Cameron Mackintosh’s new production of OLIVER! to open in the West End in December

Cameron Mackintosh has announced that his new co-production with Chichester Festival Theatre of Lionel Bart’s iconic musical, Oliver!, which he has fully reconceived with director and choreographer Matthew Bourne, will begin performances at London’s Gielgud Theatre on 14 December.

Beforehand, the production runs at Chichester Festival Theatre from 8 July-7 September.

The cast includes the previously announced Simon Lipkin as Fagin, Shanay Holmes as Nancy, Aaron Sidwell as Bill Sikes, Billy Jenkins as the Artful Dodger, and Philip Franks as Mr Brownlow.

Cameron Mackintosh said: “Oliver! has been part of my life as actor, stage-manager and producer since I first saw it as a schoolboy in 1960, shortly after it opened and began to take the world by storm on stage and screen. The original production design was revolutionary and changed the musical theatre and my career forever.

Matthew Bourne and I, alongside Sam Mendes, first reinvented Lionel Bart's masterpiece in 1994 with a huge production at the London Palladium which we restaged in an even grander way in 2009 at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Now 15 years later, having staged the largest production of Oliver! ever, we want to return to the scale of the brilliant original with a more intimate production, thrillingly designed by Lez Brotherston, which in a sweepingly imaginative way conjures up Dickensian London.

Lionel's irresistible adaptation of Dickens classic story, with its legendary score packed with 'tunes glorious tunes' will, we hope, have audiences 'considering themselves our mate' when we open at London’s Gielgud Theatre this December with a terrific cast, following a summer season at the Chichester Festival Theatre.”

Further creative team includes co-director Jean-Pierre van der Spuy, design by Lez Brotherston, lighting by Paule Constable and Ben Jacobs, sound by Adam Fisher, video design by George Reeve, original orchestrations by William David Brohn, adapted by Stephen Metcalfe, and musical supervision by Graham Hurman.

Priority booking for the London run begins on 26 April, with tickets on general sale from 29 April here.