West End theatre is a
popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the
large theatres of London
's
"Theatreland". Along with New York
's Broadway
theatre
, West End theatre is usually considered to
represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English
speaking world. Seeing a West End show is a common
tourist activity in London.
Total attendances first surpassed 12 million in 2002, and in June
2005
The Times reported that this
record might be beaten in 2005. Total attendance numbers surpassed
13 million in 2007, setting a new record for the West End. Factors
behind high ticket sales in the first half of 2005 included new hit
musicals such as
Billy
Elliot,
The
Producers and
Mary
Poppins and the high number of film stars appearing. Since
the late 1990s there has been an increase in the number of American
screen actors on the London stage, and in 2005 these included
Brooke Shields,
Val Kilmer,
Rob Lowe,
David Schwimmer and
Kevin Spacey.
History
Theatre in London flourished after the
English Reformation.
The first permanent
public playhouse, known simply as The Theatre
, was constructed in 1576 in Shoreditch
by James
Burbage. It was soon joined by The Curtain
. Both are known to have been used by
William Shakespeare's company.
In 1599,
the timber from The Theatre was moved to Southwark
, where it was used in building the Globe Theatre
in a new theatre district formed, beyond the
controls of the City corporation. These theatres were closed
in 1642 during the
interregnum.
At the
restoration in 1660, two
companies were licensed to perform, the
Duke's Company and the
King's Company.
Performances were held
in converted buildings, such as Lisle's Tennis Court
. The first West End theatre, known as Theatre
Royal in Bridges Street, was designed by Thomas Killigrew and built on the site of
the present Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
. It opened on 7 May 1663 and was destroyed
by a fire nine years later. It was replaced by a new structure
designed by
Christopher Wren and
renamed the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.
Outside
the West End, Sadler's Wells Theatre
opened in Islington
on 3 June 1683. Taking its name from founder
Richard Sadler and monastic springs
that were discovered on the property, it operated as a "Musick
House", with performances of opera; as it was not licensed for
plays.
In
the West End, the Haymarket Theatre
opened on 29 December 1720 on a site slightly north
of its current location, and the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden
opened in Covent Garden
on 7 December 1732.
The
Patent theatre companies retained
their duopoly on drama well into the 19th century, and all other
theatres could perform only musical entertainments. By the early
19th century, however,
music hall
entertainments became popular, and presenters found a loophole in
the restrictions on non-patent theatres in the genre of
melodrama. Melodrama did not break the Patent
Acts, as it was accompanied by music.
Initially, these
entertainments were presented in large halls, attached to public houses, but purpose-built theatres began
to be established in the East
End
at Shoreditch and Whitechapel
.
The West
End theatre district became established with the opening of many
small theatres and halls, including the Adelphi
in The
Strand
on 17 November 1806. South of the River Thames, the Old Vic
, Waterloo Road
, opened on 11 May 1818. The expansion of the
West End theatre district gained pace with the Theatres Act 1843; which relaxed the
conditions for the performance of plays, and the Strand gained
another venue when the Vaudeville
opened on 16 April 1870. The next several
decades saw the opening of many new theatres in the West End.
The
Criterion
Theatre
opened on Piccadilly Circus
on 21 March 1874, and in 1881, two more houses
appeared: the Savoy
Theatre
in The Strand, built by Richard D'Oyly Carte specifically to
showcase the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, opened on 10
October (the first theatre to be lit by cooler, cleaner electric
lights), and five days later the Comedy Theatre
opened as the Royal Comedy Theatre on Panton Street
in Leicester
Square
. It abbreviated its name three years later.
The theatre building boom continued until about
World War I.
Among the noted performers who began their careers in the early
days of West End theatre are
Robert William Elliston,
John Liston,
Nell
Gwynne, and later
Henry Irving,
Ellen Terry,
John Lawrence Toole,
Nellie Farren,
Marie
Tempest,
Seymour Hicks,
Ellaline Terriss, and
Marie Brema.
During the 1950s and 1960s, many plays were produced in theatre
clubs, in order to evade the censorship then exercised by the
Lord Chamberlain's Office.
The
Theatres Act 1968 finally
abolished censorship of the stage in the United Kingdom.
Theatreland
Now
rebranded - by Westminster council and the Society of London
Theatre - as "Theatreland", London's main theatre district, which
contains approximately forty venues, is located in the heart of the
West
End
of Central London,
and is traditionally defined by The Strand to the south, Oxford Street
to the north, Regent Street
to the west, and Kingsway
to the east. Prominent theatre streets include
Drury
Lane
, Shaftesbury Avenue
, and The Strand. The works staged are predominantly
musicals,
classic or middle-brow plays, and
comedy performances.
Beyond
the West End are the Royal National Theatre
and Old
Vic, in Southwark
; and the Barbican Theatre
, in the City of London. London also has many
smaller theatres, both around the West End and its periphery.
Many theatres in the West End are of late
Victorian or
Edwardian construction and are privately
owned. The majority of them have great character, and the largest
and best maintained feature grand neo-classical, Romanesque, or
Victorian façades and luxurious, detailed interior design and
decoration. On the other hand, leg room is often cramped, and
audience facilities such as bars and toilets are often much smaller
than in modern theatres. The protected status of the buildings and
their confined urban locations, combined with financial
constraints, make it is very difficult to make substantial
improvements to the level of comfort offered. In 2004, it was
estimated an investment of £250 million was required for
modernisation, and the theatre owners unsuccessfully requested tax
concessions to help them meet the costs.
Long-running shows
The length of West End shows depend on ticket sales. Musicals tend
to have longer runs than dramas. The longest running musical in
West End history is
Les Misérables. It
overtook
Andrew Lloyd Webber's
Cats, which closed in 2002
after running for 8,949 performances and 21 years, as the longest
running West End musical of all time on 8 October 2006. Other
long-runners include Lloyd Webber's
The Phantom of the
Opera and
Willy Russell's
Blood Brothers.
However the non-musical
Agatha
Christie play
The
Mousetrap is the longest running show in the world, and
has been showing since 1952.
List of West End theatres
- If no show is currently running, the play listed is the next
show planned (dates marked with an *).
- If the next show planned is not announced, the applicable
columns are left blank.
| Duke of York's Theatre
|| Speaking in Tongues || 640 || 2009-09-18September 18 2009 ||2009-12-12 December 12 2009
|-
| Fortune Theatre
|| The Woman in Black || 432 || 1989-06-07June 7 1989 || Open-ended
|-
| Garrick Theatre
|| Arturo Brachetti – Change|| 656 || 2009-10-19October 19 2009 || 2010-01-03January 3 2010
|-
| Lyric Theatre || Thriller - Live || 967 || 2009-02-01February 1 2009 || Open-ended
| Noël Coward Theatre
|| Calendar Girls || 872 || 2009-04-04April 4 2009||2010-01-09January 9 2010
|-
| Trafalgar Studios 1
|| Othello || 380 || 2009-09-11September 11 2009 ||2009-12-12 December 12 2009
| Trafalgar Studios 2 || Public Property || 100 || 2009-11-10November 10 2009 ||2009-12-05 December 5 2009
|-
| Vaudeville Theatre || The Rise and Fall of Little Voice || 690 || 2009-10-08October 8 2009 || 2010-01-30January 30 2010
|-
| Victoria Palace Theatre
|| Billy Elliot || 1550 || 2005-05-11May 11 2005 || Open-ended
Upcoming productions
- Love Never Dies,
Adelphi theatre
- ENRON, Noel Coward
theatre
- Jerusalem, Apollo
theatre
- Morecambe, Duchess Theatre
- The Little Dog
Laughed, Garrick Theatre
- Dreamboats and
Petticoats, Playhouse Theatre
- Hair, Gielgud
Theatre
- The Fantasticks,
Duchess Theatre
- All My Sons, Apollo
Theatre
- Private Lives, Vaudeville
Theatre
- The Caretaker, Trafalgar Studios
London's non-commercial theatres
The exterior of the Old Vic
should be noted that the term West End Theatre is sometimes used to
refer specifically to commercial productions in Theatreland.
However
the leading non-commercial (usually government subsidised) theatres
in London, such as the National Theatre, the Royal
Shakespeare Company, the Globe Theatre, the Old
Vic, the Young
Vic
, the Royal Court Theatre
, the Almeida Theatre
, and the Open Air Theatre
, most of which are not located in Theatreland,
arguably enjoy greater artistic prestige. These theatres
stage a higher proportion of more demanding work, including
Shakespeare, other classic plays and
premieres of new plays by leading highbrow playwrights. Hit plays
from the non-commercial theatres sometimes transfer to one of the
commercial Theatreland houses for an extended second run.
The
Royal Opera
House is one of London's most famous theatres and widely
regarded as one of the greatest opera houses in the world,
comparable with the Palais Garnier
, La Scala
and the Metropolitan Opera House, New
York
. Commonly known simply as Covent Garden due to its location, it is unique to other West End
theatres in many ways, not least in having three resident
performance companies, The Royal
Ballet, Royal Opera and a resident
symphony orchestra. It has three performance spaces (19th
Century Main Auditorium, Linbury Theatre and Clore Studio) and
hosts guest performances from other leading opera, ballet and
performance companies from around the world.
Other London theatre
There is a great deal of theatre in London outside of the West End.
Much of
this is known as fringe theatre which
is the equivalent of Off Broadway
Theatre in New
York
. Fringe venues range from well-equipped
small theatres to rooms above
pubs, and
the performances range from classic plays, to cabaret, to plays in
the languages of London's
ethnic
minorities. The performers range from emerging young
professionals to amateurs.
Finally,
there are also local theatres in the suburbs which stage a wide
range of work, often including touring productions, such as the
New
Wimbledon Theatre
or the Churchill Theatre
in Bromley.
Awards
There are a number of annual awards for outstanding achievements in
London theatre:
See also
Notes
- Christopher Innes, "West End" in The Cambridge Guide to
Theatre (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998),
pp.1194–1195. ISBN 0521434378.
- TV talent shows help West End shows to record
audience - Telegraph
- TheatreHistory.com
- Helium.com
- Time Out London
- StoryOfLondon.com
- Londontown.com
- The Mousetrap London theatre tickets and
information
- Phantom of The Opera London - information on the
theatre show
- Blood Brothers London - information on the theatre
show
- Fortune Theatre London - information and
tickets
- Long Runs – Broadway, Off Broadway, London, Toronto
& Other Major Cities
External links
– opened 25 November 1952 originally at the
Ambassadors
Theatre
– 56th Year.
– opened 8 October 1985 originally at the Barbican
Theatre
– 24th Year
– opened 9 October 1986 – 23rd Year
– opened 28 July 1988 originally at the Albery
Theatre
– 22nd Year
and closed 11 May 2002 on its 21st
anniversary
– 21st Year
and closed 12 January 2002 – 17 years
– opened 18 November 1997 originally at the
Adelphi
Theatre
– opened 6 April 1999 originally at the Prince
Edward Theatre
– 11th Year
– opened 19 October 1999 – 10th
Year
and closed about 1980 – 8 years
and closed in 1933 – 8 years
– 14 May 2002 – 8th Year
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