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Shaftesbury Theatre

The Shaftesbury Theatre is a West End theatre, located in Shaftesbury Avenue, in the London Borough of Camden. It opened in 1911 as the New Prince's Theatre, with a capacity of 2,500. The current capacity is 1,416. The title "Shaftesbury Theatre" belonged to another theatre lower down the avenue between 1888 and 1941. The Prince's adopted the name in 1963.

For the Shaftesbury Theatre between 1888 and 1941, see Shaftesbury Theatre (1888).

Address

Shaftesbury Avenue
London, WC2
United Kingdom

51°30′58″N 00°07′33″W / 51.51611°N 0.12583°W / 51.51611; -0.12583

London Underground Tottenham Court Road

The Theatre of Comedy Company

Grade II

West End Theatre

1,416

Mrs. Doubtfire

26 December 1911 (1911-12-26)

Bertie Crewe

The theatre, the last to be built in Shaftesbury Avenue, was originally intended to house popular melodramas, but has presented a wide range of productions, including Shakespeare, farce, opera, ballet and revue. Companies based at the theatre for London seasons have included the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, the Ballets Russes, Sadler's Wells Opera, Sadler's Wells Ballet, the Royal Swedish Ballet and the dance companies of Uday Shankar and Pearl Primus.


The theatre has presented many musicals that premiered on Broadway, from Funny Face in the 1920s to Pal Joey and Wonderful Town in the 1950s, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Hair in the 1960s, and more recently Hairspray, Memphis, Motown and Mrs Doubtfire.


The theatre was at risk of demolition in the early 1970s to make way for new roads or for commercial development, but the Save London's Theatres campaign rescued it, and it was given listed building protection in 1974. The actor, playwright and impresario Ray Cooney led a new organisation, The Theatre of Comedy, backed by a substantial group of actors and writers, which leased and then bought the theatre as a home for British comedy. The Theatre of Comedy remains (2023) the owner of the theatre, but the emphasis of programming has shifted from farces and comedies to musicals.

History[edit]

Early years[edit]

The theatre was designed for the brothers Walter and Frederick Melville by Bertie Crewe and opened on 26 December 1911, the last new theatre to open in Shaftesbury Avenue.[1] The site, at the junction of Shaftesbury Avenue and High Holborn, had previously been what the theatre historians Mander and Mitchenson call "a maze of derelict property".[1] It was originally named the New Prince's Theatre, becoming the Prince's Theatre in 1914. The original capacity of the auditorium was 2,500.[2] The exterior is faced in terracotta and brick stone with a three-tier façade of vertically aligned windows, topped by a pillared cupola above the entrance. The New Prince's was London's first entirely steel-framed theatre, with no supporting pillars in the auditorium to obstruct the view. The original colour scheme of the auditorium was cream and gold.[3]

(2020). London Theatres. London: Francis Lincoln. ISBN 978-0-71-125262-2.

Coveney, Michael

(2001). The Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre. New York: Schirmer. OCLC 1033585111.

Gänzl, Kurt

Gaye, Freda, ed. (1967). Who's Who in the Theatre (fourteenth ed.). London: Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons.  5997224.

OCLC

Herbert, Ian, ed. (1972). Who's Who in the Theatre (fifteenth ed.). London: Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons.  978-0-273-31528-5.

ISBN

Joseph, Tony (1994). The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, 1875–1982: An Unofficial History. London: Bunthorne Books.  978-0-95-079921-6.

ISBN

; Joe Mitchenson (1961). The Theatres of London. London: Rupert Hart-Davis. OCLC 1151457675.

Mander, Raymond

Mander, Raymond; Joe Mitchenson (1968). Lost Theatres of London. London: Rupert Hart-Davis.  41974.

OCLC

Mander, Raymond; Joe Mitchenson (1975). The Theatres of London (second ed.). London: New English Library.  978-0-45-002123-7.

ISBN

Parker, John, ed. (1939). Who's Who in the Theatre (ninth ed.). London: Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons.  473894893.

OCLC

Rollins, Cyril; R. John Witts (1962). The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in Gilbert and Sullivan Operas: A Record of Productions, 1875–1961. London: Michael Joseph.  504581419.

OCLC