Trainspotting The Musical at a glance

Show
Trainspotting The Musical
Status
Theatre Royal Haymarket run closed 5 September 2026; UK tour cancelled 3 August 2026
Theatre
Theatre Royal Haymarket, 18 Suffolk Street, London SW1Y 4HT
Run
15 July – 5 September 2026; press night 22 July 2026 (world premiere)
Genre
Musical, adapted from Irvine Welsh's 1993 novel
Running time
Approximately 2 hours 30 minutes, including a 20-minute interval
Age guidance
15+ (firm) — drug use, death, strong language, adult references
Book
Irvine Welsh
Music and lyrics
Stephen McGuinness and Irvine Welsh
Director
Caroline Jay Ranger
Renton
Lewis Kidd (Robbie Scott, originally announced, withdrew through injury before previews)
Company
Sheridan Townsley (Sick Boy), Kieran Andrew (Spud), Frankie O'Connor (Begbie), Finlay Paul (Tommy), Rebecca McKinnis (Cathy Renton), Gordon Cooper (Davie Renton), Ashley J. Russell (Colleen), Rosie Dignan (Alison), Yana Harris (Kelly), Sophie Hutchinson (Lizzie)
Set and costume
Colin Richmond
Choreography
Christina Andrea
Lighting
Ian Scott
Sound
Rory Madden for Sonalyst
Video
Douglas O'Connell
Musical supervision and orchestrations
Stuart Morley
Tour
Due to open at Edinburgh Playhouse on 19 October 2026; cancelled 3 August 2026 citing disappointing ticket sales
Next at this venue
The Standard of Living, James Graham's new play, from 29 September to 12 December 2026

Looking back: Trainspotting The Musical at the Haymarket

3.0
★★★

LTH Retrospective Rating

Retrospective by the London Theatre Hub editorial team. Last updated: 22 September 2026.

The Verdict

Trainspotting The Musical closed at the Theatre Royal Haymarket on 5 September 2026, seven weeks after its world premiere and a month after its UK tour was pulled. It was a big, expensive swing: Irvine Welsh adapting his own novel, a new score written with Stephen McGuinness, a company of around thirty, a live band on stage, and Colin Richmond's design with Douglas O'Connell's video pushing Leith into the Haymarket's gilt auditorium. Lewis Kidd, promoted from the ensemble to Renton two days before the first preview, played the role as narrator, "signposting the action and giving us insights into his own tormented soul," as The Arts Desk put it.

The critical response was the harshest for any major London opening this year. The Guardian, at one star, found the new songs "forgettable at best, or best forgotten." Time Out, also one, called the whole thing "mechanical and cringeworthy." WhatsOnStage, one star, judged it "simultaneously distasteful and deeply tedious." The Evening Standard, one, thought it "leaden and formulaic where the book was coruscatingly fragmentary." The Stage and The Independent gave two, the latter finding the story turned "into a stodgy museum piece." The Times, at three, credited "unabashed energy" that "keeps the evening aloft." The Sunday Times stood almost alone at four stars: "it works brilliantly," with "superb choreography and a fine young cast." The choreography and the youth of the company were the two things even hostile reviews conceded.

What Made It Notable

  • Welsh adapting Welsh. The author of the novel wrote the book and co-wrote the score, rather than licensing it out — a rarity, and the production's main selling point.
  • A last-minute Renton. Robbie Scott's rehearsal injury, announced 13 July, put ensemble member Lewis Kidd into the lead for the entire London run. Scott had said he hoped to return for the tour; the tour never happened.
  • The tour cancellation. Announced 3 August, five weeks into the run, citing disappointing sales. Welsh's own explanation on Radio 4 was blunt: "Basically people just don't have the money."
  • Christina Andrea's choreography. The one element that drew consistent praise, from the four-star Sunday Times down to the one-star notices.
  • A cautionary tale. Thirty-strong new British musicals with no pre-existing score are rare in the West End for a reason. This one tested the model at scale and the answer was clear within a month.

Everything You Need to Know

What happens in Trainspotting The Musical?

Leith, Edinburgh, the late 1980s. Mark Renton and his friends — Sick Boy, Spud, Tommy and the psychotic Begbie — drift between heroin, the pub, the dole office and each other. Welsh's stage version follows the novel rather than Danny Boyle's 1996 film, which means more of the family — Cathy and Davie Renton, Mark's parents, are principal roles — and a wider circle of women: Alison, Kelly, Lizzie and Colleen.

Act one

Renton tries to quit, fails, and tries again. Tommy, the clean one, gets talked into a first hit. Spud goes to a job interview he has no intention of passing. Begbie starts fights. The songs, newly written by McGuinness and Welsh, carry the interior monologues the novel puts in dialect on the page.

Act two

The consequences arrive: a death, a diagnosis, a funeral, and the London drug deal that ends the novel. Renton's final choice — whether to betray his friends and get out — is the same one the book and the film build toward, and Kidd's narrator-Renton delivers it directly to the house.

This production

Directed by Caroline Jay Ranger, set and costumes by Colin Richmond, choreography by Christina Andrea, lighting by Ian Scott, sound by Rory Madden, video by Douglas O'Connell, musical supervision and orchestrations by Stuart Morley. Approximately 2 hours 30 minutes including a 20-minute interval. Age guidance 15+, firm, for depictions of drug use and death, strong language and adult content.