Playhouse Theatre

Address: Northumberland Avenue , London , WC2

Tube: Embankment

Architect: F. H. Fowler & Hill

Opened: 11 March 1882

Rebuilt: 28 January 1907

Capacity: 786

The theatre was built by F. H. Fowler and Hill in 1882 as the Royal Avenue Theatre and rebuilt in 1907 .The first production was Jacques Offenbach's Madame Favart. In its early years the theatre hosted comic operas, burlesques and farces with Arthur Roberts, the popular music hall star.

By the 1890s, the theatre began presenting drama, and in 1894 Annie Horniman, the tea heiress, anonymously sponsored the actress Florence Farr in a season of plays at the theatre. The first production was unsuccessful, and so she prevailed upon her friend, George Bernard Shaw to hurry and make his West End début at the theatre with Arms and the Man in 1894. It was successful enough to allow him to discontinue music criticism to focus full time on play writing. The legendary actress Gladys Cooper managed the theatre for a time.

During the restoration in 1905 a tragic accident occurred when a block of masonry dropped from the adjacent Charing Cross railway station, it crashed through the roof of the theatre killing six workmen and injuring many more. The roof was repaired and the theatre re-opened as The Playhouse on January 28, 1907 with a one-act play called The Drums of Oudh and a play called Toddles, by Tristan Bernard and Andre Godferneaux.

Alec Guiness made his stage début here in Ward Dorane's play Libel! on April 2, 1934. In 1951, it became recording studio for live performances for the BBC.The Goon Show and the radio versions of Hancock's Half Hour and Steptoe and Son were recorded here, although at least the first two shows were recorded at other venues during their runs. The stage also hosted live performances by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. On April 3, 1967 a live Pink Floyd concert was broadcast from the theatre.

The BBC left around 1976, and the theatre was threatened with closure, but it was restored to its 1907 design, and opened again in October 1987. Following a critically-acclaimed revival of Henrik Ibsen's A Dolls House in 1996, starring Janet McTeer, the theatre was sold and closed again for refurbishment, reopening in 1997 as a producing house with the West End première of Anton Chekov's The Wood Demon. The production was poorly received, and the theatre returned to life as a commercial receiving house.

Past performances at the Playhouse Theatre:

Three Sisters 3 April 2003 - 29 June 2003 by Anton Chekhov, translated by Christopher Hampton, starring Kristin Scott Thomas
Vincent in Brixton 19 July 2003 - 23 August 2003 by Nicholas Wright
Les Liaisons Dangereuses 12 December 2003 - 10 January 2004 by Christopher Hampton
Journey's End 3 May 2004 - 2 October 2004 by R.C. Sherriff
Romeo and Juliet 18 November 2004 - 9 January 2005 by William Shakespeare
The RSC: House of Desires (1 February 2005 - 21 March 2005) by Sor Juana de la Cruz
The RSC: Dog in the Manger (2 February 2005 - 26 March 2005) by Lope de Vega, translated by David Johnston
The RSC: Pedro, The Great Pretender 17 February 2005 - 12 March 2005 by Miguel de Cervantes, translated by Philip Osment
The Postman Always Rings Twice 8 June 2005 - 3 September 2005 by James M. Cain adapted by Andrew Rattenbury, starring Val Kilmer
As You Desire Me 27 October 2005 - 22 January 2006 by Luigi Pirandello, starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Bob Hoskins
The Creeper 9 February 2006 - 18 March 2006 by Pauline Macaulay, starring the late Ian Richardson
My Name is Rachel Corrie 30 March 2006 - 21 May 2006 by Alan Rickman and Katherine Vilner, starring Megan Dodds
The Rocky Horror Show 4 July 2006 - 22 July 2006 by Richard O'Brien, starring David Bedella and Suzanne Shaw
Dancing in the Streets 1 August 2006 - 14 July 2007
Footloose - The Musical 17 August 2007 - 6 December 2007
The Adventures of Tintin 9 December 2007 - 28 February 2008, adapted from Herge's novels