.gif)
Lyric Theatre (London)
Encyclopedia
The Lyric Theatre is a West End theatre
on Shaftesbury Avenue
in the City of Westminster
.
Designed by architect
C. J. Phipps, it was built by producer Henry Leslie with profits from the Alfred Cellier
and B. C. Stephenson
hit, Dorothy
, which he transferred from the Prince of Wales Theatre
to open his new venue on 17 December 1888. It was the second theatre to be constructed on this stretch of Shaftesbury Avenue and is now the oldest on the street. The foyer and bars were refurbished in 1932-33, and the facade was restored in 1994. At present it seats 967 on four levels, although it originally was designed with a seating capacity
of 1,306. The theatre still uses an electric pump to operate its iron curtain.
Early in the theatre's history, it staged mostly comic opera
s, and later it has been a home to light comedies, musicals and straight dramas.
The theatre retains many of its original features (including being built behind an original 1767 house front, at the rear to Great Windmill Street, the former house and museum of Sir William Hunter
) and the theatre was Grade II listed by English Heritage
in September 1960.
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...
on Shaftesbury Avenue
Shaftesbury Avenue
Shaftesbury Avenue is a major street in central London, England, named after Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, that runs in a north-easterly direction from Piccadilly Circus to New Oxford Street, crossing Charing Cross Road at Cambridge Circus....
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...
.
Designed by architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
C. J. Phipps, it was built by producer Henry Leslie with profits from the Alfred Cellier
Alfred Cellier
Alfred Cellier was an English composer, orchestrator and conductor.In addition to conducting and music directing the original productions of several of the most famous Gilbert and Sullivan works and writing the overtures to some of them, Cellier conducted at many theatres in London, New York and...
and B. C. Stephenson
B. C. Stephenson
Benjamin Charles Stephenson or B. C. Stephenson was an English dramatist, lyricist and librettist. After beginning a career in the civil service, he started to write for the theatre, using the pen name "Bolton Rowe". He was author or co-author of several long-running shows of the Victorian theatre...
hit, Dorothy
Dorothy (opera)
Dorothy is a comic opera in three acts with music by Alfred Cellier and a libretto by B. C. Stephenson. The story involves a rake who falls in love with his disguised fiancée.It was first produced at the Gaiety Theatre in London on in 1886...
, which he transferred from the Prince of Wales Theatre
Prince of Wales Theatre
The Prince of Wales Theatre is a West End theatre on Coventry Street, near Leicester Square in the City of Westminster. It was established in 1884 and rebuilt in 1937, and extensively refurbished in 2004 by Sir Cameron Mackintosh, its current owner...
to open his new venue on 17 December 1888. It was the second theatre to be constructed on this stretch of Shaftesbury Avenue and is now the oldest on the street. The foyer and bars were refurbished in 1932-33, and the facade was restored in 1994. At present it seats 967 on four levels, although it originally was designed with a seating capacity
Seating capacity
Seating capacity refers to the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, both in terms of the physical space available, and in terms of limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that seats two to a stadium that seats...
of 1,306. The theatre still uses an electric pump to operate its iron curtain.
Early in the theatre's history, it staged mostly 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...
s, and later it has been a home to light comedies, musicals and straight dramas.
The theatre retains many of its original features (including being built behind an original 1767 house front, at the rear to Great Windmill Street, the former house and museum of Sir William Hunter
William Hunter (anatomist)
William Hunter FRS was a Scottish anatomist and physician. He was a leading teacher of anatomy, and the outstanding obstetrician of his day...
) and the theatre was Grade II listed by English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
in September 1960.
Notable productions
- 1888: DorothyDorothy (opera)Dorothy is a comic opera in three acts with music by Alfred Cellier and a libretto by B. C. Stephenson. The story involves a rake who falls in love with his disguised fiancée.It was first produced at the Gaiety Theatre in London on in 1886...
(transferred to the theatre in 1888, opening elsewhere in 1887) - 1889: DorisDoris (opera)Doris is a "comedy opera" in three acts by Alfred Cellier, with a libretto by B. C. Stephenson. After the phenomenal success of Cellier and Stephenson's Dorothy , the pair were hoping for another big hit. Doris turned out to be only modestly successful.It opened at the Lyric Theatre in London on...
and The Red HussarThe Red HussarThe Red Hussar is a comedy opera in three acts by Edward Solomon, with a libretto by Henry Pottinger Stephens, which opened at the Lyric Theatre in London on 23 November 1889, running for 175 performances. It was the revised version of an opera written several years earlier called The White Sergeant... - 1892: The Mountebanks
- 1894: His ExcellencyHis Excellency (opera)His Excellency is a two-act comic opera with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music by F. Osmond Carr. The piece concerns a practical-joking governor whose pranks threaten to make everyone miserable, until the Prince Regent kindly foils the governor's plans...
- 1896: The Sign of the CrossThe Sign of the Cross (play)The Sign of the Cross is a late-1895 four-act historical tragedy, by Wilson Barrett. It is generally conceded that the plot resembles the novel Quo Vadis of those same years, as an unofficial adaptation of it, yet Barrett never acknowledged this...
- 1899: FlorodoraFlorodoraFlorodora is an Edwardian musical comedy and became one of the first successful Broadway musicals of the 20th century. The book was written by Jimmy Davis under the pseudonym Owen Hall, the music was by Leslie Stuart with additional songs by Paul Rubens, and the lyrics were by Edward Boyd-Jones...
- 1903: The Duchess of DantzicThe Duchess of DantzicThe Duchess of Dantzic is a comic opera in three acts, set in Paris, with music by Ivan Caryll and a book and lyrics by Henry Hamilton, based on the play Madame Sans-Gêne by Victorien Sardou and Emile Moreau. Additional lyrics by Adrian Ross...
- 1910: The Chocolate SoldierThe Chocolate SoldierThe Chocolate Soldier is an operetta composed in 1908 by Oscar Straus based on George Bernard Shaw's 1894 play, Arms and the Man...
- 1911: The Girl in the TaxiThe Girl in the TaxiThe Girl in the Taxi is the English-language adaptation by Frederick Fenn and Arthur Wimperis of the operetta Die keusche Susanne , with music by Jean Gilbert. The German original had a libretto by Georg Okonkowski...
- 1919: The Bird of Paradise, which starred Henry DaniellHenry DaniellHenry Daniell was an English actor, best known for his villainous movie roles, but who had a long and prestigious career on stage as well as in films....
as Hoheno - 1922: Whirled into HappinessWhirled into HappinessWhirled into Happiness is a musical comedy with music by Robert Stolz, and book and lyrics by Harry Graham, adapted from Stolz's Der Tanz ins Glück, with a libretto by Robert Bodanzky and Bruno Hardt-Warden...
- 1922: Lilac TimeDas DreimäderlhausDas Dreimäderlhaus , adapted into English language versions as Blossom Time and Lilac Time, is a Viennese pastiche 'operetta' with music by Franz Schubert, rearranged by Hungarian Heinrich Berté , and a libretto by Alfred Maria Willner and Heinz Reichert...
- 1924: The Street SingerThe Street SingerThe Street Singer is a 1912 short silent film drama. The film starred Earle Foxe and Alice Joyce. It was Foxe's first film, aged seventeen....
- 1926: The Gold Diggers starred Tallulah BankheadTallulah BankheadTallulah Brockman Bankhead was an award-winning American actress of the stage and screen, talk-show host, and bonne vivante...
- 1931: Strange InterludeStrange InterludeStrange Interlude is an experimental play by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. O'Neill finished the play in 1923, but it was not produced on Broadway until 1928, when it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Lynn Fontanne originated the central role of Nina Leeds on Broadway...
- 1934: The Royal Family, by George S. KaufmanGeorge S. KaufmanGeorge Simon Kaufman was an American playwright, theatre director and producer, humorist, and drama critic. In addition to comedies and political satire, he wrote several musicals, notably for the Marx Brothers...
, directed by Noel CowardNoël CowardSir 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...
, with Madge TitheradgeMadge TitheradgeMadge Titheradge was an actress, born into a theatrical family in Melbourne, Australia.-Biography:Her father was the English-born actor George Sutton Titheradge, and the eleven-year-old Madge had already done stage work with Australia's Brough-Boucicault and Bland Holt companies when the family...
, Marie TempestMarie TempestDame Marie Tempest DBE was an English singer and actress known as the "queen of her profession".Tempest became the most famous soprano in late Victorian light opera and Edwardian musical comedies. Later, she became a leading comic actress and toured widely in North America and elsewhere...
and Laurence OlivierLaurence OlivierLaurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright... - 1935: Tovarich
- 1946: The Winslow BoyThe Winslow Boythumb|1st edition cover The Winslow Boy is an English play from 1946 by Terence Rattigan based on an actual incident in the Edwardian era, which took place at the Royal Naval College, Osborne.-Performance History:...
- 1950: The Little HutThe Little HutThe Little Hut is a 1957 British-American romantic comedy film made by MGM. It was directed by Mark Robson, produced by Mark Robson and F. Hugh Herbert, from a screenplay by F. Hugh Herbert, adapted by Nancy Mitford from the play La petite hutte by André Roussin...
- 1950: VortexVortexA vortex is a spinning, often turbulent,flow of fluid. Any spiral motion with closed streamlines is vortex flow. The motion of the fluid swirling rapidly around a center is called a vortex...
- 1955: South Sea BubbleSouth Sea Bubble (play)South Sea Bubble is a play by British actor and playwright Noël Coward. It was written in 1949 but not performed until 1951. The play was moderately successful but failed to match the popularity of Coward's pre-war hits.-Background:...
- 1958: Irma La DouceIrma La Douce (musical)Irma La Douce is a musical with music by Marguerite Monnot and French lyrics and book by Alexandre Breffort. The English lyrics and book are by Julian More, David Heneker and Monty Norman. It was first produced in Paris in 1956.-Productions:...
- 1964: Robert and ElizabethRobert and ElizabethRobert and Elizabeth is a musical with music by Ron Grainer and book and lyrics by Ronald Millar. The story is based on an unproduced musical titled The Third Kiss by Judge Fred G. Moritt, which in turn was adapted from the play The Barretts of Wimpole Street by Rudolph Besier...
- 1969: Plaza SuitePlaza SuitePlaza Suite is a comedy play by Neil Simon.-Plot:The play is composed of three acts, each involving different characters but all set in Suite 719 of New York City's Plaza Hotel...
- 1972: How the Other Half Loves
- 1981: Tonight at 8:30Tonight at 8:30Tonight at 8.30 is a cycle of ten one-act plays by Noël Coward. In the introduction to a published edition of the plays, Coward wrote, "A short play, having a great advantage over a long one in that it can sustain a mood without technical creaking or over padding, deserves a better fate, and if,...
; Arms and the ManArms and the ManArms and the Man is a comedy by George Bernard Shaw, whose title comes from the opening words of Virgil's Aeneid in Latin:"Arma virumque cano" .... - 1983: Blood Brothers; Pack of LiesPack of LiesPack of Lies is a 1983 play by English writer Hugh Whitemore.Based on a true story, the plot centres on Bob and Barbara Jackson and their teenage daughter Julie The Jacksons are friendly with their neighbours, Peter and Helen Kroger, until the couple is...
- 1984: LootLoot (play)Loot is a two-act play by the English playwright Joe Orton. The play is a dark farce that satirises the Roman Catholic Church, social attitudes to death, and the integrity of the police force....
- 1989: Steel MagnoliasSteel MagnoliasSteel Magnolias is a 1989 American comedy-drama film directed by Herbert Ross that stars Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine, Olympia Dukakis, Dolly Parton, Daryl Hannah and Julia Roberts....
- 1990: Five Guys Named MoeFive Guys Named MoeFive Guys Named Moe is a musical with a book by Clarke Peters and lyrics and music by Louis Jordan and others. The musical originated in the UK in 1990 at Theatre Royal Stratford East, running for over four years in the West End, and then premiering on Broadway in 1992...
- 1995: Ain't Misbehavin'
- 1998: An Ideal HusbandAn Ideal HusbandAn Ideal Husband is an 1895 comedic stage play by Oscar Wilde which revolves around blackmail and political corruption, and touches on the themes of public and private honour...
- 2000: Brief EncounterBrief EncounterBrief Encounter is a 1945 British film directed by David Lean about the conventions of British suburban life, centring on a housewife for whom real love brings unexpectedly violent emotions. The film stars Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway and Joyce Carey...
- 2001: Cat on a Hot Tin RoofCat on a Hot Tin RoofCat on a Hot Tin Roof is a play by Tennessee Williams. One of Williams's best-known works and his personal favorite, the play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955...
- 2002: The Constant WifeThe Constant WifeThe Constant Wife, a comedy of manners, was written by W. Somerset Maugham in 1926 and later published for general sales in April 1927.- Plot :...
- 2004: Beautiful and DamnedBeautiful and DamnedBeautiful and Damned is a musical with a book by Kit Hesketh Harvey and music and lyrics by Les Reed and Roger Cook.Drawing its title from F. Scott Fitzgerald's second novel, it focuses on the turbulent relationship he shared with his wife Zelda during the Jazz Age...
- 2005: Death of a SalesmanDeath of a SalesmanDeath of a Salesman is a 1949 play written by American playwright Arthur Miller. It was the recipient of the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Play. Premiered at the Morosco Theatre in February 1949, the original production ran for a total of 742 performances.-Plot :Willy Loman...
- 2006: The Night of the IguanaThe Night of the IguanaThe Night of the Iguana is a stageplay written by American author Tennessee Williams, based on his 1948 short story. The play premiered on Broadway in 1961. Two film adaptations have been made, including the Academy Award-winning 1964 film of the same name....
, Smaller, Grumpy Old WomenGrumpy Old WomenFor the live show, see Grumpy Old Women LiveGrumpy Old Women is a British television series, continuing in the same vein as its predecessor, Grumpy Old Men. Both programmes are shown on BBC Two. The first two series were narrated by Alison Steadman, and the third by Judith Holder...
and CabaretCabaret (musical)Cabaret is a musical based on a book written by Christopher Isherwood, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. The 1966 Broadway production became a hit and spawned a 1972 film as well as numerous subsequent productions.... - 2008: Hairspray: The School MusicalHairspray: The School MusicalHairspray: The School Musical is a 2008 reality TV series, broadcast on Sky1 in the UK, charting the development of a comprehensive school's production of the Broadway and West End musical Hairspray.-Format:...
and Flamenco Flamen'ka - 2008: Eddie IzzardEddie IzzardEdward John "Eddie" Izzard is a British stand-up comedian and actor. His comedy style takes the form of rambling, whimsical monologue and self-referential pantomime...
(Stripped) - 2009: Thriller - Live starring Denise PearsonDenise PearsonDenise Pearson is an English singer-songwriter. She is best known for being the lead vocalist with the British pop/R&B group Five Star, which comprised herself and her four siblings. The group was created and managed by their father, Buster Pearson, in 1983...
, A Frisky and Mannish ChristmasFrisky and MannishFrisky & Mannish is a musical comedy cabaret double act based in London, England.Formed in March 2008 by writers and performers Laura Corcoran and Matthew Floyd Jones, the duo is best known for a style of pop culture parody that consists of the musical and dramatic rearrangement of well-known pop...