Who went to the Christmas Pantomime as a kid?
I did. My grandparents took me and my sister every year. We would turn up at the theatre in Christmas jumpers, Grandad would buy us each a box of sweets and a drink, and we would scream our little hearts out when the actors did their routines. Pure magic.
I think the annual Panto would be the extent of most kids’ theatre experience, but the performing arts industry is on a mission to change that with Kids Theatre Week.
There is loads of brilliant kids theatre out there, especially in London which is the theatre capital of the world, with shows designed for toddlers right up to teenagers approaching adulthood. The trouble is that tickets are often eye-wateringly expensive, but thanks to Kids Theatre Week, they just got an awful lot cheaper.
You can now get free theatre tickets in the West End for your children.
This initiative has actually been running since 1998. It is essentially a buy one get one free deal for parents and kids over Summer, yet despite it’s longevity, a surprisingly large number of parents still don’t know about it. So I’m trying to spread the word because it’s a fantastic idea that ticks every box for Mums and Dads desperately trying to survive the school holidays: it’s cheap, it’s fun, and it’s culturally enriching.
All parents need affordable activities to fill the summer holidays with, so why not add a bit of culture into the mix?
What Is It (And When Is It)?
Rather confusingly, Kids Week is a scheme run over the whole of the Summer Holidays (so not just for a week). It was originally just for a week but it proved so popular that they extended it. This year it will run from Monday 20th July to Monday 31st August 2026, but ‘Kids 7 Weeks of Theatre’ doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, so they stuck with the original name.
During this time, any adult who buys a full price ticket to a participating show can take a child aged 17 or under with them for free. So two adults can take two kids for free. What’s more, two additional children’s tickets can be purchased per adult for half price. When you work it out, you can get 1 adult and 3 kids tickets for the price of 1 adult and 1 kids ticket – and no booking fees either. It’s a bargain!
The scheme is run by Society of London Theatre (SOLT), so sadly it is only available in the capital, but for anyone visiting or living in the surrounding area it’s fantastic.
Some shows even come with special additional activities as part of the scheme, such as post show Q and As or musical theatre workshops the kids can join in with.
There are 190,000 tickets available across all participating productions, but while that might sound like a lot they sell out fast – so don’t dawdle if you want to take advantage.
What Shows Can You Watch?
This will change from year to year, but lots of productions enrol in the scheme so there will always be a good mixture of plays, musicals, comedies, and children’s shows.
There are around 50 shows on the list for 2026, including:
- Alice in Wonderland
- Arcadia
- Arthur
- Be Like Blippi
- Beetlejuice the Musical
- Bluey’s Big Play
- Braniac Live
- Cabaret
- Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man
- The Cat In The Hat
- Come Alive!
- The Comedy About Spies
- Cyrano De Bergerac
- Dark of the Moon
- Death Note: The Musical
- The Devil Wears Prada
- Dinosaur World Live
- Disney’s Hercules
- Dog Man: The Musical
- The Enormous Crocodile The Musical
- The Gruffalo Live On Stage
- Heathers The Musical
- Horrible Histories: Barmy Britain – The Best Bits
- Hot Mess
- The Hunger Games: On Stage
- I’m Every Woman – The Chaka Khan Musical
- The Lion Inside
- The Little Mermaid: Song Of The Sea
- Mamma Mia!
- Matilda The Musical
- Ministry Of Science Live! Science Saved The World
- Monopoly Lifesized
- The Mousetrap
- RSC’s My Neighbour Totoro
- Now You See Me Live
- The Paddington Bear Experience
- The Play That Goes Wrong
- The Producers
- Sinatra The Musical
- Stranger Things: The First Shadow
- Tao Of Glass
- The Tiger Who Came To Tea
- To Kill A Mockingbird
- Wicked
- A World Elsewhere
- Zog
You can see from that small list of examples that there are a huge variety of shows taking part, so there will definitely be something that appeals to you and your children, however old they are and whatever they enjoy.
Booking
This bit is important.
You can only book these special tickets via the OfficialLondonTheatre.com website. This a ticketing website run by SOLT. It’s quite good for theatre fans in general actually, it’s full of news and announcements, and it also has its own booking platform.
While tickets are available across a large number of shows the exact dates and times they will be offered varies, so you might not be able to go on a specific day. That means there may be some flexibility required when booking.
Hopefully, since it’s during the Summer holidays that won’t be an issue, but it’s something to bear in mind.
Ticket prices will depend on the show you want to see, but the deal is the same wherever you go, and if you have theatre tokens they can be used in conjunction with this initiative too.
There is a maximum of 10 tickets per booking, so if you are thinking of arranging an outing for a very large group you’re best bet is to get in touch with the site directly.
Tickets will be on sale from 11th June 2024 – stick it in your diary.