Gold's appearances in musical theatre shows in the West End include Joe Papp's London production of The Pirates of Penzance in 1982.
[6] Gold made her professional debut in 1973, while still in her last year of school, in the Christmas pantomime Dick Whittington and his Cat, as Fairy Bowbells, at the Malvern Festival Theatre.
Among her non-puppeteering television appearances, Gold was featured as Mrs Tyler, a Goodwife, in the first series episode "Witchsmeller Pursuivant" of Blackadder (1983).
[4][13] Peter Fluck, a creator of the show, commented, "Louise Gold always did the Queen and the mannerisms and facial expressions she put into it were wonderful.
Gold was featured as a guest puppeteer, portraying the character of Babs (the female termite), on Transmission: Impossible with Ed and Oucho on BBC 2 television.
[26][27] Her other stage roles in the 1980s included Divine Dixie Diva in Mrs Cole's Music Hall at the Mill at Sonning (1984–85); Katisha, Countess of Grantham, in MetroPolitan Mikado, adapted from The Mikado by Ned Sherrin and Alistair Beaton at Queen Elizabeth Hall (1985); Bev in Angry Housewives at the Lyric Hammersmith Studio (1986); Mrs Johnstone in Blood Brothers at Watermill Theatre (1986);[28] Maggot Scratcher in Sink the Belgrano!
[33] Gold next starred as Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes at Prince Edward Theatre (1990, replacing Elaine Paige; and on the 1995 studio cast album).
[37] Throughout the 1990s, Gold was a regular performer in the Lost Musicals concert productions, taking roles in fifteen of them and singing in associated BBC radio broadcasts.
One of these was the British première of Kurt Weill's One Touch of Venus at the Barbican Centre in 1992, in which Gold sang the title character, which she reprised in another Lost Musicals production at the Lindbury Studio Theatre, Royal Opera House, in 2000.
[39] She next played Sara Jane Moore in Assassins at Donmar Warehouse (1992–93)[40] and toured in Noël/Cole: Let's Do It, a Cole Porter and Noël Coward revue (1994 and 1995, beginning in Memphis, Tennessee; and on the cast album).
Later that year, with the same cast, at the same theatre, the two performed in The Caucasian Chalk Circle, with Louise as Tractor Driver and Grusche, and Max as Soldier, Executioner, Blockhead, Lavrenti, Trooper, Blackmailer and Groom.
[43][44] After this, she starred as Dunyasha the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of The Cherry Orchard at Albery Theatre in London and on tour (1996–97),[43] followed by another summer in Regents Park as the title character in Kiss Me, Kate (1997).
Paul Taylor, writing in The Independent, declared, "Louise Gold is a comically commanding figure – outdoing herself in campy gorge-rising revulsion and contentious, drop-dead postures on each successive verse of 'I Hate Men'.
The Stage commented, "Louise Gold also shines in the role of Lizzie, revealing her emotional torment in 'Old Maid', and an overwhelming joy in 'Is It Really Me?
[51] During the summer of 2003, she performed at the Festival Theatre, Chichester, playing the Duchess of Plaza-Toro in The Gondoliers[52] and starring as the fairy characters in The Water Babies.
[62] On Sundays in August and September 2010, while still performing in Oliver!, she returned to the Lost Musicals series, as Alice Challice in Darling of the Day, earning warm reviews.
[66] Gold portrayed Yente in the Menier Chocolate Factory revival of Fiddler on the Roof from November 2018 until March 2019,[67] which then transferred to the Playhouse Theatre in the West End.