Oliver! Tickets at the Gielgud Theatre
Oliver! is at the Gielgud Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue, booking to 14 March 2027.
All-in: the price you pick is the price you pay.
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020 7193 9050 · Monday to Saturday 8am to 8pm, Sunday 10am to 8pm
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Who's Oliver! For?
Families with children of about seven and up, and anyone who knows the songs and has not seen the show in a while.
The guidance is 7+, there is gunfire and smoke, and some scenes are a tough watch. Under-3s are not admitted at all.
What Tickets Cost
Tickets start from around £25. There are decent seats in the Grand Circle around £60, and some at the back of the Stalls at about the same. The Dress Circle starts from about £75. Around £100 buys a completely clear view, in either the Stalls or the Dress Circle, and prices climb from there.
Family tickets are available on midweek evenings for a group of four including someone sixteen or under, and they work out a good deal cheaper per head than four singles. Call us on 020 7193 9050 and we will check what is available on your date.
About Oliver! at the Gielgud Theatre
Lionel Bart wrote the book, the music and the lyrics, freely adapted from Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist. It opened in 1960, won the Olivier, the Tony and the Oscar across its life, and has never really gone away since. This production added to that: it was nominated across several categories at the 2025 Olivier Awards and won Best Lighting Design.
The West End had been without it for fourteen years before this production arrived, and that is the most useful thing to know if you are wondering whether you have already seen it. The last London staging was at Drury Lane, in a venue more than twice the size of this one. You have probably seen a different show.
This version began at Chichester Festival Theatre in the summer of 2024 and moved into the Gielgud that December. Booking was extended before opening night.
Cameron Mackintosh has reconceived the production with Matthew Bourne directing and choreographing, and the result is smaller and darker than Drury Lane's. It plays with stripped-back orchestrations and a small-scale orchestra rather than the full sound, and the critics who noticed treated it as a gain: the quiet moments land harder when the band is not filling every gap. Bourne's choreography is the other thing you will notice, and it is what the reviews praised most consistently. The comedy is all still there. What happens to Nancy is not softened.
What's Oliver! About?
A boy in a workhouse asks for a second bowl of gruel, and the trouble he causes by asking gets him sold to an undertaker. He runs away to London, meets a pickpocket his own age called the Artful Dodger, and is taken in by Fagin, who feeds and houses a gang of boys in exchange for what they can steal.
What he has walked into becomes clear slowly. Fagin is charming and Fagin is exploiting them. Bill Sikes, who uses the same gang for housebreaking, is neither. Nancy, who loves Sikes and knows exactly what he is, is the one who decides Oliver should get out, and that decision is what the second half is built on.
The songs are spread right across the evening rather than stacked at the front. Food, Glorious Food opens it with the workhouse boys. Where Is Love? is Oliver alone and is the emotional centre of the first half. Consider Yourself is the Dodger bringing him into London, You've Got to Pick a Pocket or Two is Fagin's introduction of himself, and I'd Do Anything and It's a Fine Life belong to the gang. After the interval, Who Will Buy? is the one everybody underestimates, Oom-Pah-Pah is Nancy at her loudest just before everything turns, As Long As He Needs Me is the one people come for, and Reviewing the Situation is Fagin's showstopper.
Performance Schedule
| Day | Matinee | Evening |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | - | no performance |
| Tuesday | - | 7pm |
| Wednesday | 2:30pm | 7:30pm |
| Thursday | - | 7:30pm |
| Friday | - | 7:30pm |
| Saturday | 2:30pm | 7:30pm |
| Sunday | 2:30pm | - |
Eight performances a week. There is no Monday performance.
Note the Tuesday start: 7pm, not 7.30, which is half an hour earlier than the rest of the week. Check your ticket before you book dinner.
Best Seats for Oliver!
The middle of the Stalls, roughly rows F to N. The Gielgud's stage is set high, which costs the first four rows part of the picture, and the Dress Circle begins to come over at about row L though you will not notice it until row P. Rows F to N sit clear of both.
The Dress Circle rows A to D in the centre are the other strong pick, and rows D, E and F are where the price drops while the view holds up.
The Boxes, the Slips, the step counts and the row-by-row picture are all in our Gielgud Theatre guide.
Cast and Creative Team
Simon Lipkin plays Fagin, with Matt Lucas taking the role from 22 September 2026 for six weeks while Lipkin is away celebrating the birth of his child. Ava Brennan is Nancy, Aaron Sidwell is Bill Sikes and Aaron MacGregor is the Artful Dodger. Oliver is shared between Cian Bhalla, Isaac Hackett, James Miller, Thomas Newman and Jacob Sanders-Jones. Which of them you get depends on the night and nobody can tell you in advance.
Matthew Bourne directs and choreographs. The full creative team is in the Cast and Creatives tab.
Book Oliver! Tickets
On sale to 14 March 2027, so you can choose a date rather than take one.
The range runs from about £25 to close to £200, with the clear-view seats sitting around the £100 mark. Four people with a child among them can use the midweek family price, which is the cheapest way into the good seats.
Matt Lucas plays Fagin from 22 September to 1 November, and is off on 9 October and at the 2:30pm matinee on 29 October. Simon Lipkin is back from 3 November.
All-in pricing, so the price we quote is the price you pay. If you are not sure which level to take, or you want to know what family pricing is open on your date, ring us and we will go through it.
Find tickets for Oliver! • Call us on 020 7193 9050
Dates & tickets
FAQs
About 2 hours 40 minutes, including a 20 minute interval.
Simon Lipkin, except from 22 September to 1 November 2026, when Matt Lucas covers the role. Lipkin returns on 3 November. Matt Lucas is not performing on 9 October, or at the 2:30pm matinee on 29 October. Producers never guarantee a particular performer on a particular night.
The recommendation is 7 and over. Children under 3 are not admitted at all, and anyone under 16 must sit next to a ticketholder aged 18 or over. Everyone needs their own ticket whatever their age.
A little. Bill Sikes is played as genuinely dangerous rather than pantomime-menacing, and Nancy's fate is not softened. Most seven-year-olds are fine; a nervous younger one may not be.
No, but they are closely related. Lionel Bart's stage musical came first, in 1960. The film followed in 1968, took most of the same songs and won Best Picture. Anyone who grew up on the film will know nearly every number in this, and a good deal of the dialogue too.
What you will not recognise is the shape of it. A film can cut away, slow down and go outside; a stage production has to do all of it in one room in front of you, and this one is smaller, darker and faster than the film. The children are real children a few feet away rather than a cast assembled over months of shooting. Most people who come knowing only the film say the difference is bigger than they expected.
They liked it, and the one that matters is the split: the notices divided over whether the production is dark enough, not over whether it is good. Every review is on our What the Critics Say page.
The Gielgud Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1D 6AR. Piccadilly Circus is two minutes away.
An evening at 7:30pm finishes about 10:10pm. The Tuesday performance starts at 7pm and finishes about 9:40pm.
Yes. Ask for one in the foyer before the show. Worth doing: the Stalls rake is shallow until about row K.
Nothing bought anywhere else, water included. The bars sell drinks and snacks.
Yes. Call us on 020 7193 9050 and we will talk through the seats and any family pricing before you book.
Tickets and Best Seats for Oliver!
The Stalls hold just over half the seats and it's where most of the good ones are. Rows F to N in the middle are the pick. The Stalls are one unbroken block with no aisles at all, so you reach your seat from the ends of the row.
The Dress Circle is the most reliable level, and the only one with no real weak spot. Rows A to D central are the best view in the building; rows D, E and F cost noticeably less for a view that holds up.
The Grand Circle is the cheap level, with decent seats around £60. The front rows are the clear ones. It is 60 steps up and there is no lift.
Bringing children? The Stalls put them closest, and a booster seat from the foyer makes the difference in the front half, where the rake is shallow.
Accessibility: the Access section of our Gielgud Theatre guide covers the step-free route and the wheelchair spaces. Access bookings and assisted performance dates are handled by the venue's own team.
Seating plan
Dates & tickets
Booking now
Getting to the Gielgud Theatre
Gielgud Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1D 6AR, on the corner of Rupert Street.
Piccadilly Circus (Bakerloo and Piccadilly lines) is two minutes away. Leicester Square is about five. Charing Cross is ten to fifteen minutes on foot and is the nearest mainline station.
The 14 and the 19 stop on Shaftesbury Avenue within a minute of the door. The 38 does too, but only until 14 November 2026, when it is cut back to Holborn.
Arrive 15 to 20 minutes before, no later. There are bag checks.
Full travel detail, access and everything about the building is in our Gielgud Theatre guide.
Address
Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1D 6AR
Nearest Tube
Piccadilly Circus (2 min walk); Leicester Square (5 min walk); Charing Cross (10-15 min walk, also National Rail)
Oliver! Cast
| Role | Performer |
|---|---|
| Fagin | Simon Lipkin, with Matt Lucas covering 22 September to 1 November 2026 |
| Nancy | Ava Brennan |
| Bill Sikes | Aaron Sidwell |
| The Artful Dodger | Aaron MacGregor |
| Mr Bumble | Oscar Conlon-Morrey |
| Mr Brownlow | Mark Lockyer |
| Widow Corney | Katy Secombe |
| Mr Sowerberry / Dr Grimwig | Stephen Matthews |
| Mrs Sowerberry / Mrs Bedwin | Jamie Birkett |
| Oliver Twist | Cian Bhalla, Isaac Hackett, James Miller, Thomas Newman and Jacob Sanders-Jones, sharing the role |
| Charley Bates | Lochlan White |
| Noah Claypole | Dane Young |
| Bet | Jasmine Sakyiama |
Matt Lucas is not performing on 9 October, or at the 2:30pm matinee on 29 October. The producers do not guarantee any particular performer at any performance.
Creative team. Book, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart, freely adapted from Charles Dickens. Reconceived by Cameron Mackintosh. Directed and choreographed by Matthew Bourne, co-directed by Jean-Pierre van der Spuy, associate choreographer Etta Murfitt. Design Lez Brotherston, lighting Paule Constable and Ben Jacobs, sound Adam Fisher, orchestrations Stephen Metcalfe, musical direction Graham Hurman. Constable and Jacobs won the 2025 Olivier Award for Best Lighting Design for this production.
Oliver! Reviews
The critics were warm and several were more than warm. Five-star notices came from the Telegraph, the Financial Times, the Standard, WhatsOnStage and the Daily Express, with four stars from the Times, the Observer, the Sunday Times and the Stage. Nothing anywhere went below three.
What they agreed on was Matthew Bourne's choreography and the fact that this staging is darker than the Oliver! people remember without losing the comedy. Aaron Sidwell's Bill Sikes drew the same word from several of them: frightening.
Where they split was whether the darkness goes far enough. The Guardian, on three stars, thought the production too careful with the material.
The reviews were written at press night, when Nancy and the Artful Dodger were played by different performers. The praise for the staging holds; the cast descriptions do not.
Our full What the Critics Say page has every review in one place.
Find tickets • Call us on 020 7193 9050
Gallery
Oliver!
Gielgud Theatre
