Beat the clock

Clocking in at 80 minutes, history didn't give Mary Todd Lincoln the spotlight - Cole Escola did. This Tony Award-winning dark comedy storms into the West End with Catherine Tate taking over as the alcoholic, miserable, magnificent Mary, a woman stuck in a loveless marriage, desperate to be a cabaret star, and about to become the most chaotic First Lady you've ever encountered.

On Sunday, Cynthia Erivo ran 26.2 miles through London for charity. Then she came back to do it all again playing all 23 characters in Kip Williams' extraordinary reimagining of Bram Stoker's gothic masterpiece, solo, without an interval, for 1hr 50 mins. Erivo is incandescent in this cine-theatre spectacle that blurs the line between film and live performance, seductive and unstoppable in equal measure.

Divorced. Beheaded. Live in the West End. Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss's pop-concert phenomenon gives Henry VIII's six wives the mic and the result is 80 minutes of era-defining bangers, killer choreography and the kind of collective joy that makes you immediately want to see it again. No kings. No interval. No notes.

One of the most exhilarating experiences in London right now: witness 1 hour 40 minutes of astonishing feats of athleticism that would make even the most seasoned marathon runner wince. Under the Empress Museum's vast circus tent is an immersive world of trapeze, high-wire, aerial acts and heart-stopping acrobatics colliding with every banger from The Greatest Showman, from "This Is Me" to "Rewrite the Stars."

Rosamund Pike recently ran away with the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Play — and with Inter Alia clocking in under 1 hour 40 minutes, you'll see exactly why. As Jessica Parks, a maverick Crown Court judge whose carefully balanced life is torn apart by a single devastating event...

100 minutes. 20 songs. Four ABBAtars rendered at jaw-dropping scale, backed by a live 10-piece band in a purpose-built arena at the Olympic Park. Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Anni-Frid as you've never seen them — and somehow, exactly as you always imagined.

The greatest careers aren't always about finishing first. They're about going the distance. Still the most joyful night out in London. Still packing out the house every week. Still impossible to leave without "Dancing Queen" stuck in your head for three days.

The year is 1536. The runtime is 1 hour 50 minutes. Both will fly by. A field in Essex. Three women gather to swap gossip from London and realise the royal scandal unfolding miles away in Anne Boleyn's court is uncomfortably close to home. Ava Pickett's debut play arrives in the West End after a sold-out run at the Almeida, with Liv Hill, Siena Kelly and Tanya Reynolds reprising their roles. Razor-sharp, darkly funny and quietly devastating, one of the most exciting new British plays in years.

How long does it take to uncover the truth? In this case, 1 hour 30 minutes. A stately home. A cache of hidden diaries. Three women and a house full of secrets that don't want to be found. Winsome Pinnock's gothic psychological thriller reunites the writer-director team behind Rockets and Blue Lights, with Rakie Ayola, Sylvestra Le Touzel and Cherrelle Skeete. Unsettling, absorbing, and gone before May is out — if you're going, go soon.