It seems surprising that the world capital of theatre doesn’t open more new theatres. The latest to throw open its doors carefully claims to be London’s “first newly-built theatre complex in central London in 30 years”. St James Theatre can be found on the site of the old Westminster Theatre in Victoria, and today it has announced its first season of work.

The first play is a double surprise. Sandi Toksvig is overwhelmingly known for making people laugh. It must be the Dane in her who has written a play called Bully Boy about the mental health of British soldiers serving on the front line of a modern insurgency. It stars Anthony Andrews and will be directed by David Gilmore, St James’s new artistic director. Then comes Daddy Long Legs, a musical based on the novel by Jean Webster about the blossoming of a young orphan in New England in the early 1900s. Music and lyrics are by Paul Gordon from a book by Les Mis co-director John Caird, who also directs.

The Christmas show is Cinderella, which was a hit at Bristol’s Tobacco Factory last year, before the mood darkens with Our Country’s Good, the 1988 play Timberlake Wertenbaker based on Thomas Keneally’s novel The Playmaker about a group of convicts in Australia putting on a Restoration comedy. Max Stafford Clark, who directed the original production at the Royal Court, returns to it 25 year on with his company Out of Joint.

The theatre has 312 seats as well as a studio space which holds 150 standing or 100 seated, where ethere will be comedy and live music.

Bully Boy, 18 September – 27 October 2012

Daddy Long Legs, 31 October – 8 December 2012

Cinderella, 12 December 2012 – 26 January 2013

Our Country’s Good, 30 January 2013 – 9 March 2013