West End theatre

West End theatre is mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres in and near the West End of London.[1] Along with New York City's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. Seeing a West End show is a common tourist activity in London.[1]

The Palace Theatre, in the City of Westminster, London, built in 1891
The London Palladium in Soho opened in 1910. While the Theatre has a resident show, it also has one off performances such as concerts. Since 1930 it has hosted the Royal Variety Performance 43 times.

There are a total of 39 theatres in the West End, with the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, opened in May 1663, the oldest theatre in London.[2] The Savoy Theatre – built as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan – was entirely lit by electricity in 1881.[3]

Society of London Theatre (SOLT) announced that 2018 was a record year for the capital's theatre industry with attendances topping 15.5m for the first time since the organization began collecting audience data in 1986. Box office revenues exceeded £765m.[4] While attendance in 2019 was down 1.4% compared to the previous year, box office revenues reached a record £799m.[5] Famous screen actors, British and international alike, frequently appear on the London stage.[6]

History
Further information: English Renaissance theatre

Theatre in London flourished after the English Reformation. The first permanent public playhouse, known as The Theatre, was constructed in 1576 in Shoreditch by James Burbage. It was soon joined by The Curtain. Both are known to have been used by William Shakespeare's company. In 1599, the timber from The Theatre was moved to Southwark, where it was used in building the Globe Theatre in a new theatre district formed beyond the controls of the City corporation. These theatres were closed in 1642 due to the Puritans who would later influence the interregnum of 1649.[7]

Further information: Restoration comedy and Restoration spectacular
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Opened in May 1663, it is the oldest theatre in London.[2]

After the Restoration (1660), two companies were licensed to perform, the Duke's Company and the King's Company. Performances were held in converted buildings, such as Lisle's Tennis Court. The first West End theatre, known as Theatre Royal in Bridges Street, was designed by Thomas Killigrew and built on the site of the present Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. It opened on 7 May 1663 and was destroyed by a fire nine years later. It was replaced by a new structure designed by Christopher Wren and renamed the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.[8][9]

Outside the West End, Sadler's Wells Theatre opened in Islington on 3 June 1683. Taking its name from founder Richard Sadler and monastic springs that were discovered on the property,[10][11] it operated as a "Musick House", with performances of opera; as it was not licensed for plays. In the West End, the Theatre Royal Haymarket opened on 29 December 1720 on a site slightly north of its current location, and the Royal Opera House opened in Covent Garden on 7 December 1732.[12]

The Patent theatre companies retained their duopoly on drama well into the 19th century, and all other theatres could perform only musical entertainments. By the early 19th century, however, music hall entertainments became popular, and presenters found a loophole in the restrictions on non-patent theatres in the genre of melodrama. Melodrama did not break the Patent Acts, as it was accompanied by music. Initially, these entertainments were presented in large halls, attached to public houses, but purpose-built theatres began to appear in the East End at Shoreditch and Whitechapel.

Original interior of Savoy Theatre in 1881, the year it became the first public building in the world to be lit entirely by electricity.[13]

The West End theatre district became established with the opening of many small theatres and halls, including the Adelphi in The Strand on 17 November 1806. South of the River Thames, the Old Vic, Waterloo Road, opened on 11 May 1818. The expansion of the West End theatre district gained pace with the Theatres Act 1843, which relaxed the conditions for the performance of plays, and The Strand gained another venue when the Vaudeville opened on 16 April 1870. The next few decades saw the opening of many new theatres in the West End. The Criterion Theatre opened on Piccadilly Circus on 21 March 1874, and in 1881, two more houses appeared: the Savoy Theatre in The Strand, built by Richard D'Oyly Carte specifically to showcase the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, opened on 10 October (the first theatre to be lit by cooler, cleaner electric lights), and five days later the Comedy Theatre opened as the Royal Comedy Theatre on Panton Street in Leicester Square. It abbreviated its name three years later.[9] Opened in 1903, the New Theatre was renamed the Noël Coward Theatre in 2006 in honour of the playwright Noël Coward. The theatre building boom continued until about the First World War.

During the 1950s and 1960s, many plays were produced in theatre clubs, to evade the censorship then exercised by the Lord Chamberlain's Office. The Theatres Act 1968 finally abolished censorship of the stage in the United Kingdom.

Theatreland
The Lyceum Theatre, home to Disney's The Lion King.[14]

"Theatreland", London's main theatre district, contains approximately forty venues and is located in and near the heart of the West End of London. It is traditionally defined by the Strand to the south, Oxford Street to the north, Regent Street to the west, and Kingsway to the east, but a few other nearby theatres are also considered "West End" despite being outside the area proper (e.g. The Apollo Victoria Theatre, in Westminster). Prominent theatre streets include Drury Lane, Shaftesbury Avenue and the Strand. The works staged are predominantly musicals, classic and modern straight plays, and comedy performances.[15]

Many theatres in the West End are of late Victorian or Edwardian construction and are privately owned. Many are architecturally impressive, and the largest and best maintained feature grand neo-classical, Romanesque, or Victorian façades and luxurious, detailed interior design and decoration.

Queen's Theatre showing Les Misérables, running in London since October 1985

However, owing to the age of the buildings, leg room is often cramped, and audience facilities such as bars and toilets are often much smaller than in modern theatres. The protected status of the buildings and their confined urban locations, combined with financial constraints, make it very difficult to make substantial improvements to the level of comfort offered. In 2003, the Theatres Trust estimated that an investment of £250 million over the following 15 years was required for modernisation,[16] and stated that 60% of theatres had seats from which the stage was not fully visible.[17] The theatre owners unsuccessfully requested tax concessions to help them meet the costs.

The restored facade of the Dominion Theatre, as seen in 2017

From 2004 onwards there were several incidents of falling plasterwork, or performances being cancelled because of urgent building repairs being required. These events culminated in the partial collapse of the ceiling of the Apollo Theatre in December 2013.[18] Of these earlier incidents, only one led to people being hurt,[19] but at the Apollo Theatre 76 people needed medical treatment for their injuries.[20] The refurbishment of the Dominion Theatre was completed in 2017 with the unveiling of a new double-sided LED screen, the largest and highest resolution projecting screen on the exterior of a West End theatre.[21]

In 2012, gross sales of £529,787,692 were up 0.27% and attendances also increased 0.56% to 13,992,773-year-on-year[22] In 2013, sales again rose this time by 11% to £585,506,455,[23] with attendances rising to 14,587,276.[24] This was despite slightly fewer performances occurring in 2013.[25]

On 16 March 2020, following government advice due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all theatres in the West End were closed until further notice.[26]

Long-running shows
Main article: List of the longest-running West End shows
The St Martin's Theatre, home to The Mousetrap, the world's longest-running play.

The length of West End shows depend on ticket sales. Produced by Cameron Mackintosh, the longest-running musical in West End history is Les Misérables, which has been running in London since October 1985. It overtook Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats, which closed in 2002 after running for 8,949 performances and 21 years, as the longest-running West End musical of all time on 9 October 2006. Other long-runners include Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera and Willy Russell's Blood Brothers which have also subsequently overtaken Cats. However the non-musical Agatha Christie play The Mousetrap is the longest-running production in the world, and has been performed continuously since 1952.[27]

List of West End theatres
  • If no show is currently running, the play listed is the next show planned (dates marked with an *).
  • If the next show planned is not announced, the applicable columns are left blank.
Theatre Address Capacity Owner/Operator Current production Classification Opening
date		 Closing
date
Adelphi Theatre Strand 1436 LW Theatres / Nederlander Organization
Aldwych Theatre Aldwych 1176 Nederlander Organization Tina—The Tina Turner Musical Musical 2018-04-1717 April 2018 Open-ended
Ambassadors Theatre West Street 444 Ambassador Theatre Group
Apollo Theatre Shaftesbury Avenue 775 Nimax Theatres Everybody's Talking About Jamie Musical 2017-11-2222 November 2017 Open-ended
Apollo Victoria Theatre Wilton Road 2384 Ambassador Theatre Group Wicked Musical 2006-09-2727 September 2006 Open-ended
Arts Theatre Great Newport Street 350 JJ Goodman Ltd. Six Musical 2019-01-2929 January 2019 Open-ended
Cambridge Theatre Earlham Street 1283 LW Theatres Matilda the Musical Musical 2011-11-2424 November 2011 Open-ended
Criterion Theatre Jermyn Street 593 Criterion Theatre Trust
Dominion Theatre Tottenham Court Road 2069 Nederlander Organization The Prince of Egypt[28] Musical 2020-02-2525 February 2020 Open-ended
Duchess Theatre Catherine Street 494 Nimax Theatres The Play That Goes Wrong Play 2014-09-1414 September 2014 Open-ended
Duke of York's Theatre St. Martin's Lane 650 Ambassador Theatre Group
Fortune Theatre Russell Street 432 Ambassador Theatre Group The Woman in Black Play 1989-06-077 June 1989 Open-ended
Garrick Theatre Charing Cross Road 718 Nimax Theatres
Gielgud Theatre Shaftesbury Avenue 986 Delfont Mackintosh Theatres To Kill a Mockingbird Play May 2021* Open-ended
Gillian Lynne Theatre Drury Lane 1108 LW Theatres Cinderella[29] Musical 2021-04-077 April 2021* Open-ended
Harold Pinter Theatre Panton Street 796 Ambassador Theatre Group
Her Majesty's Theatre Haymarket 1160 LW Theatres The Phantom of the Opera Musical 1986-10-099 October 1986 Open-ended
London Palladium Argyll Street 2286 LW Theatres
Lyceum Theatre Wellington Street 2100 Ambassador Theatre Group The Lion King Musical 1999-10-1919 October 1999 Open-ended
Lyric Theatre Shaftesbury Avenue 967 Nimax Theatres
Noël Coward Theatre St. Martin's Lane 872 Delfont Mackintosh Theatres Dear Evan Hansen[30] Musical 2019-11-1919 November 2019 Open-ended
Novello Theatre Aldwych 1143 Delfont Mackintosh Theatres Mamma Mia! Musical 1999-04-066 April 1999 Open-ended
Palace Theatre Shaftesbury Avenue 1400 Nimax Theatres Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Play 2016-07-2525 July 2016 Open-ended
Phoenix Theatre Charing Cross Road 1012 Ambassador Theatre Group Come from Away Musical 2019-02-1818 February 2019 Open-ended
Piccadilly Theatre Denman Street 1200 Ambassador Theatre Group Pretty Woman: The Musical[31] Musical 2020-03-011 March 2020 2021-02-066 February 2021
Playhouse Theatre Craven Street 786 Ambassador Theatre Group
Prince Edward Theatre Old Compton Street 1650 Delfont Mackintosh Theatres Mary Poppins[32] Musical 2019-11-1313 November 2019 Open-ended
Prince of Wales Theatre Coventry Street 1160 Delfont Mackintosh Theatres The Book of Mormon Musical 2013-03-2121 March 2013 Open-ended
Savoy Theatre Strand 1158 Ambassador Theatre Group
Shaftesbury Theatre Shaftesbury Avenue 1400 The Theatre of Comedy Company & Juliet[33] Musical 2019-11-2020 November 2019 Open-ended
Sondheim Theatre Shaftesbury Avenue 1074 Delfont Mackintosh Theatres Les Misérables Musical 2020-01-1616 January 2020 Open-ended
St Martin's Theatre West Street 550 Stephen Waley-Cohen The Mousetrap Play 1952-11-2525 November 1952 Open-ended
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane Catherine Street 2196 LW Theatres Frozen[34] Musical 2021-04-1414 April 2021* Open-ended
Theatre Royal Haymarket Haymarket 888 Crown Estate Only Fools and Horses The Musical Musical 2019-02-1919 February 2019 Open-ended
Trafalgar Studios Whitehall 400 Trafalgar Entertainment Group
Vaudeville Theatre Strand 690 Nimax Theatres Magic Goes Wrong[35] Play 2020-01-088 January 2020 Open-ended
Victoria Palace Theatre Victoria Street 1517 Delfont Mackintosh Theatres Hamilton Musical 2017-12-2121 December 2017 Open-ended
Wyndham's Theatre St. Martin's Court 750 Delfont Mackintosh Theatres

Upcoming productions

The following have been announced as future West End productions. The theatre in which they will run is either not yet known or currently occupied by another show.

Production Theatre Opening Classification Ref
Baby Reindeer Ambassadors Theatre Postponed Play
The Doctor Duke of York's Theatre 2021 Play [36]
A Doll's House Playhouse Theatre Postponed Play [37]
The Drifters Girl Garrick Theatre 2020-10-011 October 2020 Musical [38]
Get Up, Stand Up! Lyric Theatre 2021-02-066 February 2021 Musical [39]
Hello, Dolly! Adelphi Theatre 2022 Musical [40]
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat London Palladium 2021-07-1515 July 2021 Musical [41]
Life of Pi Wyndham's Theatre Postponed Play [42]
Moulin Rouge! Piccadilly Theatre Late 2021 Musical [43]
Shook Trafalgar Studios TBA Play [44]
Sunday in the Park with George Savoy Theatre 2021 Musical [45]
To Kill a Mockingbird Gielgud Theatre Postponed Play [46]
Mean Girls TBA 2020-03 estimateSpring 2021 Musical [47]
The Pillowman Duke of York's Theatre 2021 Play [48]
The Watsons Harold Pinter Theatre Postponed Play [49]
Pantomime (Title to be announced) London Palladium 5 December 2020 Pantomime [50]

London's non-commercial theatres
The exterior of the Old Vic

The term "West End theatre" is generally used to refer specifically to commercial productions in Theatreland. However, the leading non-commercial theatres in London enjoy great artistic prestige. These include the Royal National Theatre, the Barbican Centre, Shakespeare's Globe (including the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse), the Old Vic, Royal Court Theatre, Sadler's Wells Theatre, and the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. These theatres stage a high proportion of straight drama, Shakespeare, other classic plays and premieres of new plays by leading playwrights. Successful productions from the non-commercial theatres sometimes transfer to one of the commercial West End houses for an extended run.

The Royal Opera House is widely regarded as one of the greatest opera houses in the world, comparable with the Palais Garnier, La Scala and the Metropolitan Opera House. Commonly known simply as Covent Garden due to its location, it is home to the Royal Opera, Royal Ballet and a resident symphony orchestra, and hosts guest performances from other leading opera, ballet and performance companies from around the world.

Likewise, the London Coliseum is the resident home to the English National Opera. The theatre is also the London base for performances by the English National Ballet, who perform regular seasons throughout the year when not on tour.

The Peacock Theatre is located on the edge of the Theatreland area. Now owned by the London School of Economics and Political Science, it is used in the evenings for dance performances by Sadler's Wells, who manage the theatre on behalf of the school.

Other London theatres

There are a great number of theatre productions in London outside the West End. Much of this is known as fringe theatre which is the equivalent of Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway theatre in New York. Among these are the Bush Theatre and the Donmar Warehouse. Fringe venues range from well-equipped small theatres to rooms above pubs, and the performances range from classic plays, to cabaret, to plays in the languages of London's ethnic minorities. The performers range from emerging young professionals to amateurs.

There are many theatres located throughout Greater London, such as the Lyric Hammersmith, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Rose Theatre, Kingston, New Wimbledon Theatre, the Rudolf Steiner Theatre in Westminster, the Ashcroft Theatre in Croydon, Secombe Theatre in Sutton and the Churchill Theatre in Bromley.

Awards

There are a number of annual awards for outstanding achievements in London theatre:

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See also

Notes
  1. Christopher Innes, "West End" in The Cambridge Guide to Theatre (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 1194–1195, ISBN 0-521-43437-8
  2. "London's 10 oldest theatres". The Telegraph. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  3. "Shakespeare's indoor Globe to glow by candlelight". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  4. "2018 BOX OFFICE FIGURES RELEASED BY SOCIETY OF LONDON THEATRE AND UK THEATRE". Society of London Theatre. March 2019.
  5. "New Figures Reveal West End Theatre is Thriving". London Box Office. February 2020.
  6. "Stars on stage". London theatre. Retrieved 23 June 2015
  7. Jane Milling; Peter Thomson (23 November 2004). The Cambridge History of British Theatre. Cambridge University Press. p. 439. ISBN 978-0-521-65040-3.
  8. "London's Vibrant West End Theatre SCENE". TheatreHistory.com. Retrieved 17 January 2010.
  9. "London pub trivia – Ten oldest London theatres". Timeout London. 12 December 2006. Archived from the original on 3 December 2008. Retrieved 17 January 2010.
  10. "London's Lost Tea-Gardens: I". Story of London. Archived from the original on 27 August 2009. Retrieved 17 January 2010.
  11. "Sadler's Wells Theatre". LondonTown.com. Retrieved 17 January 2010.
  12. "Royal Opera House". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
  13. "The Savoy Theatre", The Times, 3 October 1881
  14. "1.8 million views of Lion King". Theatre Views Newsletter. October 2011. Retrieved 9 May 2012.
  15. Michael Billington "Snooty about musicals? Sheila Hancock should change her tune", The Guardian. (blog), 16 March 2001
  16. Giles Worsley "Falling Houses", The Daily Telegraph, 6 December 2003
  17. Michael Billington "Crisis in the West End", The Guardian, 2 August 2007
  18. Sarah Jane Griffiths "How safe is London's Theatreland?", BBC News, 20 December 2013
  19. At the Theatre Royal Haymarket in 2004, 15 people were injured when part of the ceiling fell on to them; see the Sarah Jane Griffiths article above.
  20. Alice Philipson, and Andrew Marszal "Apollo Theatre ceiling in London's West End collapses: scores injured", The Daily Telegraph, 20 December
  21. "The Dominion Theatre, home to An American in Paris, completes £6M refurbishment". mr.carlwoodward.com. 7 August 2017. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  22. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 June 2013. Retrieved 29 January 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  23. Singh, Anita (29 January 2014). "West End audiences hit record high thanks to Twitter". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  24. "West End Theatre Ticket Sales at Record High". Sky (United Kingdom). 29 January 2014. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  25. "West End Has Another Record Year, With Increases in Both Attendance and Revenue". Playbill. 29 January 2014. Archived from the original on 1 February 2014. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  26. "Theatre closures to help slow the spread of Coronavirus". UK Theatre. 16 March 2020. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  27. "Agatha Christie's: The Mousetrap". St. Martin's Theatre. Archived from the original on 26 June 2012. Retrieved 27 November 2019. Here you will find all the information you need about the longest running show, of any kind, in the world.
  28. McPhee, Ryan (2 May 2019). "Musical Adaptation of DreamWorks' The Prince of Egypt to Play London's West End". Playbill. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  29. Wiegand, Chris (10 January 2020). "Killing Eve's Emerald Fennell and Andrew Lloyd Webber create new Cinderella". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  30. "DEAR EVAN HANSEN | Toronto | Official Site". Dear Evan Hansen. Retrieved 4 October 2018.
  31. "Pretty Woman musical West End dates, venue and more confirmed | WhatsOnStage". www.whatsonstage.com. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  32. Criscitiello, Alexa. "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! MARY POPPINS to Return to the West End in 2019". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  33. Longman, Will (25 January 2019). "Max Martin musical & Juliet to open in London starring Miriam Teak-Lee". London Theatre Guide. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
  34. "Disney's Frozen musical to reopen Theatre Royal Drury Lane". LW Theatres. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
  35. "Penn and Teller create Magic Goes Wrong with Mischief Theatre | WhatsOnStage". www.whatsonstage.com. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
  36. "The Doctor, starring Juliet Stevenson, postponed to 2021". londontheatre.co.uk. London Theatre. 13 May 2020. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  37. "Jessica Chastain to make West End debut in Jamie Lloyd's A Doll's House". londontheatre.co.uk. London Theatre. 25 October 2019. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
  38. "Beverley Knight to star in new musical The Drifters Girl in the West End". londontheatre.co.uk. London Theatre. 1 November 2019. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  39. "Bob Marley musical Get Up, Stand Up! to premiere in West End in 2021". londontheatre.co.uk. London Theatre. 17 February 2020. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
  40. "Hello, Dolly! starring Imelda Staunton postponed to 2022". londontheatre.co.uk. London Theatre. 29 May 2020. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  41. "Joseph revival at the London Palladium rescheduled to 2021". londontheatre.co.uk. London Theatre. 29 May 2020. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
  42. "Life of Pi stage adaptation to transfer to Wyndham's Theatre". londontheatre.co.uk. London Theatre. 11 October 2019. Retrieved 13 October 2019.
  43. "Moulin Rouge delays West End opening to late 2021". londontheatre.co.uk. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  44. "Samuel Bailey's Shook to transfer to Trafalgar Studios". londontheatre.co.uk. London Theatre. 23 January 2020. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
  45. "Sunday in the Park with George postponed until further notice".
  46. "Bartlett Sher's To Kill A Mockingbird to transfer to West End in summer 2020". londontheatre.co.uk. London Theatre. 31 October 2019. Retrieved 31 October 2019.
  47. "Mean Girls to Transfer to West End in 2021 and be Adapted into A Film".
  48. "The Pillowman starring Steve Pemberton postponed to next year". londontheatre.co.uk. London Theatre. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  49. "Laura Wade's Jane Austen play The Watsons to transfer to Harold Pinter Theatre". londontheatre.co.uk. London Theatre. 12 November 2019. Retrieved 19 November 2019.
  50. "Panto is returning to The London Palladium in 2020 | LW Theatres News". LW Theatres. Retrieved 15 March 2020.

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