Vaudeville Theatre
C. J. Phipps | |
Website | |
---|---|
www.nimaxtheatres.com/nimax/vaudeville |
The Vaudeville Theatre is a
History
Origins
The theatre was designed by prolific architect
The great
In 1882, Thomas Thorne became the sole lessee, and in 1889 he demolished the houses to create a foyer block in the Adamesque style, behind a Portland stone facade on the Strand. He again used architect C.J. Phipps. The theatre was refurbished to have more spacious seating and an ornate ceiling. It reopened on 13 January 1891 with a performance of
Gatti family
In 1892, Thorne passed the lease to restaurateurs Agostino and Stefano Gatti, who since 1878 had held the lease of the nearby Adelphi Theatre. The first production at the new theatre was a revival of Our Boys. The lease briefly passed into the hands of Weedon Grossmith in 1894, but was back with the Gattis in 1896. The theatre became known for a series of successful musical comedies. The French Maid, by Basil Hood, with music by Walter Slaughter, first played in London at Terry's Theatre under the management of W.H. Griffiths beginning in 1897 but transferred to the Vaudeville in early 1898, running for a very successful total of 480 London performances. The piece starred Louie Pounds. Seymour Hicks and his wife Ellaline Terriss starred in a series of Christmas entertainments here, including their popular Bluebell in Fairyland (1901). The foyer of the theatre had become infamous as the site of an argument in 1897 between Richard Archer Prince and Terriss's father, actor William Terriss. Soon after that argument, the deranged Prince stabbed William Terriss to death at the stage door of the Adelphi Theatre. Prince was a struggling young actor whom Terriss had tried to help.[3]
Hicks and Terriss also starred here in Quality Street, a comedy by J. M. Barrie, which opened at the Vaudeville in 1902 and ran for 459 performances. It had first played in New York in 1901 but ran there for only 64 performances. This was one of the first American productions to score a bigger triumph in London. This was followed by the 1903 musical The Cherry Girl by Hicks, with music by Ivan Caryll, starring Hicks, Terriss and Courtice Pounds.[4] In 1904, Hicks scored an even bigger hit with the musical, The Catch of the Season, written by Hicks and Cosmo Hamilton, based on the fairy tale Cinderella. It had a very long run of 621 performances, starring Hicks, Zena Dare (who created the role of Angela when Ellaline Terriss's pregnancy forced her to withdraw. Dare was later replaced by Terriss and then by Dare's sister, Phyllis Dare) and Louie Pounds.
The theatre closed on 7 November 1925, when the interior was completely reconstructed to designs by
Modern era
A proposed redevelopment of
Cicely Courtneidge played at the theatre in The Bride Comes Back (1960) and Ray Cooney's Move Over Mrs. Markham (1971). Bill Treacher made his West End debut in 1963 in the comedy Shout for Life at the Vaudeville. In 1966, the theatre hosted Arsenic and Old Lace, starring Sybil Thorndike and her husband Lewis Casson. Brigid Brophy's The Burglar premiered at the theatre in 1967, and Joyce Rayburn's comedy, The Man Most Likely To..., starring Leslie Phillips, opened initially at the Vaudeville in 1968 and went on to run for over 1,000 performances in London.
In 1969, the Gatti family sold their interest in the theatre to Sir Peter Saunders, and in 1970 he commissioned Peter Rice to redesign the interior. Among other changes were a deep red wallpaper in the auditorium and more comfortable seats. Also, the loggia above the street was glazed to make the balcony an extension of the bar. The backstage lighting was rerigged, and a forestage lift and counterweight flying system were installed. The theatre achieved some protection in 1972 when it was Grade II listed.[5][6] In 1983, ownership passed to Michael Codron and David Sutton. Stephen Waley-Cohen took ownership in 1996, passing it to Max Weitzenhofer in 2002.[2]
Meanwhile, drama was added to the standard bill of fare at the theatre. Hugh Paddick starred in the Joyce Rayburn farce Out on a Limb at the theatre in 1976, Noël Coward's Present Laughter with Donald Sinden in the lead was revived in 1981 and Patrick Cargill and Moira Lister co-starred in the farce Key for Two in 1982. Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit was revived at the theatre in 1986, and Willy Russell's play Shirley Valentine played in 1988, starring Pauline Collins. In 1990, Simon Gray's play Hidden Laughter was produced at the theatre, followed by Kander and Ebb's 1991 musical, 70, Girls, 70, starring Dora Bryan.
A 1996 revival of
The dance/
Productions
- Swimming with Sharks (16 October 2007 – 19 January 2008) starring Christian Slater
- The Importance of Being Earnest (22 January 2008 – 26 April 2008) starring Penelope Keith
- The Deep Blue Sea (29 April 2008 – 5 July 2008) starring Greta Scacchi
- The Female of the Species (16 July 2008 – 4 October 2008) starring Eileen Atkins and Anna Maxwell Martin
- Piaf (14 October 2008 – 24 January 2009) starring Elena Roger
- Woman in Mind (6 February 2009 – 2 May 2009) starring Janie Dee
- Duet for One (12 May 2009 – 1 August 2009) starring Juliet Stevenson and Henry Goodman
- Alan Cumming: I Bought a Blue Car Today (1 September 2009 – 6 September 2009) starring Alan Cumming
- Ed Byrne: Different Class (7 September 2009 – 19 September 2009) starring Ed Byrne
- The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (20 October 2009 – 30 January 2010) starring Diana Vickers, Lesley Sharp and Marc Warren
- Marcus Brigstocke – God Collar (4 February 2010 – 10 February 2010) starring Marcus Brigstocke
- Megan Mullally & Supreme Music Programme (16–21 February 2010) starring Megan Mullally
- Private Lives (3 March 2010 – 1 May 2010) starring Kim Cattrall and Matthew Macfadyen
- The Prisoner of Second Avenue (30 June 2010 – 11 September 2010) starring Jeff Goldblum and Mercedes Ruehl
- Pam Ann – Flying High (29 September 2010 – 17 October 2010), starring Pam Ann
- An Ideal Husband (4 November 2010 – 19 February 2011) starring Alexander Hanson and Samantha Bond
- In a Forest, Dark and Deep (3 March 2011 – 4 June 2011) starring Matthew Fox and Olivia Williams
- The Flying Karamazov Brothers (9 June 2011 – 20 August 2011)
- Broken Glass (16 September 2011 – 10 December 2011) starring Antony Sher and Tara Fitzgerald
- Swallows and Amazons (20 December 2011 – 14 January 2012)
- Master Class (7 February 2012 – 28 April 2012) starring Tyne Daly
- What the Butler Saw (16 May 2012 – 28 July 2012) starring Omid Djalili
- Volcano (16 August 2012 – 29 September 2012) starring Jenny Seagrove
- Paul Merton – Out of My Head (1 October 2012 – 12 October 2012) starring Paul Merton
- Uncle Vanya (2 November 2012 – 26 January 2013) starring Ken Stott, Anna Friel and Samuel West
- Great Expectations (6 February 2013 – 30 March 2013) starring Paula Wilcox
- The West End Men (25 May 2013 – 22 June 2013) starring Lee Mead, David Thaxton, Matt Willis, Glenn Carter and Stephen Rahman-Hughes
- The Ladykillers (29 June 2013 – 26 October 2013)
- The Duck House (27 November 2013[9] – 29 March 2014) starring Ben Miller
- Handbagged (10 April 2014 – 2 August 2014) starring Marion Bailey, Stella Gonet and Fenella Woolgar
- Forbidden Broadway (15 September 2014 – 22 November 2014)
- The Wind in the Willows (26 November 2014 – 17 January 2015)
- Di and Viv and Rose (29 January 2015 – 14 March 2015) starring Tamzin Outhwaite, Samantha Spiro and Jenna Russell
- Oppenheimer (31 March 2015 – 23 May 2015)
- Just Jim Dale (28 May 2015 – 20 June 2015) starring Jim Dale
- The Importance of Being Earnest (1 July 2015 – 4 November 2015) starring David Suchet
- Bill Bailey: Limbo Land (10 December 2015 – 17 January 2016) starring Bill Bailey
- Hand to God (15 February 2016 – 30 April 2016) starring Janie Dee and Neil Pearson
- Hobson's Choice (14 June 2016 – 10 September 2016) starring Martin Shaw
- My Family: Not the Sitcom (15 September 2016 – 15 October 2016) starring David Baddiel
- Dead Funny (3 November 2016 – 4 February 2017) starring Steve Pemberton, Ralf Little and Katherine Parkinson
- The Boys in the Band (7 February 2017 – 18 February 2017) starring Mark Gatiss, Ian Hallard and Daniel Boys
- Stepping Out (14 March 2017 – 17 June 2017) starring Amanda Holden, Natalie Casey, Anna-Jane Casey and Tracy-Ann Oberman
- The Mentor (4 July 2017 – 2 September 2017) starring F. Murray Abraham
- Johnny Flynn
- Emilia (21 March 2019 – 15 June 2019)
- The Worst Witch (24 July 2019 – 8 September 2019)
- Six (29 September 2021 - booking until November 2024) music and lyrics by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss
The Michael Grandage Company
- 30 Million Minutes (12 November 2015 – 5 December 2015) starring Dawn French
Classic Spring Company
- A Woman of No Importance (16 October 2017 – 30 December 2017) starring Eve Best and Anne Reid
- Lady Windermere's Fan (22 January 2018 – 7 April 2018) starring Samantha Spiro, Kevin Bishop and Jennifer Saunders
- An Ideal Husband (3 May 2018 – 14 July 2018) starring Edward Fox, Freddie Fox, Nathaniel Parker, Frances Barber, Sally Bretton and Susan Hampshire
- The Importance of Being Earnest (2 August 2018 – 20 October 2018) starring Sophie Thompson, Jeremy Swift, Stella Gonet, Fiona Button and Pippa Nixon
Mischief Theatre
- Groan Ups (20 September – 1 December 2019)
- Magic Goes Wrong (8 January – 15 March 2020)
Donmar West End
- Chris O’Dowd(6 August – 12 September)
Nearby tube stations
Notes
- ^ From: Henrietta Street and Maiden Lane Area: Maiden Lane, Survey of London: volume 36: Covent Garden (1970), pp. 239–52. Date accessed, 28 March 2007
- ^ a b c d Vaudeville Theatre accessed 28 March 2007
- ^ Article about Terriss, Prince and the murder
- ^ "Midi files and cast list for The Cherry Girl". Archived from the original on 19 March 2007. Retrieved 28 March 2007.
- ^ English Heritage Listing details for Theatre accessed 27 March 2007
- ^ English Heritage Listing details for Maiden Lane entrance and dressing room block accessed 27 March 2007
- ^ Information about She Knows You Know! at the IMDB database
- ^ Historic England. "Rear premises of the Vaudeville Theatre (1238979)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
- ^ "Ben Miller and Diana Vickers star in Duck House in the West End". whatsonstage.com. Whats On Stage. 16 September 2013. Retrieved 21 September 2013.
References
- Guide to British Theatres 1750–1950, John Earl and Michael Sell pp. 144–5 (Theatres Trust, 2000) ISBN 0-7136-5688-3
- Vaudeville Theatre history
- History of the site and theatre