Palace Theatre, London
Encyclopedia
The Palace Theatre is a West End theatre
in the City of Westminster
in London. It is an imposing red-brick
building that dominates the west side of Cambridge Circus
and is located near the intersection of Shaftesbury Avenue
and Charing Cross Road
. The Palace Theatre's capacity is 1,400 seats.
Richard D'Oyly Carte
, producer of the Gilbert and Sullivan
operas, commissioned the theatre in the late 1880s. It was designed by Thomas Edward Collcutt
and intended it to be a home of English grand opera
. The theatre opened as the "Royal English Opera House" in January 1891 with a lavish production of Arthur Sullivan
's opera Ivanhoe
. Although this ran for 160 performances, followed briefly by André Messager
's La Basoche
, Carte had no other works ready to fill the theatre. He leased it to Sarah Bernhardt
for a season and sold the opera house within a year at a loss. It was then converted into a grand music hall
and renamed the Palace Theatre of Varieties, managed successfully by Charles Morton
. In 1897, the theatre began to screen films as part of its programme of entertainment, In 1904, Alfred Butt
became manager and continued to combine variety entertainment, including dancing girls, with films. Herman Finck was musical director at the theatre from 1900 until 1920. The Marx Brothers
appeared at the theatre in 1922, performing selections from their Broadway
shows.
In 1925, the musical comedy No, No, Nanette
opened at the Palace Theatre, followed by other musicals, for which the theatre became known. The Sound of Music
ran for 2,385 performances, opening in 1961. Jesus Christ Superstar
ran from 1972 to 1980 and Les Misérables
played at the theatre for nineteen years, beginning in 1985. In 1983, Andrew Lloyd Webber
purchased and refurbished the theatre. Monty Python
's Spamalot
played at the theatre from 2006 until January 2009, and soon afterwards, Priscilla Queen of the Desert
opened at the Palace and is scheduled to play there to the end of 2011.
in the late 1880s, it was designed by Thomas Edward Collcutt
. Carte intended it to be the home of English grand opera
, much as his Savoy Theatre
had been built as a home for English light opera, beginning with the Gilbert and Sullivan
series. The foundation stone, laid by his wife Helen in 1888, can still be seen on the façade of the theatre, almost at ground level to the right of the entrance. The theatre's design was considered to be novel. The upper levels are supported by heavy steel cantilever
s built into the back walls, removing the need for supporting pillars that impede the view of the stage. The tiers, corridors, staircases, landings are all constructed of concrete to reduce the risk and damage that might be done by fire.
The theatre opened as the "Royal English Opera House" in January 1891 with Arthur Sullivan
's Ivanhoe
. No expense was spared to make the production a success, including a double cast and "every imaginable effect of scenic splendour. It ran for 160 performances, but when Ivanhoe finally closed in July, Carte had no new work to replace it, and the opera house had to close. One opera is not enough to sustain an opera house venture. It was, as critic Herman Klein
observed, "the strangest comingling of success and failure ever chronicled in the history of British lyric enterprise!" Sir Henry Wood
, who had been répétiteur for the production, recalled in his autobiography that "[if] Carte had had a repertory of six operas instead of only one, I believe he would have established English opera in London for all time. Towards the end of the run of Ivanhoe I was already preparing the Flying Dutchman with Eugène Oudin
in the name part. He would have been superb. However, plans were altered and the Dutchman was shelved."
The theatre re-opened in November 1891, with André Messager
's La Basoche
(with David Bispham
in his first London stage performance) at first alternating in repertory with Ivanhoe, and then La Basoche alone, closing in January 1892. Carte had no other works ready, and so he leased the theatre to Sarah Bernhardt
for a season and sold the opera house within a year at a loss. It was then converted by Walter Emden
into a grand music hall
and renamed the Palace Theatre of Varieties, managed by Charles Morton
, known as the 'Father of Music Halls', who made it into a successful enterprise. Denied permission by the London County Council
to construct the promenade, which was such a popular feature of adult entertainment at the Empire and Alhambra theatres, the Palace compensated by featuring apparently nude women in tableau vivants, though the concerned LCC hastened to reassure patrons that the girls who featured in these displays were actually wearing flesh toned body stockings and were not naked.
In March 1897, the theatre began to screen films from the American Biograph Company
as part of its programme of entertainment, these films pioneered the 70 mm format which helped give an exceptionally large and clear image filling the proscenium arch. The performances included early newsreel
s from around the world, many of them made by film pioneer William Kennedy Laurie Dickson, including film of the Anglo-Boer War (1900). The Palace continued to shows films as part of its variety and musical programmes.
In 1904, Morton was succeeded by manager Alfred Butt
, who introduced many innovations to the theatre, including dancers, such as Maud Allan
(including her famous Salomé
) and Anna Pavlova, and elegant pianist-singer Margaret Cooper. Oliver G Pike
premièred his first film, In Birdland, at the theatre in August 1907. This was the first British wildlife film to be screened to a paying audience. On 26 February 1909, the general public first saw Kinemacolor
in a programme of 21 short films shown at the Theatre.
The name of the theatre was finally changed to The Palace Theatre in 1911. Herman Finck was musical director at the theatre from 1900 until 1920, with whose orchestra he made many recordings. The theatre was famous not only for its orchestra, but also for the beautiful Palace Girls, for whom Finck composed many dances. In 1911, the Palace Girls performed a song and dance number, which was originally called Tonight but became very popular as a romantic instrumental piece In The Shadows. In 1912, the theatre hosted a Royal Command Performance. The Marx Brothers
appeared at the theatre in 1922, performing selections from their Broadway
shows.
On 11 March 1925, the musical comedy No, No, Nanette
opened at the Palace Theatre starring Binnie Hale
and George Grossmith, Jr.
The run of 665 performances made it the third longest-running West End
musical of the 1920s. Princess Charming
ran for 362 performances beginning in 1926. The Palace Theatre was also the venue for Rogers and Hart's The Girl Friend
(1927) and Fred Astaire
's final stage musical Gay Divorce
(1933). Later musical theatre
works that played at the theatre included Anything Goes
, Flower Drum Song
, Cabaret
, and many others. The Entertainer
, starring Sir Laurence Olivier, transferred to the theatre from the Royal Court Theatre
in 1957. In the 1960s, The Sound of Music
ran for 2,385 performances, opening on 18 May 1961.
The last decades of the twentieth century saw two further exceptional runs at The Palace: Jesus Christ Superstar
(3,358 performances from 1972 to 1980) and Les Misérables
. The latter ran at the theatre for nineteen years, having transferred from the Barbican Centre
on 4 December 1985. The show is still running at the Queen's Theatre
, nearby on Shaftesbury Avenue, having transferred there in April 2004. On 8 October 2006, it became the longest-running musical in the world, overtaking the former record set by Cats
. In August 1983, Andrew Lloyd Webber
announced that he had purchased the freehold of the theatre for £1.3 million and subsequently set out on a series of works to restore the theatre. During work on the auditorium, a layer of plum-coloured paint was removed, revealing the famous marble and onyx panels to be untouched. Following the transfer of Les Misérables in 2004, the facade of the theatre and front of the house were refurbished and restored, the marble walls uncovered, and new chandeliers installed. This was followed by a short 6-week season of illusionist Derren Brown
following his successful UK tour.
Lloyd Webber's The Woman in White
received its world première on in 2004 and ran for 19 months. Bill Kenwright's production of Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman
's musical Whistle Down The Wind
was a disappointment in 2006, lasting only five months. Monty Python
's Spamalot
opened on in September 2006 and ran until January 2009. It was replaced by Priscilla Queen of the Desert
in March 2009.
The theatre's capacity is 1,400 seats, and it was Grade II* listed by English Heritage
in June 1960.
serial, The Talons of Weng-Chiang
, the Palace Theatre is one of the prominent settings of the story. The villain, Li H'sen Chang, masquerades as magician and ventriloquist performing at the theatre when the Doctor brings Leela
there to discover the customs of her Victorian
ancestors.
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...
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...
in London. It is an imposing red-brick
Brick
A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using various kinds of mortar. It has been regarded as one of the longest lasting and strongest building materials used throughout history.-History:...
building that dominates the west side of Cambridge Circus
Cambridge Circus, London
Cambridge Circus is a traffic intersection at the intersection of Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road in central London...
and is located near the intersection of 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....
and Charing Cross Road
Charing Cross Road
Charing Cross Road is a street in central London running immediately north of St Martin-in-the-Fields to St Giles Circus and then becomes Tottenham Court Road...
. The Palace Theatre's capacity is 1,400 seats.
Richard D'Oyly Carte
Richard D'Oyly Carte
Richard D'Oyly Carte was an English talent agent, theatrical impresario, composer and hotelier during the latter half of the Victorian era...
, producer of the Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
operas, commissioned the theatre in the late 1880s. It was designed by Thomas Edward Collcutt
Thomas Edward Collcutt
Thomas Edward Collcutt was an English architect in the Victorian era who designed several important buildings in London.-Biography:...
and intended it to be a home of English grand opera
Grand Opera
Grand opera is a genre of 19th-century opera generally in four or five acts, characterised by large-scale casts and orchestras, and lavish and spectacular design and stage effects, normally with plots based on or around dramatic historic events...
. The theatre opened as the "Royal English Opera House" in January 1891 with a lavish production 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 opera Ivanhoe
Ivanhoe (opera)
Ivanhoe is a romantic opera in three acts based on the novel by Sir Walter Scott, with music by Sir Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by Julian Sturgis. It premiered at the Royal English Opera House on 31 January 1891 for a consecutive run of 155 performances, unheard of for a grand opera...
. Although this ran for 160 performances, followed briefly by André Messager
André Messager
André Charles Prosper Messager , was a French composer, organist, pianist, conductor and administrator. His stage compositions included ballets and 30 opéra comiques and operettas, among which Véronique, had lasting success, with Les p'tites Michu and Monsieur Beaucaire also enjoying international...
's La Basoche
La Basoche
La Basoche is an opéra comique in three acts of 1890, with music by André Messager and a French libretto by Albert Carré.-History:Messager's 1889 opérette Le mari de la reine at Bouffes-Parisiens was a disappointment, and the composer and his wife were struggling to afford even basic necessities...
, Carte had no other works ready to fill the theatre. He leased it to Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt was a French stage and early film actress, and has been referred to as "the most famous actress the world has ever known". Bernhardt made her fame on the stages of France in the 1870s, and was soon in demand in Europe and the Americas...
for a season and sold the opera house within a year at a loss. It was then converted into a grand music hall
Music hall
Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...
and renamed the Palace Theatre of Varieties, managed successfully by Charles Morton
Charles Morton (impresario)
Charles Morton was a Music hall and theatre manager. Born in Hackney, he built the first purpose built tavern Music hall, the Canterbury Music Hall, and became known as the Father of the Halls.-Canterbury Hall:...
. In 1897, the theatre began to screen films as part of its programme of entertainment, In 1904, Alfred Butt
Alfred Butt
Sir Alfred Butt, 1st Baronet was a British theatre entrepreneur, Conservative politician and racehorse owner and breeder...
became manager and continued to combine variety entertainment, including dancing girls, with films. Herman Finck was musical director at the theatre from 1900 until 1920. The Marx Brothers
Marx Brothers
The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act, originally from New York City, that enjoyed success in Vaudeville, Broadway, and motion pictures from the early 1900s to around 1950...
appeared at the theatre in 1922, performing selections from their Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
shows.
In 1925, the musical comedy No, No, Nanette
No, No, Nanette
No, No, Nanette is a musical comedy with lyrics by Irving Caesar and Otto Harbach, music by Vincent Youmans, and a book by Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel, based on Mandel's 1919 Broadway play My Lady Friends...
opened at the Palace Theatre, followed by other musicals, for which the theatre became known. The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music is a musical by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the memoir of Maria von Trapp, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers...
ran for 2,385 performances, opening in 1961. Jesus Christ Superstar
Jesus Christ Superstar
Jesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics by Tim Rice. The musical started off as a rock opera concept recording before its first staging on Broadway in 1971...
ran from 1972 to 1980 and Les Misérables
Les Misérables (musical)
Les Misérables , colloquially known as Les Mis or Les Miz , is a musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg, based on the novel of the same name by Victor Hugo....
played at the theatre for nineteen years, beginning in 1985. In 1983, 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...
purchased and refurbished the theatre. Monty Python
Monty Python
Monty Python was a British surreal comedy group who created their influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series...
's Spamalot
Spamalot
Monty Python's Spamalot is a musical comedy "lovingly ripped off from" the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Like the film, it is a highly irreverent parody of the Arthurian Legend, but it differs from the film in many ways, especially in its parodies of Broadway theatre...
played at the theatre from 2006 until January 2009, and soon afterwards, Priscilla Queen of the Desert
Priscilla Queen of the Desert - the Musical
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is a musical with a book by Australian film director-writer Stephan Elliott and Allan Scott, using well-known pop songs as its score...
opened at the Palace and is scheduled to play there to the end of 2011.
Early years
Commissioned by impresario Richard D'Oyly CarteRichard D'Oyly Carte
Richard D'Oyly Carte was an English talent agent, theatrical impresario, composer and hotelier during the latter half of the Victorian era...
in the late 1880s, it was designed by Thomas Edward Collcutt
Thomas Edward Collcutt
Thomas Edward Collcutt was an English architect in the Victorian era who designed several important buildings in London.-Biography:...
. Carte intended it to be the home of English grand opera
Grand Opera
Grand opera is a genre of 19th-century opera generally in four or five acts, characterised by large-scale casts and orchestras, and lavish and spectacular design and stage effects, normally with plots based on or around dramatic historic events...
, much as his Savoy Theatre
Savoy Theatre
The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre located in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre opened on 10 October 1881 and was built by Richard D'Oyly Carte on the site of the old Savoy Palace as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan,...
had been built as a home for English light opera, beginning with the Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
series. The foundation stone, laid by his wife Helen in 1888, can still be seen on the façade of the theatre, almost at ground level to the right of the entrance. The theatre's design was considered to be novel. The upper levels are supported by heavy steel cantilever
Cantilever
A cantilever is a beam anchored at only one end. The beam carries the load to the support where it is resisted by moment and shear stress. Cantilever construction allows for overhanging structures without external bracing. Cantilevers can also be constructed with trusses or slabs.This is in...
s built into the back walls, removing the need for supporting pillars that impede the view of the stage. The tiers, corridors, staircases, landings are all constructed of concrete to reduce the risk and damage that might be done by fire.
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 Ivanhoe
Ivanhoe (opera)
Ivanhoe is a romantic opera in three acts based on the novel by Sir Walter Scott, with music by Sir Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by Julian Sturgis. It premiered at the Royal English Opera House on 31 January 1891 for a consecutive run of 155 performances, unheard of for a grand opera...
. No expense was spared to make the production a success, including a double cast and "every imaginable effect of scenic splendour. It ran for 160 performances, but when Ivanhoe finally closed in July, Carte had no new work to replace it, and the opera house had to close. One opera is not enough to sustain an opera house venture. It was, as critic Herman Klein
Herman Klein
Herman Klein was an English music critic, author and teacher of singing. Klein's famous brothers included Charles and Manuel Klein...
observed, "the strangest comingling of success and failure ever chronicled in the history of British lyric enterprise!" Sir Henry Wood
Henry Wood (conductor)
Sir Henry Joseph Wood, CH was an English conductor best known for his association with London's annual series of promenade concerts, known as the Proms. He conducted them for nearly half a century, introducing hundreds of new works to British audiences...
, who had been répétiteur for the production, recalled in his autobiography that "[if] Carte had had a repertory of six operas instead of only one, I believe he would have established English opera in London for all time. Towards the end of the run of Ivanhoe I was already preparing the Flying Dutchman with Eugène Oudin
Eugène Oudin
Eugène Esperance Oudin was an American baritone, composer and translator of the Victorian era.-Early years:...
in the name part. He would have been superb. However, plans were altered and the Dutchman was shelved."
The theatre re-opened in November 1891, with André Messager
André Messager
André Charles Prosper Messager , was a French composer, organist, pianist, conductor and administrator. His stage compositions included ballets and 30 opéra comiques and operettas, among which Véronique, had lasting success, with Les p'tites Michu and Monsieur Beaucaire also enjoying international...
's La Basoche
La Basoche
La Basoche is an opéra comique in three acts of 1890, with music by André Messager and a French libretto by Albert Carré.-History:Messager's 1889 opérette Le mari de la reine at Bouffes-Parisiens was a disappointment, and the composer and his wife were struggling to afford even basic necessities...
(with David Bispham
David Bispham
David Scull Bispham was the first American–born operatic baritone to win an international reputation.- Early life and family:...
in his first London stage performance) at first alternating in repertory with Ivanhoe, and then La Basoche alone, closing in January 1892. Carte had no other works ready, and so he leased the theatre to Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt was a French stage and early film actress, and has been referred to as "the most famous actress the world has ever known". Bernhardt made her fame on the stages of France in the 1870s, and was soon in demand in Europe and the Americas...
for a season and sold the opera house within a year at a loss. It was then converted by Walter Emden
Walter Emden
Walter Lawrence Emden was one of the leading English theatre and music hall architects in the building boom of 1885 to 1915.-Biography:...
into a grand music hall
Music hall
Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...
and renamed the Palace Theatre of Varieties, managed by Charles Morton
Charles Morton (impresario)
Charles Morton was a Music hall and theatre manager. Born in Hackney, he built the first purpose built tavern Music hall, the Canterbury Music Hall, and became known as the Father of the Halls.-Canterbury Hall:...
, known as the 'Father of Music Halls', who made it into a successful enterprise. Denied permission by the London County Council
London County Council
London County Council was the principal local government body for the County of London, throughout its 1889–1965 existence, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today known as Inner London and was replaced by the Greater London Council...
to construct the promenade, which was such a popular feature of adult entertainment at the Empire and Alhambra theatres, the Palace compensated by featuring apparently nude women in tableau vivants, though the concerned LCC hastened to reassure patrons that the girls who featured in these displays were actually wearing flesh toned body stockings and were not naked.
In March 1897, the theatre began to screen films from the American Biograph Company
American Mutoscope and Biograph Company
The American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, was a motion picture company founded in 1895 and active until 1928. It was the first company in the United States devoted entirely to film production and exhibition, and for two decades was one of the most prolific, releasing over three thousand short...
as part of its programme of entertainment, these films pioneered the 70 mm format which helped give an exceptionally large and clear image filling the proscenium arch. The performances included early newsreel
Newsreel
A newsreel was a form of short documentary film prevalent in the first half of the 20th century, regularly released in a public presentation place and containing filmed news stories and items of topical interest. It was a source of news, current affairs and entertainment for millions of moviegoers...
s from around the world, many of them made by film pioneer William Kennedy Laurie Dickson, including film of the Anglo-Boer War (1900). The Palace continued to shows films as part of its variety and musical programmes.
20th and 21st centuries
Alfred Butt
Sir Alfred Butt, 1st Baronet was a British theatre entrepreneur, Conservative politician and racehorse owner and breeder...
, who introduced many innovations to the theatre, including dancers, such as Maud Allan
Maud Allan
Maud Allan was a pianist-turned-actor, dancer and choreographer remembered for her "famously impressionistic mood settings".- Early life :...
(including her famous Salomé
Salome (play)
Salome is a tragedy by Oscar Wilde.The original 1891 version of the play was in French. Three years later an English translation was published...
) and Anna Pavlova, and elegant pianist-singer Margaret Cooper. Oliver G Pike
Oliver G Pike
Oliver Gregory Pike F.Z.S., F.R.P.S. was a British naturalist wildlife photographer and author and early nature documentary pioneer, specialising in the study of bird life...
premièred his first film, In Birdland, at the theatre in August 1907. This was the first British wildlife film to be screened to a paying audience. On 26 February 1909, the general public first saw Kinemacolor
Kinemacolor
Kinemacolor was the first successful color motion picture process, used commercially from 1908 to 1914. It was invented by George Albert Smith of Brighton, England in 1906. He was influenced by the work of William Norman Lascelles Davidson. It was launched by Charles Urban's Urban Trading Co. of...
in a programme of 21 short films shown at the Theatre.
The name of the theatre was finally changed to The Palace Theatre in 1911. Herman Finck was musical director at the theatre from 1900 until 1920, with whose orchestra he made many recordings. The theatre was famous not only for its orchestra, but also for the beautiful Palace Girls, for whom Finck composed many dances. In 1911, the Palace Girls performed a song and dance number, which was originally called Tonight but became very popular as a romantic instrumental piece In The Shadows. In 1912, the theatre hosted a Royal Command Performance. The Marx Brothers
Marx Brothers
The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act, originally from New York City, that enjoyed success in Vaudeville, Broadway, and motion pictures from the early 1900s to around 1950...
appeared at the theatre in 1922, performing selections from their Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
shows.
On 11 March 1925, the musical comedy No, No, Nanette
No, No, Nanette
No, No, Nanette is a musical comedy with lyrics by Irving Caesar and Otto Harbach, music by Vincent Youmans, and a book by Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel, based on Mandel's 1919 Broadway play My Lady Friends...
opened at the Palace Theatre starring Binnie Hale
Binnie Hale
Binnie Hale was an English actress and musician. Both her father, Robert Hale and younger brother, Sonnie Hale were actors. She married West End actor Jack Raine, with whom she had one daughter....
and George Grossmith, Jr.
George Grossmith, Jr.
George Grossmith, Jr. was a British actor, theatre producer and manager, director, playwright and songwriter, best remembered for his work in and with Edwardian musical comedies...
The run of 665 performances made it the third longest-running West End
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...
musical of the 1920s. Princess Charming
Princess Charming
Princess Charming is a Filipino television drama series aired on GMA Network from January 29, 2007 to April 27, 2007 and was part of GMA’s afternoon programming block called Drama Rama sa Hapon.. The series was directed by Argel Joseph...
ran for 362 performances beginning in 1926. The Palace Theatre was also the venue for Rogers and Hart's The Girl Friend
The Girl Friend
The Girl Friend is a musical comedy with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart and book by Herbert Fields. This was the longest running show to date for the trio.-Production:...
(1927) and Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
's final stage musical Gay Divorce
Gay Divorce
Gay Divorce is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter and book by Dwight Taylor, adapted by Kenneth Webb and Samuel Hoffenstein. It was Fred Astaire's last Broadway show and featured the hit song "Night and Day" in which Astaire danced with co-star Claire Luce.It was made into a musical...
(1933). Later musical theatre
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...
works that played at the theatre included Anything Goes
Anything Goes
Anything Goes is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The original book was a collaborative effort by Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse, heavily revised by the team of Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. The story concerns madcap antics aboard an ocean liner bound from New York to London...
, Flower Drum Song
Flower Drum Song
Flower Drum Song was the eighth stage musical by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. It was based on the 1957 novel, The Flower Drum Song, by Chinese-American author C. Y. Lee. The piece opened in 1958 on Broadway and was afterwards presented in the West End and on tour...
, Cabaret
Cabaret (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....
, and many others. The Entertainer
The Entertainer (play)
The Entertainer is a three act play by John Osborne, first produced in 1957. His first play, Look Back in Anger, had attracted mixed notices but a great deal of publicity. Having depicted an "angry young man" in the earlier play, Osborne wrote, at Laurence Olivier's request,about an angry middle...
, starring Sir Laurence Olivier, transferred to the theatre from the Royal Court Theatre
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
in 1957. In the 1960s, The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music is a musical by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the memoir of Maria von Trapp, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers...
ran for 2,385 performances, opening on 18 May 1961.
Jesus Christ Superstar
Jesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics by Tim Rice. The musical started off as a rock opera concept recording before its first staging on Broadway in 1971...
(3,358 performances from 1972 to 1980) and Les Misérables
Les Misérables (musical)
Les Misérables , colloquially known as Les Mis or Les Miz , is a musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg, based on the novel of the same name by Victor Hugo....
. The latter ran at the theatre for nineteen years, having transferred from the Barbican Centre
Barbican Centre
The Barbican Centre is the largest performing arts centre in Europe. Located in the City of London, England, the Centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhibitions. It also houses a library, three restaurants, and a conservatory...
on 4 December 1985. The show is still running at the Queen's Theatre
Queen's Theatre
The Queen's Theatre is a West End theatre located in Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster. It opened on 8 October 1907 as a twin to the neighbouring Gielgud Theatre which opened ten months earlier. Both theatres were designed by W.G.R...
, nearby on Shaftesbury Avenue, having transferred there in April 2004. On 8 October 2006, it became the longest-running musical in the world, overtaking the former record set by 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...
. In August 1983, 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...
announced that he had purchased the freehold of the theatre for £1.3 million and subsequently set out on a series of works to restore the theatre. During work on the auditorium, a layer of plum-coloured paint was removed, revealing the famous marble and onyx panels to be untouched. Following the transfer of Les Misérables in 2004, the facade of the theatre and front of the house were refurbished and restored, the marble walls uncovered, and new chandeliers installed. This was followed by a short 6-week season of illusionist Derren Brown
Derren Brown
Derren 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...
following his successful UK tour.
Lloyd Webber's The Woman in White
The Woman in White (musical)
The Woman in White is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and David Zippel with a book by Charlotte Jones, based on the novel The Woman in White written by Wilkie Collins...
received its world première on in 2004 and ran for 19 months. Bill Kenwright's production of Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman
Jim Steinman
James Richard "Jim" Steinman is an American composer, lyricist, and Grammy Award-winning record producer responsible for several hit songs. He has also worked as an arranger, pianist, and singer...
's musical Whistle Down The Wind
Whistle Down the Wind (musical)
Whistle Down the Wind is a musical based on the 1961 film Whistle Down the Wind with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Jim Steinman, known for his work with Meat Loaf and Bonnie Tyler.-Stage Premiere:...
was a disappointment in 2006, lasting only five months. Monty Python
Monty Python
Monty Python was a British surreal comedy group who created their influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series...
's Spamalot
Spamalot
Monty Python's Spamalot is a musical comedy "lovingly ripped off from" the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Like the film, it is a highly irreverent parody of the Arthurian Legend, but it differs from the film in many ways, especially in its parodies of Broadway theatre...
opened on in September 2006 and ran until January 2009. It was replaced by Priscilla Queen of the Desert
Priscilla Queen of the Desert - the Musical
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is a musical with a book by Australian film director-writer Stephan Elliott and Allan Scott, using well-known pop songs as its score...
in March 2009.
The theatre's capacity is 1,400 seats, and it 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 June 1960.
Recent notable productions
- Song and DanceSong and DanceSong and Dance is a musical comprising two acts, one told entirely in "Song" and one entirely in "Dance", tied together by a love story.The first part is Tell Me On A Sunday, with lyrics by Don Black and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, about a young British woman's romantic misadventures in New York...
(April 7, 1982 – March 31, 1984) - Les MisérablesLes Misérables (musical)Les Misérables , colloquially known as Les Mis or Les Miz , is a musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg, based on the novel of the same name by Victor Hugo....
(December 4, 1985 – March 27, 2004) - The Woman in WhiteThe Woman in White (musical)The Woman in White is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and David Zippel with a book by Charlotte Jones, based on the novel The Woman in White written by Wilkie Collins...
(September 15, 2004 – February 25, 2006) - Whistle Down The WindWhistle Down the Wind (musical)Whistle Down the Wind is a musical based on the 1961 film Whistle Down the Wind with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Jim Steinman, known for his work with Meat Loaf and Bonnie Tyler.-Stage Premiere:...
(March 15, 2006 – August 12, 2006) - Monty PythonMonty PythonMonty Python was a British surreal comedy group who created their influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series...
's SpamalotSpamalotMonty Python's Spamalot is a musical comedy "lovingly ripped off from" the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Like the film, it is a highly irreverent parody of the Arthurian Legend, but it differs from the film in many ways, especially in its parodies of Broadway theatre...
(September 30, 2006 – January 3, 2009) - Priscilla Queen of the Desert (March 14, 2009 - December 31, 2011)
- Singin’ in the Rain (February 4, 2012 -)
In popular culture
In the 1977 Doctor WhoDoctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
serial, The Talons of Weng-Chiang
The Talons of Weng-Chiang
The Talons of Weng-Chiang is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 26 February to 2 April 1977.-Synopsis:...
, the Palace Theatre is one of the prominent settings of the story. The villain, Li H'sen Chang, masquerades as magician and ventriloquist performing at the theatre when the Doctor brings Leela
Leela (Doctor Who)
Leela is a fictional character played by Louise Jameson in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Leela was a companion of the Fourth Doctor and a regular in the programme from 1977 to 1978...
there to discover the customs of her Victorian
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
ancestors.
Nearby tube stations
- Leicester SquareLeicester Square tube stationLeicester Square is a station on the London Underground, located on Charing Cross Road, a short distance to the east of Leicester Square itself....
- Tottenham Court RoadTottenham Court Road tube stationTottenham Court Road is a London Underground station in central London. It is an interchange between the Central line and the branch of the Northern line.On the Central line it is between and , and on the Northern line it is between and...