Her Majesty's Theatre

Address: Haymarket , SW1Y 4QL

Tube: Piccadilly Circus

Architect: Sir John Vanbrugh

Opened: 1705

Capacity: 1216

Her Majesty's Theatre was the original home of the opera company which was the fore runner of what is now known as the Royal Opera House. A theatre has been on this site since 1705, originally host to The Haymarket Opera House. It was initially The Queen's Theatre named after Queen Anne, who reigned for twelve years from 1702 until 1714. She was the last of the royal house of Stuart’s and after her death; the throne went to the house of Hanover in George 1. It then became The King's Theatre.

In the early eighteenth Century, only a handful of theatres had a license and it became famous under the management of the Shakespearian actor David Garrick until the first theatre burnt down in 1789.

The second theatre opened in 1791 and the majority of the performances were operas. Mozart's La Cleenza di Tito had its London premier here in 1806, and Così fan tutte followed in 1811, and Don Giovanni in 1816. John Nash and George Renton altered to the facade and auditorium, between 1816 and 1818, and they added a shopping arcade behind the theatre. The Royal Opera Arcade is still open today.

When Queen Victoria ascended the throne in 1837, the current manager Ben Webster changed the name of the theatre to Her Majesty's Theatre, Italian Opera House. Samuel Phelps made his London debut here, playing in several Shakespeare plays. During this decade, romantic ballet was extremely popular in Europe and the two world-renowned companies were the Académie Royale de Musique in Paris known as the Paris Opera, and the Ballet Company of her Majesty's Theatre. Some of the most famous contemporary classics were played here, - Ondine in 1843, La Esmeralda in 1844, Catarina in 1846, and Pas de Quatre in 1845. Many of these production were written for the Ballet of Her Majety's Theatre, most notably Paul Taglioni’s, Coralia in 1847, and Electra in 1849, which was the first ballet production to make use of electric lighting.

The majority of the new ballets were set to the music of the Italian composer Cesare Pugni who was the “Her Majesty's Theatres Official Composer of Ballet Music” from 1843 until 1850. Pugni was the prolific composer of romantic ballets having composed over 100 ballets in their entirety and contributing to nearly 200. Not surprisingly the Ballet Company of her Majesty's Theatre attracted the greatest contemporary Ballerinas Marie Taglioni, Carlotta Grisi, Carolina Rosati, Fanny Elssler, Lucile Grahn, and Fanny Cerrito all performed the works of Perrot, Taglioni, and Saint-Léon.

The "Italian Opera House" was dropped from the name of the theatre in 1847 when Michael Costa, the conductor at Her Majesty's, transferred his opera company to the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden following a management disagreement. The theatre was then revamped and the theatre reopened as the Royal Italian Opera now known as the Royal Opera House on April 6, 1847 with Rossini's Semiramide.

By the 1850s, the importance of the romantic ballet England and Paris diminished as Perrot, Saint-Léon, Talgioni, and Pugni, all defected to the Imperial Ballet of St. Petersburg in Russia. The decline of ballet in London was accelerated when Her Majesty's Theatre was destroyed by fire in 1867; this decline was not reversed until the start of the twentieth Century when the ballerina Adeline Genée began her illustrious career. What was originally the Ballet of Her Majesty's Theatre moved temporarily to the Vic Theatre and became the Vic-Wells Ballet, later they moved to the Sadler's Wells Theatre, as the Sadler’s Wells Ballet. Later they relocated again to their modern permanent home at the Royal Opera House and became the Royal Ballet.

A third theatre was built in 1872, but it performed mostly operas as the ballet was no longer popular, but the ill-fated third theatre was demolished after twenty years. The fourth and current building, designed by C. J. Phipps, opened in 1897 and they did perform a smattering of operas but it was not their speciality. The design of the modern theatre was perfect for another new genre the musical. Chu Chin Chow opened in 1916 and ran for a world record number of 2,235 performances. From 1901 to 1952 the theatre changed its name again to His Majesty’s as the reigning monarchs were male it reverted to Her Majesty’s theatre in 1953 when the present British Monarch Queen Elizabeth the second became Queen.

Musicals have predominated since the end of the Second World War. Since 1986, Her Majesty's has been the London home of The Phantom of the Opera, the second longest-running West End musical in history after Les Misérables. The theatre also played host to two of the legendary Secret Policeman's Ball charity shows, organised by Peter Cook, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Rowan Atkinson, amongst others. The venue was also the setting for the popular ITV1 variety series Live from Her Majesty's, which ran on television from 1982 to 1985. In 1984 the legendary comedian and magician Tommy Cooper died on stage during this series.

Past productions at her majesty’s theatre: