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No under 4s admitted. Booster seats are not permitted on the Royal Circle and Grand Circle levels for health and safety reasons.

E-ticket

Hello, Dolly! - LON [37374] 

Genre: Musical

Hello, Dolly! Imelda Headshot 1600x1200 - LON

Hello, Dolly!

Hello, Dolly! poster

Hello, Dolly! Square

Hello, Dolly! - Hero

Hello, Dolly! - LON Product Media

Hello, Dolly! Imelda Headshot Square - LON

Hello, Dolly! Jenna Headshot Square - LON

Hello, Dolly! Tyrone Headshot Square - LON

Hello, Dolly! Andy Headshot Square - LON

Hello, Dolly! Harry Headshot Square - LON

Imelda Staunton will be back where she belongs in Hello, Dolly! next summer, as one of the most iconic musicals of all time comes to The London Palladium.

Born in London in 1956, Imelda Staunton&nbsp;trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where she trained alongside Juliet Stevenson, Alan Rickman and Timothy Spall and graduated in 1976.

She started her London theatre career at the National Theatre in The Beggar’s Opera, receiving&nbsp;an Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical.&nbsp;She then appeared in the National Theatre’s production of Guys and Dolls in the same year, later reprising the role in 1995, alongside <a href="/actor-profile/sharon-d-clarke">Sharon D. Clarke</a>,&nbsp;where she was also nominated for an Olivier Award.&nbsp;She won her first Laurence Olivier Award in 1985 for her performances in The Corn is Green and A Chorus of Disapproval,&nbsp;later starring as Dorothy&nbsp;in The Wizard of Oz&nbsp;and Into the Woods&nbsp;as the Baker's Wife, earning her an Olivier for best actress in a musical.

Further notable works include her role as Sonya in Uncle Vanya at the <a href="/theatres/vaudeville-theatre">Vaudeville Theatre</a>, Kath in&nbsp;<a href="/reviews/entertaining-mr-sloane-trafalgar-studios-2009">Entertaining Mr Sloane</a>&nbsp;at&nbsp;<a href="/theatres/trafalgar-studio-one">Trafalgar Studios</a>&nbsp;and Good People.&nbsp;Staunton has become a tour-de-force of musical theatre. She is the current record-holder for the most Olivier Awards in a Best Actress in a Musical category, winning Olivier Awards for her performances as Mrs. Lovett in&nbsp;Sweeney Todd&nbsp;at the <a href="/theatres/adelphi-theatre">Adelphi Theatre</a> and Mama Rose in Gypsy&nbsp;at the <a href="/theatres/savoy-theatre">Savoy Theatre</a>.

In 2017, Staunton starred in two revivals, playing Martha in&nbsp;Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?at the <a href="/theatres/harold-pinter-theatre">Harold Pinter Theatre</a> and Sally Plummer in the National Theatre's revival of&nbsp;Follies. For Follies, Staunton received her eighth Best Actress in a Musical nomination.

Away from the West End,&nbsp;Staunton has starred on the silver screen, notably winning a BAFTA award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in&nbsp;Vera Drake&nbsp;and starring as Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter film series.&nbsp;

Imelda Staunton - LON

Follies [14942]

Follies

Follies [14942] Product Media

Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman's 1971 Broadway musical yields new emotions, textures and terrors with each repeated viewing or production. Nostalgia, as the old saying goes, isn't what it used to be. But <a href="/show/follies">Follies</a> is a show about the perils of living in the past that comes alive in the present, and reminds us - like Samuel Beckett's great work of existential terror Waiting for Godot or Chekhov's Uncle Vanya - that we have to simply face the cold light of reality and carry on. Yes, the show is really that great; like those plays, it is a defining masterpiece in modern theatre.Each production adds its own layer of nostalgia to the ones that have come before; and in this case, of a cast that came before when this one was first premiered at <a href="/theatres/national-theatre">National</a> in 2017. That has already created its own ghosts and shadows, as we now remember actors who've now left the show -&nbsp;most notably, Imelda Staunton and Philip Quast, who previously played Sally and Ben, a couple who once courted each other but married Buddy and Phyllis respectively instead -&nbsp;and enjoy their successors.Joanna Riding -&nbsp;herself a veteran of this <a href="/theatres/olivier-theatre-national">Olivier</a> stage, where she previously starred in Carousel, Sondheim's A Little Night Music and Guys and Dolls in the 1990s (the latter alongside Staunton) -&nbsp;has less nervous energy but a more wide-eyed sense of the grasping need at trying, and failing, one last time to get what she always thought she wanted, namely Ben. She doesn't seem quite as unhinged - but she's also terrifying and terrific.Alexander Hanson is more emotionally muted than Quast; that's partly because he has less natural charisma. He's punching above his weight to secure the attentions of either Phyllis (who he actually married) or Sally, but it&nbsp;shifts the focus onto them: what need is he answering in them?Janie Dee, remaining as Phyllis, now reveals more thrilling shades of her brittle, bitter persona underneath the extraordinary glamour she exudes; there's real anger - and defiance - in her rendition of the showstopping "Could I Leave You?" in which she calculates and itemises her own dissatisfaction with her marriage.And Peter Forbes, returning as Buddy, is also utterly wonderful as he loyally sticks with a wife who loves someone else, and made his own accommodations with his sense of misery.A Chekhovian pallor of lives not lived hangs over all four principals - and it is heartbreakingly contrasted with versions of their younger selves, thirty years earlier, who watch and observe what they've become (a stunning quartet of young performers Ian McIntosh, Christine Tucker, Harry Hepple and Gemma Sutton). That constant pull between the past and present defines both James Goldman's wonderful impressionistic book and Dominic Cooke's haunting production, with its sets by Vicki Mortimer, lighting by Paule Constable and above all pitch-perfect period choreography by Bill Deamer.There's so much to relish in this production that I could name every single actor, but I'll stop at one more newcomer to the 2018 cast, Claire Moore who is absolutely miraculous as Hattie Walker. She sings "Broadway Baby", one of the show's most famous songs, as if her life depended on it. It's the distillation of a performer's one-time yearning for the bright lights of Broadway, sung from the reality of what her life has come; and it sums up perfectly the show's overwhelming and powerful contrast between past and present.<a href="/show/follies">Follie</a><a href="/show/follies">s</a> is, and remains, simply phenomenal.<a href="/show/follies">Follies</a>&nbsp;is at the <a href="/theatres/national-theatre">National Theatre</a> until 11th May.Photo credit: Johan Persson

Review - Follies returns to the National Theatre starring Joanna Riding and Janie Dee

The Olivier Theatre takes its name from the first artistic director of the [National Theatre](https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/theatres/national-theatre), Laurence Olivier. The auditorium was designed to resemble the theatre at Epidaurus in Greece, with the seating arranged in a fan-like fashion around a circular stage.

The Olivier Theatre is the largest of the three auditoriums at the National Theatre, completed by the [Lyttelton Theatre](https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/theatres/lyttelton-theatre-national) and the [Dorfman Theatre](https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/theatres/dorfman-theatre-national).

The stage itself is famous for its drum-revolve, effectively enabling the stage to split into two allowing scenic changes to take place underneath the stage and then be rotated into place within seconds. 

## Olivier Theatre Seating Information

The auditorium has two levels, Stalls and Circle, both of which are steeply raked, offering exceptional views from all seats. The Olivier Theatre still manages to feel rather intimate, guaranteeing a connection with the actors on stage.

National Theatre - Olivier - LON

Olivier Theatre

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? [3392]

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? [3392] Product Media

The Harold Pinter Theatre opened on 15 Oct. 1881 as a comic opera house. Its name on opening was the Royal Comedy Theatre, though its ‘Royal’ epithet was dropped in 1884.

The Comedy Theatre helped establish the New Watergate Club in 1956, a society which helped overturn the stage censorship enforced by the Lord Chamberlain’s Office. The formation of the Club meant that the plays banned by the Government could be performed at this venue as it was now being run as a private club rather than a commercial entity. Notable plays in this category include Arthur Miller’s *A View from the Bridge* and Tennessee Williams’ *Cat On A Hot Tin Roof*. The censorship was finally overturned in 1968. 

Harold Pinter's works were often performed here: *The Homecoming*, *The Caretaker*, *Moonlight*, *No-Man’s Land* and *The Hothouse* all enjoyed successful runs, and Pinter directed a production of *The Old Masters* here in 2004. After his death, it was thought fitting to bestow the honour of naming a theatre after him, and the name was officially changed on 13 Oct. 2011 to the Harold Pinter Theatre. The Ambassador Theatre Group own the Harold Pinter Theatre.

## Harold Pinter Theatre Seating Information

The auditorium has four levels – Stalls, Dress Circle, Royal Circle and Balcony. The top three levels are a horseshoe shape around the stalls.

The Stalls is a single block of seats, and offers good sightlines. Some seats are impaired by supportive pillars and the overhang of the Dress Circle.

The Dress Circle doesn’t offer a great raking in the seating, but the view is not affected by the overhang of the Royal Circle. 

The Royal Circle seats curve towards the stage more noticeably than the Dress Circle.

The Balcony feels very high in this theatre.

Harold Pinter Theatre - LON

Harold Pinter Theatre

The London Palladium opened on 26 Dec. 1910. The 1955 television hit *Sunday Night at The London Palladium* cemented the public’s affection for the venue, and made stars of Bruce Forsyth, Norman Vaughan and Jimmy Tarbuck who hosted the show. 

From the early 1990s, the theatre housed longer runs of several large scale musical productions, starting with the [Jason Donovan](https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/actor-profile/jason-donovan)-led revival of *Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat* in 1991. Owned by the Really Useful Theatres Group from 2000, Andrew Lloyd Webber has produced musical revivals of *The Sound of Music* in 2006 and *[The Wizard of Oz](https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/reviews/the-wizard-of-oz)* in 2010, both of which cast their leading ladies through audience-voted talent shows broadcast on BBC1. 

After an absence of 29 years, pantomime returned to the Palladium in 2016, which has now become an annual Palladium Christmas tradition.

## London Palladium Seating Information

The auditorium has three levels – Stalls, Royal Circle and Upper Circle. In the Stalls, the view of the stage is slightly obscured by the overhang of the Royal Circle from Row S onwards, and the seats further back do suffer from a slightly lower ceiling. The seats are raked from Row D of the Stalls.

In the Royal Circle, the top of the stage is slightly obscured by the overhang of the Upper Circle in Row J onwards. The Royal Circle is raked and generally has an excellent view from all seats.

In the Upper Circle, the view from the central block of seats is still very good.

London Palladium - LON

London Palladium

Born in London in 1956, Imelda Staunton trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where she trained alongside Juliet Stevenson, Alan Rickman and Timothy Spall and graduated in 1976.

Day of week	Matinee	Evening
Monday	-	7:30 PM
Tuesday	-	7:30 PM
Wednesday	2:30 PM	7:30 PM
Thursday	-	7:30 PM
Friday	-	7:30 PM
Saturday	2:30 PM	7:30 PM
Sunday	-	-

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