Pride - The new musical opens at London's National Theatre

On 25 June 2026, we ventured over to the National Theatre, where the world premiere production of new musical Pride celebrated its official opening, following a run at Cardiff's Sherman Theatre. The stage adaptation of the much-loved 2014 film reunites its original writer Stephen Beresford and director Matthew Warchus, who spoke with us after the curtain call about how the Pride project got rolling and how early the notion of turning the movie into a musical came about. We were also joined by castmates Samuel Barnett (who plays Jonathan), Lewis Cornay (Bromley), Matthew Durkan (Mike), Gillian Elisa (Gwen), Chris Jenkins (Gethin), Jhon Lumsden (Mark), Kirsty Malpass (Hefina), Sarah Pugh (Siân), Jordan Shaw (Reggie), Courtney Stapleton (Steph), and Caroline Sheen (Maureen). Watch all the opening night highlights! The cast also includes Robin Hayward (Martin), Darren Lawrence (Cliff), Mared Williams (Margaret) and Matthew Woodyatt (Dai), alongside ensemble members Daniel Forrester, Alyn Hawke, Madeleine Morgan, Catherine Morris, Helen Siveter and Graham Vick. Set during the miners’ strike of 1984, the musical follows Mark, a young man who leads a group of lesbian and gay activists to lend their support to a striking mining community in south Wales. Pride has a book and lyrics by Beresford, music by Christopher Nightingale, Josh Cohen and DJ Walde, and is developed and directed by Warchus. Orchestrations are by Nightingale and Tom Kelly, with music supervision by Kelly and additional orchestrations by Cohen and Walde. The creative team is completed by set and costume designer Bunny Christie, choreographer Lizzi Gee, lighting designer Hugh Vanstone, sound designer Bobby Aitken, music director Jo Cichonska, hair, wig and make-up design Campbell Young Associates, casting director David Grindrod, dialect coach Nick Trumble, voice coach Charlie Hughes D’Aeth, associate director Jamie Manton, associate set designer Verity Sadler, associate choreographer (Sherman Theatre) Ashley Andrews, associate lighting designer and video Luca Panetta, associate sound designer Jonas Roebuck, associate music director Natalie Pound and staff director Jennifer Lane Baker. Pride is presented by P&P Productions with the National Theatre in association with Pathé, Calamity Films and David Binder Productions.