My Neighbour Totoro
Enter a world of magic and wonder with My Neighbour Totoro - a perfect enchanted adventure
From £19
165 performances available
- Official tickets
- Pick your own seats
- Full refund if your event is cancelled
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Resale via VividSeats · from £95About this show
Good to know
Running time · 2hrs 30mins
Age guidance · Recommended for 6+, Children under 4 years (including babes in arms) will not be admitted. Children must occupy their own seats at all times. Under 16's must be accompanied and be seated with an adult.
Next available · Thu, 20 Aug 2026
Refund policy
These tickets cannot be cancelled or rescheduled.
Content warnings
The show features puppets, some large scale that will interact in audience space. The show contains themes of an ill parent in hospital. It also features live music and sound effects that will be loud at times and possibly scary for some younger children at moments.
Good to know
AGE RECOMMENDATION: 6+ Younger guests are welcome although My Neighbour Totoro London is not suitable for under 4 years old (including babes in arms). Children need to occupy their own seat at all times through the performance. All persons aged 16 or under must be accompanied by an adult and may not sit on their own within the auditorium. All persons entering the theatre, regardless of age, must have a valid ticket to My Neighbour Totoro London.
What audiences say
Audiences love the enchanting and heartwarming story of 'My Neighbour Totoro', celebrating family and imagination. Many praise the stunning set design, intricate puppetry, and the overall magical experience that captivates both children and adults alike. The beautiful music and heartfelt performances further enhance the joy of the show, making it a memorable experience for viewers of all ages.
Based on 100 audience reviews · 4.8/5 average
What the critics say
“The puppetry by Basil Twist creates much of the magic...It is not nearly as high-powered in its special effects as a Disney adaptation but just as dazzling in its magic realism.”
“every setpiece you’re willing to be a stunner, is a stunner”
“The puppets – designed by Basil Twist, assembled by Jim Hendon’s Creature Workshop – are fucking spectacular...you’d enjoy it if you hadn’t seen the film, but nonetheless, there is no question that its purpose is to put the film on stage.”
“'Totoro’ is magnificently humongous with a mighty, reverberating growl, wicked smile, lumbering walk and bouncy castle of a fluffy tum.”
“For all the ravishing imagery and the collective endeavour involved, this show isn’t quirky or adult-friendly enough for that.”
“The elongated curtain call is among the most joyous and creative finales you will see, and leaves you floating out afterwards feeling like you've just spent two and a half hours in a kind of all-over spa for the soul.”
“... the cast perfectly marry playfulness and truthful emotional simplicity to extraordinary technical sophistication. It’s unadulterated joy: a huge, healing hug of a show, generous and utterly beguiling.”
“If you’re an admirer of Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli movies, you’re almost certain to feel the same about Tom Morton-Smith’s puppet-driven adaptation, which adds flesh to a pastoral storyline that is so slender it could be described as Teletubbies go zen.”
“It’ll be hard to find a Studio Ghibli fan unimpressed with 'My Neighbour Totoro' – and for those unfamiliar with Miyazaki’s cartoon world, this stage adaptation welcomes you with open, fluffy arms.”
“'My Neighbour Totoro' captures that sense of childlike wonder perfectly and manages to recapture that childhood magic for the adult members of the audience in a way I don’t think any show before has managed to.”
“Overall, this is a warm bath of a production guaranteed to delight families and adults with its ingenious, continuously revolving and evolving staging.”
“The show itself takes great delight in each creative solution to telling this wild and wonderful fairy tale. The black-clad ensemble of skilful puppeteers brings the soot sprites to life by dancing them around on wires, until they fly up into the sky on what looks like a nursery mobile.”
About Gillian Lynne Theatre
Gillian Lynne Theatre (formerly the New London Theatre) is a West End theatre located on the corner of Drury Lane and Parker Street in Covent Garden, in the London Borough of Camden. The current theatre was designed by Paul Tvrtkovic and seats 960 on 2 levels, the building also contains an underground car park, a cabaret venue, a basement nightclub, shops and a residential tower.
Gillian Lynne Theatre (formerly the New London Theatre) History
The modern theatre is built on the site of previous taverns and music hall theatres, where a place of entertainment has been located site since Elizabethan times. Nell Gwynn was associated with the tavern, which became known as the Great Mogul by the end of the 17th century, and presented entertainments in an adjoining hall, including "glee clubs" and "sing-songs". The Mogul Saloon was built on the site in 1847, which was sometimes known as the "Turkish Saloon or the "Mogul Music Hall." In 1851, it became the Middlesex Music Hall, known as The Old Mo. This, in turn, was rebuilt as the New Middlesex Theatre of Varieties, in 1911 by Frank Matcham for Oswald Stoll.
In 1919, the theatre was sold to George Grossmith, Jr. and Edward Laurillard, refurbished and reopened as the Winter Garden Theatre. Grossmith and Laurillard also became managers of the Apollo Theatre in 1920. But expanding their operation caused Grossmith and Laurillard to end their partnership, with Grossmith retaining control of the Winter Garden.
The Vagabond King was produced at Gillian Lynne Theatre (formerly the New London Theatre), then still the Winter Garden, in 1927, and in 1929, Fred and Adele Astaire starred in Funny Face. In 1930, Sophie Tucker played in the Vivian Ellis musical Follow a Star, and in 1923, Gracie Fields appeared here in Walk This Way. In 1933, the theatre hosted Lewis Casson in George Bernard Shaw's On the Rocks, followed in 1935 by Love on the Dole, starring Wendy Hiller. The theatre closed in the late 1930s, reopening in 1942. In 1945, it hosted a Donald Wolfit season, and in 1953, Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution played. 1956 saw The Water Gypsies by Vivian Ellis and A P Herbert; Hotel Paradiso starring Alec Guinness, Douglas Byng, Irene Worth and Billie Whitelaw; and Tyrone Power starred in Shaw's The Devil Disciple. 1958 included The Iceman Cometh.
The theatre closed permanently in 1959 when it was sold by the Rank Organisation to a developer. It was then gutted and remained vacant until 1965 to be replaced in 1973 by the current building and rechristened as the current Gillian Lynne Theatre
Gillian Lynne Theatre (formerly the New London Theatre)
The theatre's auditorium first opened with a television recording of Marlene Dietrich's one-woman show. The theatre officially opened on January 2, 1973 with a production of The Unknown Soldier and His Wife starring Peter Ustinov. It then hosted Grease, starring Richard Gere as Danny. Beginning in 1977, the theatre was used as a television studio for several years before returning to use as a theatre. Gillian Lynne Theatre's biggest hit was the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Trevor Nunn musical Cats, which premièred in the theatre on 11 May 1981. Closing in 2002, this production became the longest running musical in West End history, stretching the availability of the Gillian Lynne Theatre tickets to its limit with sellout shows during its long run.
The theatre hosted the 1977 BBC Sports Personality of the Year and the Masters snooker between 1976 and 1978. Also in 1977, the theatre hosted the BBC's A Song For Europe contest, the preliminary heat to choose the UK entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. However, the show was blacked out on TV due to a last minute strike by technicians.
Even the famous video clip for the song We Are The Champions by the band Queen was shot in Gillian Lynne Theatre on October 1977, which followed a minor 70-min. concert.
Between 2003 and 2005 the theatre hosted Bill Kenwright's revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. This closed after a two and a half year run on 3 September 2005. Gillian Lynne Theatre also played host to the London transfer of the off-Broadway production, Blue Man Group, which closed in June 2007, to make way for the Royal Shakespeare Company's repertory productions of The Seagull and King Lear, starring Ian McKellen. In Spring 2008, a new musical adaptation of Gone With The Wind ran for only two months. New musical Imagine This closed after only being open for one month. The current production is a transfer of the National Theatre's War Horse. The theatre has been owned since 1991 by Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Theatres.
Gillian Lynne Theatre Recent and Present Productions
Cats (May 11, 1981 - May 11, 2002)
Umoja (September 6, 2002 - February 8, 2003)
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (March 3, 2003 - 3 September 2005) by Andrew Lloyd Webber, starring Stephen Gately, Ian Watkins and Darren Day
Blue Man Group (November 10, 2005 - June 24, 2007)
The RSC's King Lear (14 November 2007 - 12 January 2008) by William Shakespeare, starring Ian McKellen, Frances Barber, Romola Garai, Jonathan Hyde, William Gaunt and Sylvester McCoy.
The RSC's The Seagull (21 November 2007 - 12 January 2008) by Anton Chekhov, starring Frances Barber, Ian McKellen, William Gaunt, and Romola Garai.
Gone With The Wind - A New Musical (22 April 2008 - 14 June 2008) by Margaret Martin and Trevor Nunn, starring Darius Danesh, Jill Paice and Edward Baker-Duly
Imagine This - A New Musical (19 November 2008 - 20th December 2008 ) by Shuki Levy, David Goldsmith and Glenn Berenbeim
War Horse (31 March 2009 - ) by Nick Stafford, adapted from the novel by Michael Morpurgo
Show Boat (9 April - 27 August 2016) book by Oscar Hammerstein II, lyrics by Hammerstein and P.G. Woodhouse, music by Jerome Kern (transferred from Crucible Theatre Sheffield)
School of Rock (22 October 2016 – present) book by Julian Fellowes, lyrics by Glenn Slater, music by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Community Reviews
Venue
Gillian Lynne Theatre
166 Drury Lane
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