Vaudeville Theatre

Address: The Strand, London, WC2

Tube: Charing Cross

Architect: C. J. Phipps

Opened: 1870

Capacity: 690

The Vaudeville Theatre was named after the type of entertainment it was built to host. Opening in 1870, it has been rebuilt twice. The current theatre opened in 1926. Its link with the past remains strong. Its rare thunder drum and lightning sheets and much of the early stage mechanisms survive.

It originally opened with Andrew Halliday's comedy, For Love Or Money and a burlesque, Don Carlos. A notable innovation was the concealed footlights, which would switch themselves off if the glass in front of them was broken. The original theatre had a seating capacity of 1,046, rising in a horseshoe shape, over the pit and three galleries. The site as a whole was cramped together and apart from the seats, any other facilities were very basic.

The renowned Shakespearean actor, Henry Irving, had his first conspicuous success as Digby Grant in James Albery's Two Roses at the Vaudeville in 1870 which ran for 300 nights. The first theatre piece in the world to achieve 500 consecutive performances was the comedy, Our Boys by H. J. Byron, started its run at the Vaudeville in 1875. Before its run was over it broke a thousand performances. This was such an unusual event that many of the London bus conductors approaching the Vaudeville Theatre stop shouted "Our Boys!" when the stop was reached. Dramatist W. S. Gilbert presented one of his later plays, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern here at the Vaudeville Theatre.

In 1889 C. J. Phipps refurbished the theatre to increase the capacity seating and at the same time he installed an ornate ceiling in the foyer which is still retained to this day. In 1892, Thorne passed the lease to restaurateurs Agostino and Stefano Gatti, who were also the owners of the lease of the nearby Adelphi Theatre.

The first production at the new theatre was a revival of Our Boys. The theatre was becoming famous for a run of successful musical comedies. The French Maid, by Basil Hood, first premiered in London at Terry's Theatre in 1897 but transferred to the Vaudeville in early 1898, running for a very respectable total of 480 London performances.

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 recreated the role of Angela when Ellaline Terriss's became pregnant. In 1911, William Greet produced Baby Mine at the theatre. Betty Bolton made her debut in 1916, at the age of 10, in a revue “Some”.

The theatre closed on November 7, 1925 when the interior was completely redesigned by Robert Atkins. The auditorium became its current rectangle shape, and the seating capacity reduced to just over 700. A new dressing room block with an ornate boardroom extended the site to Maiden Lane. The theatre reopened on February 23, 1926 with a popular revue by Archie de Bear called R.S.V.P. and its final rehearsal was broadcast by the BBC. The theatre then hosted William Somerset Maugham's comedy, The Bread-Winner in 1930.

After World War II, the theatre presented William Douglas Home's play, The Chiltern Hundreds, which ran for 651 performances. The record-setting musical Salad Days, by Julian Slade with lyrics by Dorothy Reynolds and Slade,premiered at the Bristol Old Vic in 1954 but soon transferred to the Vaudeville, enjoying the longest run of any theatrical show ever. Another successful production at the theatre was Arnold Wesker's 1959 play, Chips with Everything.

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 ManMost Likely To..., 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, mainly to make the seats more comfortable.

Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit enjoyed a successful revival at the theatre in 1986, and Willy Russell's play Shirley Valentine played in 1988, starring Pauline Collins. Since September 2002, the dance/performance art troupe Stomp has ade the theatre their permanent home. It was announced on 19 July 2007 that the production would close on Sunday 23 September 2007 after a run of exactly five years at the venue. Since 2003, the theatre has been owned by Max Weitzenhoffer, and in 2005, the venue was brought under the management of Nimax Theatres Limited.

Past productions at the Vaudeville Theatre:

Pageant (1 August 2000 - 30 September 2000) by Albert Evans, Bill Russell and Frank Kelly
Mindgame (5 June 2000 - 8 July 2000) by Anthony Horowitz
Madame Melville (18 October 2000 - 11 March 2001) by Richard Nelson, starring Macaulay Culkin
God Only Knows (20 March 2001 - 9 June 2001) by Hugh Whitemore
Caught in the Net - Run For Your Wife 2 (29 August 2001 - 29 June 2002) by Ray Cooney
Betty (9 July 2002 - 3 August 2002) by Karen McLachlan
Sonic Waffle (10 September 2002 - 21 September 2002) by Ross Noble
Stomp (25 September 2002 - 23 September 2007 transferred to Ambassadors Theatre)
Swimming with Sharks (16 October 2007 - 19 January 2008) by Michael Lesslie, starring Christian Slater
The Importance of Being Earnest (22 January 2008 - 29 April 2008), starring Penelope Keith