Romeo & Juliet Ballet Tickets at the London Coliseum
You already know how it ends. It still works anyway, which is why it keeps being danced. Nureyev's staging turns fifty this season, and the Coliseum is where it started. English National Ballet dance it with Prokofiev played live, and Paris Opera Ballet star Hugo Marchand guests for three nights.
2 hours 55 minutes, including two 20-minute intervalsAges 10 and up
At the London Coliseum, near Leicester Square and Charing CrossCloses 24 January 2027
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020 7193 9050 · Monday to Saturday 8am to 8pm, Sunday 10am to 8pm
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Why This Production
Rudolf Nureyev made this Romeo & Juliet for the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977, and it premiered at the London Coliseum. It comes back to the same stage in January for its fiftieth year.
Prokofiev's score is played live by the English National Ballet Philharmonic, which includes the Dance of the Knights, the piece everyone knows even if they cannot name it.
Who It Is For
Anyone who has never been to a ballet. The story needs no explaining, the music does the work, and nobody sings so there is nothing to read.
Families with children aged 10 and up. That is the company's guidance, for the content and the length, which is nearly three hours.
Less good for under-10s, and under-5s are not admitted at all.
Performance Schedule
Thirteen performances between 14 and 24 January 2027. Evenings at 7pm, matinees at 2pm on both Saturdays, Sunday 17 January and Thursday 21 January, and the final performance on Sunday 24 January at 1pm.
Running time is 2 hours 55 minutes, including two 20-minute intervals.
Cast and Creative Team
Choreography by Rudolf Nureyev, music by Sergei Prokofiev, set design by Ezio Frigerio, costumes by Ezio Frigerio and Franca Squarciapino, lighting by Tharon Musser.
Danced by English National Ballet, with the English National Ballet Philharmonic playing live.
Five pairs dance the leads across the run, so who you see depends on your date:
| Romeo / Juliet | Dates |
|---|---|
| Hugo Marchand / Emma Hawes | 14 Jan 7pm · 17 Jan 2pm · 20 Jan 7pm |
| Gareth Haw / Emily Suzuki | 15 Jan 7pm · 22 Jan 7pm · 24 Jan 1pm |
| Gustavo Carvalho / Fernanda Oliveira | 16 Jan 2pm · 19 Jan 7pm |
| Aitor Arrieta / Ksenia Ovsyanick | 16 Jan 7pm · 21 Jan 7pm · 23 Jan 7pm |
| Rentaro Nakaaki / Julia Conway | 21 Jan 2pm · 23 Jan 2pm |
Hugo Marchand is a guest from the Paris Opera Ballet, where he holds the rank of étoile, and he dances three performances only. Ksenia Ovsyanick is an Associate Guest Artist and a former Principal at Staatsballett Berlin. The rest are English National Ballet's own.
The staging has been passed down directly. Patricia Ruanne, Nureyev's original Juliet from 1977, and Frédéric Jahn, his first Tybalt, have both worked on rehearsing later revivals, which is about as close to the source as a fifty-year-old production gets.
Book Your Tickets
On this one, pick the date before the seat. Five different pairs dance the leads across eleven days, so the date decides who you watch. Hugo Marchand, the guest from the Paris Opera Ballet, dances three performances only: 14, 17 and 20 January. Those will go first.
If you are not fussed who dances, the other nights are the same production with the same orchestra and usually better availability.
We sell with all-in pricing, so the price you see is the price you pay, from £27.25. Ring 020 7193 9050 and we will tell you which dates still have what.
FAQs
2 hours 55 minutes, including two 20-minute intervals.
Ages 10 and up is the guidance, largely for the length. Under-5s are not admitted.
No. It is a ballet, danced to Prokofiev's score played live.
From £27.25 including booking fees.
Higher than you would for a play. Ballet is watched for the whole stage picture and the footwork, so the front block of the Dress Circle is often better than the front Stalls. See our London Coliseum guide.
Five pairs across the run, so it depends on your date. Hugo Marchand and Emma Hawes on 14, 17 and 20 January; Gareth Haw and Emily Suzuki on 15, 22 and 24 January; Gustavo Carvalho and Fernanda Oliveira on 16 and 19 January; Aitor Arrieta and Ksenia Ovsyanick on 16, 21 and 23 January; Rentaro Nakaaki and Julia Conway on 21 and 23 January. Casting can change.
Yes. The 2pm performance on Saturday 23 January 2027 is audio described, and a touch tour runs beforehand.
Where to Sit for a Ballet
Go higher than you would for a play. Ballet is choreography seen from above: patterns across the stage, and feet. Sitting very close costs you both.
Take the front of the Dress Circle, centre rows B to K, ahead of the Stalls. If you would rather be nearer, centre Stalls from row F back.
The ends of either circle are closer to the stage than the middle seats and cost less, because the circles wrap round the Stalls instead of hanging over them.
The Balcony works well for ballet, better than for opera, because there is no screen to read. Row K is the cheapest view in the house.
No lift to the Upper Circle.
Seating plan
Dates & tickets
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Interactive Performance Calendar
View all available performance dates and times in our interactive calendar. Select a date to see available time slots and book your tickets instantly.
The London Coliseum
St Martin's Lane, WC2N 4ES, three minutes from Charing Cross and Leicester Square. Around 2,380 seats over four levels. Buses 24, 29 and 176 along Charing Cross Road. Full detail in our London Coliseum guide.
Address
St Martin's Lane, London WC2N 4ES
Nearest Tube
Leicester Square and Charing Cross
The Production
Rudolf Nureyev, choreography. Sergei Prokofiev, music. Ezio Frigerio, sets. Ezio Frigerio and Franca Squarciapino, costumes. Tharon Musser, lighting.
English National Ballet, with the English National Ballet Philharmonic live in the pit.
What Has Been Said
Fifty years of revivals means fifty years of notices, and the pattern in them is consistent.
The praise. The Telegraph gave it five stars, calling it "entertainment as vital, as alive and as stirring as can be." The Express called it "a stirring and ultimately moving revival." The Standard described "a piece full of fast-paced choreography, doom and Venetian bawdiness" that "stands the test of time." Bachtrack wrote that "emotion pours from every corner of the often overflowing stage."
What critics say it is. Reviewers reach for the same words: dark and bawdy, a production that puts death and sex into sixteenth-century Verona rather than prettifying it. One notice was headed simply "Death Haunts Nureyev's Captivating and Affecting Romeo & Juliet." If your picture of ballet is tasteful, this is not quite that.
The one criticism that recurs. Nureyev packed his choreography full. The Arts Desk, reviewing a 2011 revival, called it "busy, busy, busy" and noted he "jammed extra plotlines back in with un-Shakespearean knobs on", with the fight scenes not always landing on Prokofiev's musical cues. The same review praised the corps de ballet as "crisp and well defined", Ezio Frigerio's "spare but elegant Italian city vistas" and the lighting's "rosy dawn in Act One and crepuscular gloom for Act Three."
On the live orchestra, the same critic was unequivocal: "there's never any substitute for a live orchestra."
And what dancers say about it. Patricia Ruanne, who was Nureyev's first Juliet in 1977, has described it as a company show, with real dancing spread across the whole cast rather than reserved for the two leads. Nureyev gives the Capulet parents and Friar Laurence proper choreography instead of the mime other versions hand them.
How This Differs From the Royal Ballet Version
If you have seen a Romeo and Juliet before in London, it was probably Kenneth MacMillan's for the Royal Ballet, which is the other great British staging and the one revived most often at Covent Garden.
They are not the same evening. MacMillan's is leaner and gives its supporting characters mime; Nureyev's is fuller, darker and gives nearly everyone something to dance. Neither is the correct one. But if you know MacMillan's and expect this to match it, the Act Two fight in particular will feel different.
The Music You Already Know
Prokofiev's Dance of the Knights, the heavy brass theme from the Capulet ball, is used as the title music for The Apprentice, so most people in the auditorium will recognise it inside two bars whether or not they realise where from.
It is played live by the English National Ballet Philharmonic, which is a different proposition from a recording at this scale.
Romeo & Juliet
London Coliseum