Palace Theatre

Address: Shaftesbury Ave , W1V 8AY

Tube: Leicester Square

Architect: Thomas Edward Collcutt

Opened: 1891

Capacity: 1400

Impresario Richard D’Oyly Carte commissioned the theatre in the late 1880s, on an island at the end of Shaftsbury Avenue. He intended it to be the home of English grand opera, as his Savoy Theatre was designed to house English light opera especially the Gilbert and Sullivan series. The foundation stone, laid by his wife Helen in 1888, is on the façade of the theatre, to the right of the entrance.

The theatre opened as the Royal English Opera House in 1891 with Arthur Sullivan's Ivanhoe, almost a sure fired success, as no expense was spared including a double cast and specially designed scenery. It ran for 160 performances. Sir Henry Wood, who had been répétiteur for the production, recalled in his autobiography that;

"[if] Carte had had a repertory of six operas instead of only one, I believe he would have established English opera in London for all time. Towards the end of the run of Ivanhoe I was already preparing the Flying Dutchman (opera) with Eugène Oudin in the name part. He would have been superb. However, plans were altered and the Dutchman was shelved."

Carte relinquished his dream and sold the theatre within a year, and it was renamed the Palace Theatre of Varieties.

In March 1897, the theatre began to screen films pioneering the new 70 mm format with its exceptionally large and clear images. The performances included early newsreels from around the world, many of them made by film pioneer William Kennedy Laurie Dickson, including his film of the Anglo-Boer War made in 1900.

The name of the theatre was shortened to The Palace Theatre in 1911. On March 11, 1925, the musical comedy No, No, Nanette opened at the Palace Theatre starring Binnie Hale and George Grossmith, Jr. The run of 665 performances made it the third longest running West End musical of the 1920s. The Palace Theatre was also the venue for Fred Astaire's final stage musical Gay Divorce, which opened there on November 2, 1933.

The last decades of the twentieth century saw two exceptional musical runs at The Palace Jesus Christ Superstar and Les Misérables . The latter ran for eighteen years, having transferred from the Barbican Centre in 1985. The show is still running at the Queen's Theatre just 100 metres further up Shaftesbury Avenue, having transferred there in April 2004. On October 8, 2006, Les Misérables became the longest running musical in the world, overtaking Cats.

In August 1983, Andrew Lloyd-Webber announced that he had purchased the freehold of the theatre for £1.3 million and subsequently began restoration work. Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Woman in White received its world premiere on September 15, 2004 and ran for 19 months to February 25, 2006. The show outlived the Broadway version, by six days. Bill Kenwright's production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman's musical Whistle Down The Wind played from March 15 - August 12, 2006.

Past performances at the Palace Theatre: