Emma Thompson’s hit family film Nanny McPhee will be adapted for the West End stage in 2026.
While Emma Thompson has had a phenomenally successful career as an actor – we’re just coming up to the time of year where people watch her character cry to a Joni Mitchell song in Love Actually – she has arguably had just as much success behind the camera, winning an Oscar for her screenplay for Ang Lee’s 1995 big screen version of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility.
In 2005, she wrote and starred in Nanny McPhee, a fun family film based on the Nurse Matilda character by Christianna Brand. It follows a group of unruly kids who are put right by Thompson’s titular nanny, who uses her magic walking stick to teach life lessons. The sequel, Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, arrived in 2010, this time set during the Second World War.
Thompson wrote a third film set in space – we wrote about it here – but it never happened. Yet there is a further chapter to the story coming.
A stage musical was first announced in 2019, but what with world events since then, it is only now coming to fruition. According to Deadline, the musical version of Nanny McPhee will hit the West End stage in 2026.
Thompson has written the book, and is working on the music with songwriter Gary Clark. Katy Rudd has signed on to direct the show.
Olivia Colman played the titular character in an early workshop of the musical in London in 2018, alongside Lily James and Rory Kinnear, with Sophie Thompson also playing McPhee in later run throughs. Still, the producers have stressed that “no casting conversations of any kind. There’s no point talking to anyone until we have booked a theater and confirmed dates”.
Nanny McPhee is currently available to stream on Amazon Prime.
