Gielgud Theatre

Address: Shaftesbury Ave , London , W1

Tube: Piccadilly Circus

Architect: W.G.R. Sprague

Opened: 1906

Capacity: 889

The eponymous Hicks theatre opened on December 27, 1906 and it honoured the actor, manager and playwright Seymour Hicks. The theatre was designed as a pair with the Queen's Theatre, which opened a year later in the same street, but on the adjacent corner.

Hicks wrote both the first two plays at the theatre, firstly a musical called The Beauty of Bath by Hicks and Cosmo Hamilton and later My Darling.

The Dashing Little Duke (1909), which was produced by Hicks is probably the only recorded modern case of a husband stepping into his wife’s shoes. Hicks' wife, Ellaline Terriss, role was of a woman impersonating a man. That detail was fortunate because when she became ill, Hicks was her understudy.

In 1909, the theatre became the Globe Theatre. The other "Globe Theatre", which had been located on Newcastle Street, was demolished in 1902 to become the Aldwych Theatre. Terence Frisby's production There's a Girl in My Soup, opened in 1966, and it ran for 1,064 performances at the theatre, the second longest run in the theatres history.

Andrew Lloyd Webber's production of the Olivier Award-winning comedy Daisy Pulls It Off by Densie Deegan and ran for 1,180 performances, which in 1986 became the longest running play.

In 1987 Peter Shaffer's play Lettice and Lovage starred Maggie Smith and Margaret Tyzack. More recently, Oscar Wilde's classic comedy, An Ideal Husband (1992) and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (2004) saw notable revivals.

The theatre was refurbished in 1987, to renovate the gold leaf in the auditorium, but the elegant circular Regency staircase, oval gallery and tower were retained.

In 1994, the theatre was renamed in honour of the celebrated British actor Sir John Gielgud. In 2007 work began to join the Gielgud with her sister theatre the adjacent Queen's Theatre, so that they will share a joint foyer on Shaftesbury Avenue.

Many stars have made their debut on the Gielgud stage and many have been subsequently honoured, but a rare honour was accorded to Beerbohm the resident theatre cat, who received a front-page obituary in the British theatrical publication, The Stage. He died in March 1995 at the age of 20, and so far has been the only cat to achieve the front cover.

Past productions at the Gielgud Theatre:

Gertie Millar and Robert Evett in A Waltz Dream,
Brewster's Millions by Winchell Smith & Byron Ongley
A Waltz Dream an operetta by Oscar Straus
Kismet, a revival of Edward Knoblock's play, with Henry Daniell in his London debut.
Fallen Angels by Noël Coward, starring Tallulah Bankhead
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, with John Gielgud starring and directing
The Petrified Forest by Robert Sherwood
The Lady's Not for Burning by Christopher Fry, with Richard Burton in a supporting role
The Complaisant Lover by Graham Greene, starring Ralph Richardson
A Man For All Seasons by Robert Bolt, starring Paul Scofield
There's a Girl in My Soup by Terence Frisby
A season of Barry Humphries as Dame Edna Everage
Design for Living by Noël Coward, starring Vanessa Redgrave
Daisy Pulls It Off by Densie Deegan
Lettice and Lovage by Peter Shaffer, starring Maggie Smith and Margaret Tyzack
Man of the Moment by Alan Ayckbourn
An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde
Design for Living, starring Rachel Weisz
Tell Me on a Sunday by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with Denise Van Outen
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, starring Christian Slater, Frances Barber and Mackenzie Crook
Don Carlos by Friedrich Schiller, starring Derek Jacobi
Some Girls by Neil LaBute, starring David Schwimmer and Catherine Tate
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, starring Tara Fitzgerald
The RSC's The Crucible, starring Iain Glen
The RSC's The Canterbury Tales
Frost/Nixon by Peter Morgan, starring Michael Sheen and Frank Langella
Equus by Peter Shaffer, starring the male lead of Harry potter films Daniel Radcliffe and Richard Griffiths
Macbeth by William Shakespeare, starring Patrick Stewart
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickelby: Part One by Charles Dickens
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickelby: Part Two by Charles Dickens
Carl Rosa Opera presents The Gilbert & Sullivan Season