Adelphi Theatre
Encyclopedia
The Adelphi Theatre is a 1500-seat West End theatre
, located on the Strand
in the City of Westminster
. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiving house
for a variety of productions, including many musicals
. The theatre was Grade II listed for historical preservation on 1 December 1987.
(1770–1839). Jane was a British theatre manager, performer, and playwright. Together, they gathered a theatrical company and by 1809 the theatre was licensed for musical entertainments, pantomime
, and burletta. She wrote more than fifty stage pieces in an array of genres: melodrama
s, pantomimes, farce
s, comic operettas
, historical dramas, and adaptations, as well as translations. Jane Scott retired to Surrey
in 1819, marrying John Davies Middleton (1790–1867).
On 18 October 1819, the theatre reopened under its present name, which was adopted from the Adelphi Buildings
opposite.
In its early years, the theatre was known for melodrama
, called Adelphi Screamers. Many stories by Charles Dickens
were also adapted for the stage here, including John Baldwin Buckstone
's The Christening, a comic burletta, which opened on 13 October 1834, based on the story The Bloomsbury Christening. This is notable for being thought the first Dickens adaption performed. This was the first of many of Dickens's early works adapted for the stage of the Adelphi, including The Pickwick Papers
as William Leman Rede
's The Peregrinations of Pickwick; or, Boz-i- a-na, a three-act burletta first performed on 3 April 1837, Frederick Henry Yates
's production of Nicholas Nickleby
; or, Doings at Do-The-Boys Hall in November and December 1838, and Edward Stirling's two-act burletta The Old Curiosity Shop
; or, One Hour from Humphrey's Clock (November and December 1840, January 1841). The theatre itself, makes a cameo appearance in The Pickwick Papers
The Adelphi came under the management of Madame Celeste and comedian Benjamin Webster, in 1844, and Buckstone was appointed its resident dramatist. Dramatisations of Dickens continued to be performed, including A Christmas Carol
; or, Past, Present, and Future opening on 5 February; and Beckett's The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that rang an Old Year out and a New One In. In 1848, The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain was performed.
The old theatre was demolished, and on 26 December 1858, The New Adelphi was opened and was considered an improvement on the cramped circumstances of the original, which had been described as a "hasty conversion from a tavern hall, permanently kept in its provisional state". The new theatre could seat 1,500 people, with standing room for another 500. The interior was lighted by a Stroud's Patent Sun Lamp, a brilliant array of gas mantles passed through a chandelier of cut-glass.
In the mid-19th century, John Lawrence Toole
established his comedic reputation at the Adelphi. Also in the mid-19th century, the Adelphi hosted a number of French operetta
s, including La belle Hélène
. In 1867, however, the Adelphi gave English comic opera
a boost by hosting the first public performance of Arthur Sullivan
's first opera, Cox and Box
.
The building was renovated in 1879 and again in 1887 when a public house called The Hampshire Hog
and the house next door, and the Nell Gwynne Tavern in Bull Inn Court were all bought by the Gattis, in order to enlarge the Theatre. They also built a new enlarged Facade and part of this can still be seen today above the Crystal Rooms next door to the present Adelphi Theatre.
An actor who performed regularly at the Adelphi in the latter half of the 19th century, William Terriss
, was stabbed to death during the run of ‘Secret Service’ on 16 December 1897 whilst entering the Theatre by the royal entrance in Maiden Lane which he used as a private entrance.
This is now recorded on a plaque on the wall by the stage door. Outside a neighbouring pub, a sign says that the killer was one of the theatre's stage hands, but Richard Archer Prince
committed the murder. It has been said that Terriss' ghost haunts the theatre. Terriss' daughter was Ellaline Terriss
, a famous actress, and her husband, actor-manager Seymour Hicks
managed the Adelphi for some years at the end of the 19th century.
The stage door of the current Adelphi is in Maiden Lane but back then it was in Bull Inn Court. William Terriss would later have a Theatre named after him, the Terriss Theatre in Rotherhithe, later known as the Rotherhithe Hippodrome.’
On 11 September 1901, the third theatre was opened as the Century Theatre, although the name reverted in 1904. This theatre was built by Frank Kirk to the design of Ernest Runtz. George Edwardes
, the dean of London musical theatre, took over management of the theatre in 1908. In the early part of the 20th century, the Adelphi was home to a number of musical comedies
, the most successful of which included The Earl and the Girl
(1904), The Dairymaids (1907), The Quaker Girl
(1910), The Boy
(1917), Clowns in Clover (1927), and Mr. Cinders
(1929).
The present Adelphi opened on 3 December 1930, redesigned in the Art Deco
style by Ernest Schaufelberg. It was named the 'Royal Adelphi Theatre' and re-opened with the hit musical Ever Green, by Lorenz Hart
and Richard Rodgers
, based on the book Benn W. Levy. Noel Coward
's Words and Music
premièred at the theatre in 1932. The operetta Balalaika (a revised version of The Gay Hussars
) played at the theatre in 1936, and in 1940 the theatre's name again reverted to 'The Adelphi'. The theatre continued to host comedy and musicals, including Bless The Bride
(1947), Maggie May
(1964), and A Little Night Music
(1975), as well as dramas (see below for a list beginning in 1979).
A proposed redevelopment of Covent Garden
by the GLC
in 1968 saw the theatre under threat, together with the nearby Vaudeville
, Garrick
, Lyceum and Duchess theatre
s. An active campaign by Equity, the Musicians' Union
, and theatre owners under the auspices of the Save London Theatres Campaign led to the abandonment of the scheme.
On 27 February 1982 the Adelphi hosted the final night of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
for a concert performance of songs from all thirteen Savoy Operas as well as Cox and Box
and Thespis
.
In 1993, Andrew Lloyd Webber
's Really Useful Group
purchased the theatre and completely refurbished it prior to the opening of his adaptation of Sunset Boulevard
. The 1998 video of Lloyd Webber's musical Cats
was filmed at the theatre.
, which became the venue's longest ever production during its eight-and-a-half years run, and which also made it the longest running American musical in West End history. In April 2006, Chicago transferred to the Cambridge Theatre
on Seven Dials where it continues to run.
Michael Grandage
's brand new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber
's Evita replaced the show, beginning previews on 2 June 2006 before completing a twelve months run on 26 May 2007.
Brian Wilson
performed his album Pet Sounds
for the last time in the UK at the Adelphi in November 2006.
From 6 July 2007, the Adelphi was home to another Lloyd Webber revival, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
. The actor playing Joseph, Lee Mead, was cast by winning the BBC
television show Any Dream Will Do
, and starred alongside Preeya Kalidas and Dean Collinson.
The 9 March 2010 saw the premiere of the latest Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Love Never Dies.
The theatre is currently owned and managed by the Adelphi Theatre Company Limited, a partnership between Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group
and Nederlander International
.
Love Never Dies gave it's last performance on Saturday 27th August 2011. The national theatre are transferring their show "One Man, Two Guvnors" ready for performances from 8 November 2011 - 25 February 2012)
The adjacent, numbers 409 and 410 Strand, were built in 1886-7 by the Gatti Brothers
as the Adelphi Restaurant. The frontage remains essentially the same, but with plate glass windows, and, like the theatre, is a Grade II listed building.
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. 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...
, located on the Strand
Strand, London
Strand is a street in the City of Westminster, London, England. The street is just over three-quarters of a mile long. It currently starts at Trafalgar Square and runs east to join Fleet Street at Temple Bar, which marks the boundary of the City of London at this point, though its historical length...
in the City of Westminster
City of Westminster
The City of Westminster is a London borough occupying much of the central area of London, England, including most of the West End. It is located to the west of and adjoining the ancient City of London, directly to the east of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and its southern boundary...
. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiving house
Receiving house
A receiving house is a theatre which does not produce its own repertoire but instead receives touring theatre companies, usually for a brief period such as three nights or a full week...
for a variety of productions, including many musicals
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
. The theatre was Grade II listed for historical preservation on 1 December 1987.
19th century
It was founded in 1806 as the Sans Pareil ("Without Compare"), by merchant John Scott, and his daughter JaneJane Scott (theatre manager)
Jane M. Scott was a British theatre manager, performer, and playwright.With her father, John Scott , Jane developed the Sans Pareil Theatre , where they offered music and light shows...
(1770–1839). Jane was a British theatre manager, performer, and playwright. Together, they gathered a theatrical company and by 1809 the theatre was licensed for musical entertainments, pantomime
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
, and burletta. She wrote more than fifty stage pieces in an array of genres: melodrama
Melodrama
The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...
s, pantomimes, farce
Farce
In theatre, a farce is a comedy which aims at entertaining the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include word play, and a fast-paced plot whose speed usually increases,...
s, comic operettas
Comic opera
Comic opera denotes a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending.Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a new operatic genre, opera buffa, emerged as an alternative to opera seria...
, historical dramas, and adaptations, as well as translations. Jane Scott retired to Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
in 1819, marrying John Davies Middleton (1790–1867).
Adelphi, London
Adelphi is a district of London, England in the City of Westminster. The small district includes the streets of Adelphi Terrace, Robert Street and John Adam Street.-Adelphi Buildings:...
opposite.
In its early years, the theatre was known for melodrama
Melodrama
The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...
, called Adelphi Screamers. Many stories by Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
were also adapted for the stage here, including John Baldwin Buckstone
John Baldwin Buckstone
John Baldwin Buckstone was an English actor, playwright and comedian who wrote 150 plays, the first of which was produced in 1826....
's The Christening, a comic burletta, which opened on 13 October 1834, based on the story The Bloomsbury Christening. This is notable for being thought the first Dickens adaption performed. This was the first of many of Dickens's early works adapted for the stage of the Adelphi, including The Pickwick Papers
The Pickwick Papers
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club is the first novel by Charles Dickens. After the publication, the widow of the illustrator Robert Seymour claimed that the idea for the novel was originally her husband's; however, in his preface to the 1867 edition, Dickens strenuously denied any...
as William Leman Rede
William Leman Rede
William Leman Rede was one of the many prolific and successful playwrights who composed farces, melodramas, burlettas , and travesties, primarily for theatres such as the Olympic, Strand, and Adelphi, in the early nineteenth century. He proudly proclaimed himself a follower of Thomas Frognall...
's The Peregrinations of Pickwick; or, Boz-i- a-na, a three-act burletta first performed on 3 April 1837, Frederick Henry Yates
Frederick Henry Yates
Frederick Henry Yates was an English actor and theatre manager-Life:As the youngest son of Thomas Yates, a tobacco manufacturer, of Thames Street and Russell Square, Frederick was educated at a preparatory school at Winchmore Hill and at Charterhouse School...
's production of Nicholas Nickleby
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (play)
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby is an eight-hour stage play, presented over two performances, adapted from the Charles Dickens novel of the same name by David Edgar. Directed by John Caird and Trevor Nunn, it opened on 5 June 1980 at the Aldwych Theatre in London. The music and lyrics...
; or, Doings at Do-The-Boys Hall in November and December 1838, and Edward Stirling's two-act burletta The Old Curiosity Shop
The Old Curiosity Shop
The Old Curiosity Shop is a novel by Charles Dickens. The plot follows the life of Nell Trent and her grandfather, both residents of The Old Curiosity Shop in London....
; or, One Hour from Humphrey's Clock (November and December 1840, January 1841). The theatre itself, makes a cameo appearance in The Pickwick Papers
The Adelphi came under the management of Madame Celeste and comedian Benjamin Webster, in 1844, and Buckstone was appointed its resident dramatist. Dramatisations of Dickens continued to be performed, including A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens first published by Chapman & Hall on 17 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visits of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of...
; or, Past, Present, and Future opening on 5 February; and Beckett's The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that rang an Old Year out and a New One In. In 1848, The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain was performed.
In the mid-19th century, John Lawrence Toole
John Lawrence Toole
John Lawrence Toole was an English comic actor and theatrical producer. He was famous for his roles in farce and in serio-comic melodramas in a career that spanned more than four decades...
established his comedic reputation at the Adelphi. Also in the mid-19th century, the Adelphi hosted a number of French operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
s, including La belle Hélène
La belle Hélène
La belle Hélène , opéra bouffe in three acts, is an operetta by Jacques Offenbach to an original French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy...
. In 1867, however, the Adelphi gave English comic opera
Comic opera
Comic opera denotes a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending.Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a new operatic genre, opera buffa, emerged as an alternative to opera seria...
a boost by hosting the first public performance of Arthur Sullivan
Arthur Sullivan
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO was an English composer of Irish and Italian ancestry. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including such enduring works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado...
's first opera, Cox and Box
Cox and Box
Cox and Box; or, The Long-Lost Brothers, is a one-act comic opera with a libretto by F. C. Burnand and music by Arthur Sullivan, based on the 1847 farce Box and Cox by John Maddison Morton. It was Sullivan's first successful comic opera. The story concerns a landlord who lets a room to two...
.
The building was renovated in 1879 and again in 1887 when a public house called The Hampshire Hog
The Hampshire Hog, Strand
The Hampshire Hog was a tavern at 410 The Strand, London, next door to The Adelphi Theatre.Its trade relied heavily on visitors to the theatre....
and the house next door, and the Nell Gwynne Tavern in Bull Inn Court were all bought by the Gattis, in order to enlarge the Theatre. They also built a new enlarged Facade and part of this can still be seen today above the Crystal Rooms next door to the present Adelphi Theatre.
An actor who performed regularly at the Adelphi in the latter half of the 19th century, William Terriss
William Terriss
William Terriss was an English actor, known for his swashbuckling hero roles, such as Robin Hood, and in Shakespeare plays, and for his murder outside a London theatre. His daughter was the Edwardian musical comedy star Ellaline Terriss.-Life and career:Terriss's real name was William Charles...
, was stabbed to death during the run of ‘Secret Service’ on 16 December 1897 whilst entering the Theatre by the royal entrance in Maiden Lane which he used as a private entrance.
This is now recorded on a plaque on the wall by the stage door. Outside a neighbouring pub, a sign says that the killer was one of the theatre's stage hands, but Richard Archer Prince
Richard Archer Prince
Richard Archer Prince, also known as William Archer Flint, was an actor, often down on his luck. He became famous for murdering actor William Terriss outside the Adelphi Theatre, in London, in 1897.-Biography:...
committed the murder. It has been said that Terriss' ghost haunts the theatre. Terriss' daughter was Ellaline Terriss
Ellaline Terriss
Ellaline Terriss, born Ellaline Lewin , was a popular English actress and singer, best known for her performances in Edwardian musical comedies...
, a famous actress, and her husband, actor-manager Seymour Hicks
Seymour Hicks
Sir Arthur Seymour Hicks , better known as Seymour Hicks, was a British actor, music hall performer, playwright, screenwriter, theatre manager and producer. He married the actress Ellaline Terriss in 1893...
managed the Adelphi for some years at the end of the 19th century.
The stage door of the current Adelphi is in Maiden Lane but back then it was in Bull Inn Court. William Terriss would later have a Theatre named after him, the Terriss Theatre in Rotherhithe, later known as the Rotherhithe Hippodrome.’
20th century
George Edwardes
George Joseph Edwardes was an English theatre manager of Irish ancestry who brought a new era in musical theatre to the British stage and beyond....
, the dean of London musical theatre, took over management of the theatre in 1908. In the early part of the 20th century, the Adelphi was home to a number of musical comedies
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
, the most successful of which included The Earl and the Girl
The Earl and the Girl
The Earl and the Girl is a musical comedy in two acts by Seymour Hicks, with lyrics by Percy Greenbank and music by Ivan Caryll. It was produced by William Greet and opened at the Adelphi Theatre in London on 10 December 1903. It transferred to the Lyric Theatre on 12 September 1904, running for...
(1904), The Dairymaids (1907), The Quaker Girl
The Quaker Girl
The Quaker Girl is a Edwardian musical comedy in three acts with a book by James T. Tanner, lyrics by Adrian Ross and Percy Greenbank, and music by Lionel Monckton. In its story, The Quaker Girl contrasts dour Quaker morality with Parisienne high fashion. The protagonist, Prudence, is thrown out...
(1910), The Boy
The Boy (musical)
The Boy is a musical comedy with a book by Fred Thompson and Percy Greenbank , music by Lionel Monckton and Howard Talbot and lyrics by Greenbank and Adrian Ross...
(1917), Clowns in Clover (1927), and Mr. Cinders
Mr. Cinders
Mr. Cinders is a musical. The music is by Vivian Ellis & Richard Myers, and the libretto by Clifford Grey & Greatorex Newman. The story is an inversion of the Cinderella fairy tale with the gender roles reversed. The Prince Charming character has become a modern young and forceful woman, and Mr....
(1929).
The present Adelphi opened on 3 December 1930, redesigned in the Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
style by Ernest Schaufelberg. It was named the 'Royal Adelphi Theatre' and re-opened with the hit musical Ever Green, by Lorenz Hart
Lorenz Hart
Lorenz "Larry" Milton Hart was the lyricist half of the famed Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart...
and Richard Rodgers
Richard Rodgers
Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II...
, based on the book Benn W. Levy. Noel Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
's Words and Music
Words and Music (musical)
Words and Music is a musical revue with sketches, music, lyrics and direction by Noël Coward. The revue introduced the song "Mad About the Boy", which, according to The Noël Coward Society's website, is Coward's most popular song...
premièred at the theatre in 1932. The operetta Balalaika (a revised version of The Gay Hussars
The Gay Hussars
The Gay Hussars is an operetta in three acts by Emmerich Kálmán. The piece was Kalman's first operetta and a hit throughout Europe and America. The first version, in Hungarian, Tatárjárás, with libretto by Karl von Bakonyi and Andor Gábor, premiered at the Lustspieltheater in Budapest on 22...
) played at the theatre in 1936, and in 1940 the theatre's name again reverted to 'The Adelphi'. The theatre continued to host comedy and musicals, including Bless The Bride
Bless The Bride
Bless the Bride is a musical with music by Vivian Ellis and a book and lyrics by A. P. Herbert, the third of five musicals they wrote together. The musical is remembered as Ellis's best work and for the recordings of "This is my lovely day" and "I was never kissed before", with Lizbeth Webb and...
(1947), Maggie May
Maggie May (musical)
Maggie May is a musical with a book by Alun Owen and music and lyrics by Lionel Bart.Based on "Maggie May", a traditional ballad about a Liverpool prostitute, it deals with trade union ethics and disputes and the life of streetwalker Margaret Mary Duffy after her sweetheart dies.The show includes...
(1964), and A Little Night Music
A Little Night Music
A Little Night Music is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. Inspired by the Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night, it involves the romantic lives of several couples. Its title is a literal English translation of the German name for Mozart's Serenade...
(1975), as well as dramas (see below for a list beginning in 1979).
A proposed redevelopment of Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
by the GLC
Greater London Council
The Greater London Council was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. It replaced the earlier London County Council which had covered a much smaller area...
in 1968 saw the theatre under threat, together with the nearby Vaudeville
Vaudeville Theatre
The Vaudeville Theatre is a West End theatre on The Strand in the City of Westminster. As the name suggests, the theatre held mostly vaudeville shows and musical revues in its early days. It opened in 1870 and was rebuilt twice, although each new building retained elements of the previous...
, Garrick
Garrick Theatre
The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster. It opened on 24 April 1889 with The Profligate, a play by Arthur Wing Pinero. In its early years, it appears to have specialised in the performance of melodrama, and today the theatre is a...
, Lyceum and Duchess theatre
Duchess Theatre
The Duchess Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster, London, located in Catherine Street, near Aldwych.The theatre opened on 25 November 1929 and is one of the smallest 'proscenium arched' West End theatres. It has 479 seats on two levels....
s. An active campaign by Equity, the Musicians' Union
Musicians' Union (UK)
-About the MU:The Musicians' Union is an organisation which represents over 30,000 musicians working in all sectors of the UK music business.-Campaigns:The MU stages regular campaigns in relation to relevant musical and industrial issues...
, and theatre owners under the auspices of the Save London Theatres Campaign led to the abandonment of the scheme.
On 27 February 1982 the Adelphi hosted the final night of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. The company performed nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere, from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. It was revived in 1988 and...
for a concert performance of songs from all thirteen Savoy Operas as well as Cox and Box
Cox and Box
Cox and Box; or, The Long-Lost Brothers, is a one-act comic opera with a libretto by F. C. Burnand and music by Arthur Sullivan, based on the 1847 farce Box and Cox by John Maddison Morton. It was Sullivan's first successful comic opera. The story concerns a landlord who lets a room to two...
and Thespis
Thespis (opera)
Thespis, or The Gods Grown Old, is an operatic extravaganza that was the first collaboration between dramatist W. S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan. No musical score of Thespis was ever published, and most of the music has been lost...
.
In 1993, Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
's Really Useful Group
Really Useful Group
The Really Useful Group Ltd. is an international company set up in 1977 by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It is involved in theatre, film, television, video and concert productions, merchandising, magazine publishing, records and music publishing...
purchased the theatre and completely refurbished it prior to the opening of his adaptation of Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard (musical)
Sunset Boulevard is a musical with book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Based on the 1950 film of the same title, the plot revolves around Norma Desmond, a faded star of the silent screen era, living in the past in her decaying mansion on the...
. The 1998 video of Lloyd Webber's musical Cats
Cats (musical)
Cats is a musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot...
was filmed at the theatre.
21st century
In November 1997, the Adelphi became home to the London production of the popular American musical ChicagoChicago (musical)
Chicago is a musical set in Prohibition-era Chicago. The music is by John Kander with lyrics by Fred Ebb and a book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal"...
, which became the venue's longest ever production during its eight-and-a-half years run, and which also made it the longest running American musical in West End history. In April 2006, Chicago transferred to the Cambridge Theatre
Cambridge Theatre
The Cambridge Theatre is a West End theatre, on a corner site in Earlham Street facing Seven Dials, in the London Borough of Camden, built in 1929-30. It was designed by Wimperis, Simpson and Guthrie; interior partly by Serge Chermayeff, with interior bronze friezes by sculptor Anthony Gibbons...
on Seven Dials where it continues to run.
Michael Grandage
Michael Grandage
Michael Grandage CBE is a British theatre director and producer, and current Artistic Director at the Donmar Warehouse, London. Grandage won the 2010 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for Red.-Early years:...
's brand new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
's Evita replaced the show, beginning previews on 2 June 2006 before completing a twelve months run on 26 May 2007.
Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...
performed his album Pet Sounds
Pet Sounds
Pet Sounds is the eleventh studio album by the American rock band The Beach Boys, released May 16, 1966, on Capitol Records. It has since been recognized as one of the most influential records in the history of popular music and one of the best albums of the 1960s, including songs such as "Wouldn't...
for the last time in the UK at the Adelphi in November 2006.
From 6 July 2007, the Adelphi was home to another Lloyd Webber revival, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical with lyrics by Tim Rice. The story is based on the "coat of many colors" story of Joseph from the Hebrew Bible's Book of Genesis. This was the first Lloyd Webber and Rice musical to be performed publicly...
. The actor playing Joseph, Lee Mead, was cast by winning the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
television show Any Dream Will Do
Any Dream Will Do (TV series)
Any Dream Will Do, often known as 'Joseph', was a 2007 talent show-themed television series produced by the BBC in the United Kingdom. It searched for a new, unknown lead to play Joseph in a West End revival of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.The show...
, and starred alongside Preeya Kalidas and Dean Collinson.
The 9 March 2010 saw the premiere of the latest Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Love Never Dies.
The theatre is currently owned and managed by the Adelphi Theatre Company Limited, a partnership between Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group
Really Useful Group
The Really Useful Group Ltd. is an international company set up in 1977 by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It is involved in theatre, film, television, video and concert productions, merchandising, magazine publishing, records and music publishing...
and Nederlander International
Nederlander Organization
The Nederlander Organization, founded in 1912 by David T. Nederlander and based in Detroit, Michigan, is one of the largest operators of legitimate theatres and music venuesin the United States. Its first acquisition was a lease on the Detroit Opera House in 1912. The building was demolished in...
.
Love Never Dies gave it's last performance on Saturday 27th August 2011. The national theatre are transferring their show "One Man, Two Guvnors" ready for performances from 8 November 2011 - 25 February 2012)
The adjacent, numbers 409 and 410 Strand, were built in 1886-7 by the Gatti Brothers
John Maria Gatti
Sir John Maria Emilio Gatti was an Anglo-Swiss theatre manager, restaurateur and businessman who was also a promininent Conservative politician in London local government....
as the Adelphi Restaurant. The frontage remains essentially the same, but with plate glass windows, and, like the theatre, is a Grade II listed building.
Recent and present productions
- My Fair LadyMy Fair LadyMy Fair Lady is a musical based upon George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe...
(25 October 1979 - 31 October 1981) - The 1981-82 D'Oyly Carte Opera CompanyD'Oyly Carte Opera CompanyThe D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. The company performed nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere, from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. It was revived in 1988 and...
Season (11 November 1981 - 27 February 1982) - The American Dream Machine (20 October 1982 - 1 December 1982)
- Marilyn (17 March 1983 - 30 July 1983)
- PoppyPoppy (musical)Poppy is a musical comedy play about the Opium Wars. The play takes the form of a pantomime, complete with Dick Whittington , a pantomime dame, and two pantomime horses. The book and lyrics were written by Peter Nichols; the composer was Monty Norman.-Plot:The year is 1840...
(12 November 1983 - 4 February 1984) - Lena HorneLena HorneLena Mary Calhoun Horne was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer.Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the...
- The Lady and Her Music (6 August 1984 - 29 September 1984) - The Jungle BookThe Jungle BookThe Jungle Book is a collection of stories by British Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling. The stories were first published in magazines in 1893–4. The original publications contain illustrations, some by Rudyard's father, John Lockwood Kipling. Kipling was born in India and spent the first six...
(4 December 1984 - 12 January 1985) - Me and My GirlMe and My GirlMe and My Girl is a musical with book and lyrics by Douglas Furber and L. Arthur Rose and music by Noel Gay. It takes place in the late 1930s in Hampshire, Mayfair, and Lambeth....
(12 February 1985 - 16 January 1993) - Sunset BoulevardSunset Boulevard (musical)Sunset Boulevard is a musical with book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Based on the 1950 film of the same title, the plot revolves around Norma Desmond, a faded star of the silent screen era, living in the past in her decaying mansion on the...
(12 July 1993 - April 1997) - Damn YankeesDamn YankeesDamn Yankees is a musical comedy with a book by George Abbott and Douglass Wallop and music and lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. The story is a modern retelling of the Faust legend set during the 1950s in Washington, D.C., during a time when the New York Yankees dominated Major League...
(4 June 1997 - 9 August 1997) - ChicagoChicago (musical)Chicago is a musical set in Prohibition-era Chicago. The music is by John Kander with lyrics by Fred Ebb and a book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal"...
(19 November 1997 - 22 April 2006), starring (at different times) Ruthie HenshallRuthie HenshallValentine Ruth Henshall , better known as Ruthie Henshall, is an English singer, dancer, and actress best known for her work in musical theatre. Henshall attended the Laine Theatre Arts school in Epsom, Surrey before making her first professional appearance on stage in 1986...
, Ute LemperUte LemperUte Lemper is a German chanteuse and actress renowned for her interpretation of the work of Kurt Weill.- Biography :Born in Münster, Germany, Ute Lemper was raised in a Roman Catholic family. She joined the punk music group known as the Panama Drive Band at the age of 16...
, Jill HalfpennyJill HalfpennyJill Halfpenny is an English actress.Halfpenny is best known for her roles as Rebecca Hopkins in the British soap opera Coronation Street from 1999–2000, and as Kate Mitchell in rival soap EastEnders, from 2002-2005...
, Denise van OutenDenise van OutenDenise van Outen is an English actress, singer and television presenter. Her most notable roles to date are as a presenter on The Big Breakfast, and as Roxie Hart in the musical Chicago on both the West End and on Broadway.- Early life :Born Denise Kathleen Outen in Basildon, Essex, she is the...
, Brooke ShieldsBrooke ShieldsBrooke Christa Shields is an American actress and model. Some of her better-known movies include Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon, as well as TV shows such as Suddenly Susan, That '70s Show and Lipstick Jungle....
, Linzi HateleyLinzi HateleyLinzi Hateley is an English stage actress who is currently starring as one of the leads in the West End production of the musical Mamma Mia!. Her performance as Donna started on 5 March 2007....
, Bonnie LangfordBonnie LangfordBonita Melody Lysette "Bonnie" Langford is an English actress, dancer and entertainer. She came to prominence as a child star in the early 1970s then she subsequently became a companion of Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy's Doctor Who and has appeared on stage in various musicals such as Peter Pan:...
, Jennifer EllisonJennifer EllisonJennifer Lesley Ellison is an English actress, glamour model, television personality, dancer and singer...
, Josefina GabrielleJosefina GabrielleJosefina Gabrielle is an Olivier Award-nominated stage and screen actress, best known for her performances in hit West End musicals and plays.-Theatrical career:Josefina Gabrielle began her professional career dancing with the National Ballet of Portugal...
, Nigel PlanerNigel PlanerNigel George Planer is an English actor, comedian, novelist and playwright.Planer is perhaps best known for his role as Neil Pye in the cult BBC comedy The Young Ones. He has appeared in many West End musicals, including Evita, Chicago, We Will Rock You, Wicked and Hairspray...
, Kevin KennedyKevin Kennedy (actor)Kevin Kennedy is an English actor, writer, producer, singer, and guitarist, best known for playing the bottle-lensed Curly Watts in ITV's long running soap opera Coronation Street between 1983 and 2003.-Early life:Kennedy was born in Manchester. He attended St Paul's RC Secondary High School...
, Clive RoweClive RoweClive Rowe is a British actor, probably best known for his role as "Duke" in BBC Children's drama The Story of Tracy Beaker. Rowe grew up in Shaw, Lancashire, in the parish of East Crompton and attended St. James Primary School...
, David HasselhoffDavid HasselhoffDavid Michael Hasselhoff is an American actor, singer, producer and businessman. He is best known for his lead roles as Michael Knight in the popular 1980s US series Knight Rider and as L.A. County Lifeguard Mitch Buchannon in the series Baywatch...
, John BarrowmanJohn BarrowmanJohn Scot Barrowman is a Scottish-American singer, actor, dancer, musical theatre performer and media personality. Born in Glasgow yet growing up in Illinois after his family emigrated to the United States when he was eight years old, Barrowman was encouraged to further his love for music and...
, Anita DobsonAnita DobsonAnita Dobson is an English television actress and singer. She gained her highest profile while playing Angie Watts in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders...
, Alison MoyetAlison MoyetAlison Moyet , is an English singer, songwriter and performer noted for her bluesy voice.Her UK album sales have reached a certified 2.3 million, with 800,000 singles sold, all in the UK, where all seven of her studio albums and three compilation albums have charted in the Top 40 UK Album Chart,...
and Gaby RoslinGaby RoslinGaby Roslin is an English television presenter and actress. She rose to fame while co-presenting The Big Breakfast on Channel 4 between 1992 and 1996, and also presented the BBC's Children in Need charity appeal from 1994 to 2004.... - Evita (20 June 2006 - 26 May 2007) by Andrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
and Tim RiceTim RiceSir Timothy Miles Bindon "Tim" Rice is an British lyricist and author.An Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Tony Award and Grammy Award-winning lyricist, Rice is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus...
, starring Elena RogerElena RogerElena Silvia Roger is an Argentine actress who won the 2009 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Édith Piaf in Piaf. She has also appeared in the West End in Evita, Boeing-Boeing, and Passion...
, Philip QuastPhilip QuastPhilip Quast is an Australian actor perhaps best known for his role as Inspector Javert in the stage musical version of Les Misérables, or for appearances in numerous Australian soap operas including Sons and Daughters, The Young Doctors and Police Rescue.-Personal life:Quast was born in 1957 in...
and Matt Rawle - Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor DreamcoatJoseph and the Amazing Technicolor DreamcoatJoseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical with lyrics by Tim Rice. The story is based on the "coat of many colors" story of Joseph from the Hebrew Bible's Book of Genesis. This was the first Lloyd Webber and Rice musical to be performed publicly...
(6 July 2007 - 30 May 2009) by Andrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
and Tim RiceTim RiceSir Timothy Miles Bindon "Tim" Rice is an British lyricist and author.An Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Tony Award and Grammy Award-winning lyricist, Rice is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus...
, starring Lee MeadLee MeadLee Stephen Mead is an English musical theatre actor, best known for winning the title role in the 2007 West End revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat through the BBC reality TV casting show Any Dream Will Do...
, Gareth GatesGareth GatesGareth Paul Gates , is an English singer-songwriter. He was the runner-up in the first series of the ITV talent show Pop Idol. Gates has sold over 3.5 million records in the UK alone. He is also known for having a stutter, and has talked about his speech impediment publicly...
, Preeya Kalidas and Dean Collinson - Derren BrownDerren BrownDerren Victor Brown is a British illusionist, mentalist, painter, writer and sceptic. He is known for his appearances in television specials, stage productions and British television series such as Trick of the Mind and Trick or Treat...
: Enigma (15 June 2009 - 23 July 2009) - The Rat Pack: Live From Las VegasThe Rat Pack: Live From Las VegasThe Rat Pack - Live From Las Vegas is a stage musical produced by Flying Music Ltd. that retells the tale of the big three of the Rat Pack - Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr...
(24 September 2009 - 2 January 2010) - Love Never Dies (9 March 2010 - 27 August 2011)
- One Man, Two GuvnorsOne Man, Two GuvnorsOne Man, Two Guvnors is a play by Richard Bean. It opened at the National Theatre in June 2011. The play, directed by Nicholas Hytner, starred James Corden and is an English adaptation of Servant of Two Masters , a 1743 Commedia del Arte comedy by the Venetian playwright Carlo Goldoni...
(From 8 November 2011 - 25 February 2012) - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet StreetSweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet StreetSweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a 1936 British film produced and directed by George King.-Plot:The film features Tod Slaughter in one of his most famous roles as barber Sweeney Todd. Sweeney Todd was wrongly sentenced to life in prison. After his release 15 years later, he begins...
(March 10 2012 - September 22 2012)
Nearby Tube Stations
- Charing CrossCharing Cross tube stationCharing Cross tube station is a London Underground station at Charing Cross in the City of Westminster with entrances located in Trafalgar Square and The Strand. The station is served by the Northern and Bakerloo lines and provides an interchange with the National Rail network at station...
- EmbankmentEmbankment tube stationEmbankment is a London Underground station in the City of Westminster, known by various names during its history. It is served by the Circle, District, Northern and Bakerloo lines. On the Northern and Bakerloo lines, the station is between Waterloo and Charing Cross stations; on the Circle and...
- Covent GardenCovent Garden tube stationCovent Garden is a London Underground station in Covent Garden. It is on the Piccadilly Line between Leicester Square and Holborn. The station is a Grade II listed building, on the corner of Long Acre and James Street...
- TempleTemple tube stationTemple is a London Underground station in the City of Westminster, between Victoria Embankment and Temple Place. It is on the Circle and District lines between Embankment and Blackfriars and is in Travelcard Zone 1. The station entrance is from Victoria Embankment...
External links
- Adelphi Theatre website
- The Adelphi Theatre 1806-1900: A Calendar of Performances, from an Eastern Michigan UniversityEastern Michigan UniversityEastern Michigan University is a comprehensive, co-educational public university located in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Ypsilanti is west of Detroit and eight miles east of Ann Arbor. The university was founded in 1849 as Michigan State Normal School...
website - Adelphi Theatre History
- Information about Ever Green and the 1930 re-opening of the theatre
- Adelphi Theatre Seating Plan
- Guide to Adelphi Theatre Records at Houghton Library, Harvard University