, making some of the closest views in the house available to early bookers. Understudies have been announced as Alex Cartuson (Nick), Jessica Kirton (Martha), Georgia Miles (Honey) and Simon Willmont (George). (WhatsOnStage)

Crudup is a Tony Award winner whose stage credits give the production Broadway pedigree. He is best known to television audiences for his role in The Morning Show. Anderson's stage work includes A Streetcar Named Desire at the Young Vic, which transferred to St Ann's Warehouse in New York.

The creative team behind the production includes designer Miriam Buether, lighting designer James Farncombe and sound designer Ian Dickinson. Casting is by Jim Carnahan and Liz Fraser. Ingrid Mackinnon serves as movement and intimacy director, a role that choreographs physical contact and proximity between performers — particularly significant in a play whose emotional violence is as physical as its verbal sparring. Charmian Hoare is voice and dialect coach and Sam Lyon-Behan is fight director. (WhatsOnStage)

A separate Broadway production of the same play is also in the works, headlined by Laurie Metcalf, Eddie Izzard, Russell Tovey and Patsy Ferran. That production was first announced in April 2026. The two stagings are independent of each other, with different casts, creative teams and producers. (WhatsOnStage / Facebook)

Albee's play follows George and Martha through a single, alcohol-soaked night as they entertain a younger couple and dismantle each other with escalating games — real and imagined. It won the 1963 Tony Award for Best Play and has been revived on both sides of the Atlantic multiple times. The role of Martha, in particular, has attracted major performers: Uta Hagen originated it on Broadway, Elizabeth Taylor played it in Mike Nichols's 1966 film, and recent London revivals have included Imelda Staunton and Timothy Spall at the Harold Pinter Theatre in 2017.

Booking for the @sohoplace production is now open.