Firstly: we knew it was coming… we just didn’t know when! But now, it’s finally been announced: the London transfer of the hit musical Matilda is coming to the Cambridge Theatre on 22 November (previews from 18 October).

That means the record-breaking Chicago (14 years and counting!) will be booted out of the venue, but I’ve got every confidence they’ll find another home for their fishnets and jazz-hands soon.

Matilda, meanwhile, will retain much of its cast from the award-winning Stratford run, including London stage regular Bertie Carvel as child-hating headmistress Miss Trunchbull, and Paul Kaye and Josie Walker as Matilda’s parents Mr and Mrs Wormwood. Tickets go on sale this weekend for performances up until 12 February – get booking now!

I’ve got great casting news for you this week: so many great names are stepping up to put on a show in London, it’s a really exciting time.

• Miranda Raison is returning to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in July. She’ll play the lead in Anne Boleyn a new play by Howard Brenton  which sold out last year. (I saw the show, and thoroughly recommend it.)
• EastEnder Phil Daniels is joining the cast of The Beggar’s Opera at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. If you’re not a soap fan, you might know Daniels from the film Quadrophenia, TV series Holding On and Rock & Chips, and as the famous voice in Blur’s 1994 hit Parklife.
• Romola Garai, who’s been all over our TV screens in period adaptations recently (Emma, The Crimson Petal and The White) is to appear at the Royal Court this summer. She’ll star alongside Alexandra Gilbreath and Nicholas Burns (Nathan Barley to you and me) in The Village Bike, a darkly comic, provocative new play by Penelope Skinner.
• It’s a case of “Here I Go Again” for West End regular, Sally Ann Triplett. She’s heading back to Mamma Mia! after a two-year absence to play leading lady Donna Sheridan.
• Finally, star of stage and screen Michael Feast is joining the cast of Pygmalion on Monday, replacing Simon Ward, who’s contracted a viral infection. Feast joins Rupert Everett, Kara Tointon and Diana Rigg in the hotly-anticipated new production of George Bernard Shaw’s classic.

Let us know in the comments what you’ve seen and enjoyed in London’s theatres this week…

Spooks and Shakespeare fans will be pleased to hear the gorgeous Miranda Raison is going to be onstage in London this summer. Miranda, who played Jo Portman in the long-running spy drama, takes on the role of Anne Boleyn in two different productions at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. She’ll be playing the doomed queen in both Shakespeare’s rarely performed Henry VIII and a new play called Anne Boleyn by Howard Brenton.

Another TV star headed for the London stage is Emma Barton (Honey Mitchell in EastEnders to you and me), who’s appearing as Roxie Hart in Chicago at the end of the month. The former EastEnder moves to the West End’s Cambridge Theatre from 26 April, and she’s joined by Vivien Carter as Velma Kelly.

And there’s news from the lovely Riverside Studios in Hammersmith: a Howard Barker Festival celebrates the “theatre of catastrophe” writer later this month. Hurts Given and Received and Slowly are playing from 29 April and 1 May respectively: you can see both on one evening for £22. Then, on 2 May, there’ll be a rehearsed reading of Barker’s newest play Wonder and Worship in the Dying Ward. It’ll probably be tough viewing, but compelling nonetheless!

On a lighter note, the team here are off to see London’s new production of Hair! tonight. We’ll drop you a line about it very soon…