Prince of Wales Theatre
Encyclopedia
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. The theatre should not be confused with the former Scala Theatre
in Charlotte Street, off Tottenham Court Road
that was known as the Prince of Wales Royal Theatre or Prince of Wales's Theatre from 1865 until its demolition in 1903.
. Located between Piccadilly Circus
and Leicester Square
, the theatre was favourably situated to attract theatregoers.
The first production in the theatre was an 1884 revival of W. S. Gilbert
's The Palace of Truth
starring Herbert Beerbohm Tree
, preceded by a one act comedy, In Honour Bound. This was soon followed by a free adaptation of Ibsen's A Doll's House
, called Breaking a Butterfly. In 1885, Lillie Langtry
, reputedly the first "society" lady to become an actress, played in Princess George and The School for Scandal
. The first hit production at the theatre was the record-breaking comic opera
, Dorothy
, starring Marie Tempest
, which was so successful that its authors used the profits to build the Lyric Theatre
, where it moved in 1888. The wordless mime play L'Enfant Prodigue premiered in 1891 which, together with A Pierrot's Life in 1897, brought respectability to mime troupes in Britain.
George Edwardes
' musical play, In Town
, often considered the first English musical comedy
, was presented at the theatre in 1892 and was followed by Edwardes' even more successful A Gaiety Girl
in 1893. In 1895, Basil Hood
's Gentleman Joe
, the Hansom Cabby began a long run starring the low comedian, Arthur Roberts, in the title role. The theatre then began to present straight plays with Maeterlinck's Pelléas et Mélisande
(1898, with incidental music by Fauré
) and Wills's adaptation of Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities
as The Only Way (1899, also starring Harvey). Charles Hawtrey starred in the successful A Message from Mars (1901). In 1900-01, Marie Tempest played the title roles in the play English Nell (based on Simon Dale's novel about Nell Gwynn), Peg Woffington, a dramatization of Charles Reade
's novel, as well as Becky Sharp in a dramatization of Thackeray
's Vanity Fair.
The theatre played more musical comedies beginning in 1903, including the Frank Curzon
and Isabel Jay
hits Miss Hook of Holland
(1907, its matinee version, Little Miss Hook of Holland was performed by children for children), King of Cadonia
(1908), and The Balkan Princess
(1910), and later the World War I
hits, Broadway Jones (1914), Carminetta (1917), and Yes, Uncle!
(1917).
The theatre then hosted plays such as Avery Hopwood
's farce Fair and Warmer (1918) and Ivor Novello
's The Rat (1924, Novello's first play, in which he also starred), and revue
s including A to Z (1921), Co-Optimists (1923), and Charlot's Revue (1924). They starred Gertrude Lawrence
, Jack Buchanan
, Beatrice Lillie
, Stanley Holloway
, and Jessie Matthews
. Ms Matthews also starred, along with Richard Hearne, in "Wild Rose", featuring the memorable Jerome Kern song "Look for the Silver Lining
". These were followed by The Blue Train (1927), Alibi (1928, directed by Gerald du Maurier
with Charles Laughton
as Hercule Poirot
), By Candlelight (1928), and Journey's End (1929). In 1930, Edith Evans
became the manager at the theatre, presenting and starring in Delilah, which was not a success. Beginning in 1932, the theatre presented a series of risqué "Folies"-style revues, including Voila! Les Dames (1935) and its last production, Encore les Dames (1937). These shows were so successful that they funded the rapid rebuilding of the theatre in 1937.
After 50 years, the theatre's 800 seats were deemed insufficient for productions of the day, and it was demolished. On 17 June 1937, Gracie Fields
sang to the workmen as she laid the foundation stone of the new Art Deco
-decorated theatre, designed by Robert Cromie, and the theatre opened on 27 October that year. The new theatre's seating capacity was about 1,100, and it had a larger stage and improved facilities for both the artists and the public, including a large, stylish stalls bar (the bar itself was 14 metres long), complete with dance floor. The first productions at the new theatre were Les Folies de Paris et Londres, starring George Robey
, followed by Folies De Can-Can in 1938, a continuation of the old theatre's series of successful risqué revues, which ran continuously until 2am every night. The musical comedy, Present Arms, was offered in 1940, and in 1941 the theatre screened the UK premiere of Charlie Chaplin
's The Great Dictator
. The film had been banned in many parts of Europe, and the theatre's owner, Alfred Esdaile, was fined for showing it .
In 1943, Strike a New Note was notable for Sid Field
's London debut, and he returned to the theatre in Strike it Again (1944), and yet again in Piccadilly Hayride (1946, a revue that ran for 778 performances). In 1949, Harvey
, Mary Coyle Chase
's comedy about an imaginary rabbit, was a success, as was Diamond Lil in 1948 starring Mae West
. In the 1950s, the theatre hosted variety and revues, starring such famous performers as Norman Wisdom
, Peter Sellers
, Bob Hope
, Gracie Fields
, Benny Hill
, Hughie Green
, Frankie Howerd
, and Morecambe and Wise
. In 1959, Paul Osborn
's The World of Susie Wong became the theatre's longest-running play to date with 832 performances.
Neil Simon
's play, Come Blow Your Horn
, starring Michael Crawford
, played in 1962, followed by a season of Martha Graham
's dance company, including the world première of her ballet Circe. Next was a string of Broadway musicals, including Funny Girl in 1966 with Barbra Streisand
, Sweet Charity
(1967), and Promises, Promises
(1969). The Threepenny Opera
was revived in 1972. In 1976, Bernard Slade
's Same Time, Next Year
was a hit, as was I Love My Wife
(1977), and Bedroom Farce
(1978). In 1982, Underneath the Arches was a long-running hit. Andrew Lloyd Webber
's Aspects of Love
(1989) smashed all previous box-office records at the theatre, running for 1,325 performances. More recent productions are listed below.
Refurbishment was carried out in 2004 to increase the seating capacity
slightly to 1,160 seats and to modernise the theatre's facilities. New bars were added, the auditorium completely rebuilt, the backstage areas refurbished and the theatre's famous tower and exterior completely gutted and refurbished with new LED lighting and a crisp modern finish.
The theatre re-opened with its present show, ABBA
's musical Mamma Mia!
on 16 April 2004. On 18 August 2007, Mamma Mia! became the longest-running show ever at the Prince of Wales, overtaking the previous record held by Aspects of Love with 1,326 performances at the venue and counting. The production marked another landmark on Thursday 23 August 2007, celebrating its 3,500th performance since its 1999 world premiere at the Prince Edward Theatre
in Old Compton Street, London.
The theatre was grade II listed by English Heritage
in April 1999.
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 Coventry Street
Coventry Street
Coventry Street is a short London street, within the City of Westminster, running from Piccadilly Circus to Leicester Square. The street is the main conduit between Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square and at the weekend up to 150,000 people walk from one to another along the street...
, near Leicester Square
Leicester Square
Leicester Square is a pedestrianised square in the West End of London, England. The Square lies within an area bound by Lisle Street, to the north; Charing Cross Road, to the east; Orange Street, to the south; and Whitcomb Street, to the west...
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...
. It was established in 1884 and rebuilt in 1937, and extensively refurbished in 2004 by Sir Cameron Mackintosh
Cameron Mackintosh
Sir Cameron Anthony Mackintosh is a British theatrical producer notable for his association with many commercially successful musicals. At the height of his success in 1990, he was described as being "the most successful, influential and powerful theatrical producer in the world" by the New York...
, its current owner. The theatre should not be confused with the former Scala Theatre
Scala Theatre
The Scala Theatre was a theatre in London, sited on Charlotte Street, off Tottenham Court Road, in the London Borough of Camden. The first theatre on the site opened in 1772, and the theatre was demolished in 1969, after being destroyed by fire...
in Charlotte Street, off Tottenham Court Road
Tottenham Court Road
Tottenham Court Road is a major road in central London, United Kingdom, running from St Giles Circus north to Euston Road, near the border of the City of Westminster and the London Borough of Camden, a distance of about three-quarters of a mile...
that was known as the Prince of Wales Royal Theatre or Prince of Wales's Theatre from 1865 until its demolition in 1903.
Phipps' theatre
The first theatre on the site opened in January 1884 when C.J. Phipps built the Prince's Theatre for actor-manager Edgar Bruce. It was a traditional three-tier theatre, seating just over 1,000 people. The theatre was renamed the "Prince of Wales Theatre" in 1886 after the future Edward VIIEdward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
. Located between Piccadilly Circus
Piccadilly Circus
Piccadilly Circus is a road junction and public space of London's West End in the City of Westminster, built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with the major shopping street of Piccadilly...
and Leicester Square
Leicester Square
Leicester Square is a pedestrianised square in the West End of London, England. The Square lies within an area bound by Lisle Street, to the north; Charing Cross Road, to the east; Orange Street, to the south; and Whitcomb Street, to the west...
, the theatre was favourably situated to attract theatregoers.
W. S. Gilbert
Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, of which the most famous include H.M.S...
's The Palace of Truth
The Palace of Truth
The Palace of Truth is a three-act blank verse "Fairy Comedy" by W. S. Gilbert first produced at the Haymarket Theatre in London on 19 November 1870, partly adapted from Madame de Genlis's fairy story, Le Palais de Vérite. The play ran for approximately 140 performances and then toured the British...
starring Herbert Beerbohm Tree
Herbert Beerbohm Tree
Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree was an English actor and theatre manager.Tree began performing in the 1870s. By 1887, he was managing the Haymarket Theatre, winning praise for adventurous programming and lavish productions, and starring in many of its productions. In 1899, he helped fund the...
, preceded by a one act comedy, In Honour Bound. This was soon followed by a free adaptation of Ibsen's A Doll's House
A Doll's House
A Doll's House is a three-act play in prose by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It premièred at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 21 December 1879, having been published earlier that month....
, called Breaking a Butterfly. In 1885, Lillie Langtry
Lillie Langtry
Lillie Langtry , usually spelled Lily Langtry when she was in the U.S., born Emilie Charlotte Le Breton, was a British actress born on the island of Jersey...
, reputedly the first "society" lady to become an actress, played in Princess George and The School for Scandal
The School for Scandal
The School for Scandal is a play written by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. It was first performed in London at Drury Lane Theatre on May 8, 1777.The prologue, written by David Garrick, commends the play, its subject, and its author to the audience...
. The first hit production at the theatre was the record-breaking 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...
, 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...
, starring Marie Tempest
Marie Tempest
Dame 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...
, which was so successful that its authors used the profits to build the Lyric Theatre
Lyric Theatre (London)
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...
, where it moved in 1888. The wordless mime play L'Enfant Prodigue premiered in 1891 which, together with A Pierrot's Life in 1897, brought respectability to mime troupes in Britain.
George Edwardes
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....
' musical play, In Town
In Town (musical)
In Town is a musical comedy written by Adrian Ross and James T. Tanner, with music by F. Osmond Carr and lyrics by Ross. It was produced by George Edwardes at the Prince of Wales Theatre, opening on 15 October 1892, and transferred to the Gaiety Theatre on 26 December 1892, running for a...
, often considered the first English musical comedy
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...
, was presented at the theatre in 1892 and was followed by Edwardes' even more successful A Gaiety Girl
A Gaiety Girl
A Gaiety Girl is an English musical comedy in two acts by a team of musical comedy neophytes: Owen Hall , Harry Greenbank and Sidney Jones . It opened at Prince of Wales Theatre in London, produced by George Edwardes, on 14 October 1893 and ran for 413 performances. The show starred C...
in 1893. In 1895, Basil Hood
Basil Hood
Basil Willett Charles Hood was a British librettist and lyricist, perhaps best known for writing the libretti of half a dozen Savoy Operas and for his English adaptations of operettas, including The Merry Widow. He embarked on a career in the British army, writing theatrical pieces in his spare...
's Gentleman Joe
Gentleman Joe
Gentleman Joe, The Hansom Cabbie is a farcical musical comedy with music by Walter Slaughter and a libretto by Basil Hood.It opened at that Prince of Wales Theatre on 2 March 1895 and ran for a very successful 391 performances. The show was written as a vehicle for the comedian Arthur Roberts...
, the Hansom Cabby began a long run starring the low comedian, Arthur Roberts, in the title role. The theatre then began to present straight plays with Maeterlinck's Pelléas et Mélisande
Pelléas et Mélisande (play)
Pelléas and Mélisande is a Symbolist play by Maurice Maeterlinck about the forbidden, doomed love of the title characters. It was first performed in 1893....
(1898, with incidental music by Fauré
Pelléas et Mélisande (Fauré)
Pelléas et Mélisande, Op. 80 is a suite derived from incidental music by Gabriel Fauré for Maurice Maeterlinck's play of the same name. He was the first of four leading composers to write music inspired by Maeterlinck's drama...
) and Wills's adaptation of Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities
A Tale of Two Cities
A Tale of Two Cities is a novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. With well over 200 million copies sold, it ranks among the most famous works in the history of fictional literature....
as The Only Way (1899, also starring Harvey). Charles Hawtrey starred in the successful A Message from Mars (1901). In 1900-01, Marie Tempest played the title roles in the play English Nell (based on Simon Dale's novel about Nell Gwynn), Peg Woffington, a dramatization of Charles Reade
Charles Reade
Charles Reade was an English novelist and dramatist, best known for The Cloister and the Hearth.-Life:Charles Reade was born at Ipsden, Oxfordshire to John Reade and Anne Marie Scott-Waring; William Winwood Reade the influential historian , was his nephew. He studied at Magdalen College, Oxford,...
's novel, as well as Becky Sharp in a dramatization of Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray was an English novelist of the 19th century. He was famous for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair, a panoramic portrait of English society.-Biography:...
's Vanity Fair.
Frank Curzon
Frank Curzon was an English actor who became an important theatre manager, leasing the Royal Strand Theatre, Avenue Theatre, Criterion Theatre, Comedy Theatre, Prince of Wales Theatre and Wyndham's Theatre, among others....
and Isabel Jay
Isabel Jay
Isabel Jay was an English opera singer and actress, best known for her performances in soprano roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and in musical comedies...
hits Miss Hook of Holland
Miss Hook of Holland
Miss Hook of Holland is an English musical comedy in two acts, with music and lyrics by Paul Rubens with a book by Austen Hurgon and Rubens. The show was produced by Frank Curzon and opened at the Prince of Wales Theatre on 31 January 1907, running for a very successful 462 performances...
(1907, its matinee version, Little Miss Hook of Holland was performed by children for children), King of Cadonia
King of Cadonia
King of Cadonia is an English musical in two acts with a book by Frederick Lonsdale, lyrics by Adrian Ross and Arthur Wimperis and music by Sidney Jones and Frederick Rosse. It opened at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London on 3 September 1908, produced by Frank Curzon, and ran for 333...
(1908), and The Balkan Princess
The Balkan Princess
The Balkan Princess is a British musical in three acts by Frederick Lonsdale and Frank Curzon, with lyrics by Paul Rubens and Arthur Wimperis, and music by Paul Rubens. It opened at the Prince of Wales Theatre on 19 February 1910. The cast included Isabel Jay and Bertram Wallis...
(1910), and later the World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
hits, Broadway Jones (1914), Carminetta (1917), and Yes, Uncle!
Yes, Uncle!
Yes, Uncle! is a musical comedy by Austen Hurgen and George Arthurs, with music by Nat D. Ayer and lyrics by Clifford Grey...
(1917).
The theatre then hosted plays such as Avery Hopwood
Avery Hopwood
James Avery Hopwood , was the most successful playwright of the Jazz Age, having four plays running simultaneously on Broadway in 1920.-Biography:...
's farce Fair and Warmer (1918) and Ivor Novello
Ivor Novello
David Ivor Davies , better known as Ivor Novello, was a Welsh composer, singer and actor who became one of the most popular British entertainers of the first half of the 20th century. Born into a musical family, his first successes were as a songwriter...
's The Rat (1924, Novello's first play, in which he also starred), and revue
Revue
A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century American popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from 1916 to 1932...
s including A to Z (1921), Co-Optimists (1923), and Charlot's Revue (1924). They starred Gertrude Lawrence
Gertrude Lawrence
Gertrude Lawrence was an English actress, singer and musical comedy performer known for her stage appearances in the West End theatre district of London and on Broadway.-Early life:...
, Jack Buchanan
Jack Buchanan
Walter John "Jack" Buchanan was a British theatre and film actor, singer, producer and director. He was known for three decades as the embodiment of the debonair man-about-town in the tradition of George Grossmith Jr., and was described by The Times as "the last of the knuts." He is best known in...
, Beatrice Lillie
Beatrice Lillie
Beatrice Gladys "Bea" Lillie was an actress and comedic performer. Following her 1920 marriage to Sir Robert Peel in England, she was known in private life as Lady Peel.-Early career:...
, Stanley Holloway
Stanley Holloway
Stanley Augustus Holloway, OBE was an English stage and film actor, comedian, singer, poet and monologist. He was famous for his comic and character roles on stage and screen, especially that of Alfred P. Doolittle in My Fair Lady...
, and Jessie Matthews
Jessie Matthews
Jessie Matthews, OBE was an English actress, dancer and singer of the 1930s, whose career continued into the post-war period.-Early life:...
. Ms Matthews also starred, along with Richard Hearne, in "Wild Rose", featuring the memorable Jerome Kern song "Look for the Silver Lining
Look for the Silver Lining
"Look for the Silver Lining" is a popular song with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by B.G. DeSylva. It was written in 1919 for the unsuccessful musical Zip, Goes a Million. In 1920 it was published and reused in the musical Sally whence it was popularized by Marilyn Miller...
". These were followed by The Blue Train (1927), Alibi (1928, directed by Gerald du Maurier
Gerald du Maurier
Sir Gerald Hubert Edward Busson du Maurier was an English actor and manager. He was the son of the writer George du Maurier and brother of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. In 1902, he married the actress Muriel Beaumont with whom he had three daughters: Angela du Maurier , Daphne du Maurier and Jeanne...
with Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton was an English-American stage and film actor, screenwriter, producer and director.-Early life and career:...
as Hercule Poirot
Hercule Poirot
Hercule Poirot is a fictional Belgian detective created by Agatha Christie. Along with Miss Marple, Poirot is one of Christie's most famous and long-lived characters, appearing in 33 novels and 51 short stories published between 1920 and 1975 and set in the same era.Poirot has been portrayed on...
), By Candlelight (1928), and Journey's End (1929). In 1930, Edith Evans
Edith Evans
Dame Edith Mary Evans, DBE was a British actress. She was known for her work on the British stage. She also appeared in a number of films, for which she received three Academy Award nominations, plus a BAFTA and a Golden Globe award.Evans was particularly effective at portraying haughty...
became the manager at the theatre, presenting and starring in Delilah, which was not a success. Beginning in 1932, the theatre presented a series of risqué "Folies"-style revues, including Voila! Les Dames (1935) and its last production, Encore les Dames (1937). These shows were so successful that they funded the rapid rebuilding of the theatre in 1937.
Cromie's theatre
Gracie Fields
Dame Gracie Fields, DBE , was an English-born, later Italian-based actress, singer and comedienne and star of both cinema and music hall.-Early life:...
sang to the workmen as she laid the foundation stone of the new 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...
-decorated theatre, designed by Robert Cromie, and the theatre opened on 27 October that year. The new theatre's seating capacity was about 1,100, and it had a larger stage and improved facilities for both the artists and the public, including a large, stylish stalls bar (the bar itself was 14 metres long), complete with dance floor. The first productions at the new theatre were Les Folies de Paris et Londres, starring George Robey
George Robey
Sir George Edward Wade , better known by his stage name, George Robey, was an English music hall comedian and star. He was marketed as the "Prime Minister of Mirth".-Early life:...
, followed by Folies De Can-Can in 1938, a continuation of the old theatre's series of successful risqué revues, which ran continuously until 2am every night. The musical comedy, Present Arms, was offered in 1940, and in 1941 the theatre screened the UK premiere of Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
's The Great Dictator
The Great Dictator
The Great Dictator is a comedy film by Charlie Chaplin released in October 1940. Like most Chaplin films, he wrote, produced, and directed, in addition to starring as the lead. Having been the only Hollywood film maker to continue to make silent films well into the period of sound films, this was...
. The film had been banned in many parts of Europe, and the theatre's owner, Alfred Esdaile, was fined for showing it .
In 1943, Strike a New Note was notable for Sid Field
Sid Field
-Early Years:Sid Field was an English comedy entertainer. He was born Sidney Arthur Field in Ladywood, Birmingham, son of Albert and Bertha . Field spent most of his childhood at 152 Osborn Road, Sparkbrook, Birmingham.Field had entertainment in his blood from an early age...
's London debut, and he returned to the theatre in Strike it Again (1944), and yet again in Piccadilly Hayride (1946, a revue that ran for 778 performances). In 1949, Harvey
Harvey (play)
Harvey is a 1944 play by American playwright Mary Chase. Produced by Brock Pemberton and directed by Antoinette Perry, the play premiered on 1 November 1944 at the 48th Street Theatre on Broadway where it was staged for 1,775 performances before closing on January 15, 1949. The original production...
, Mary Coyle Chase
Mary Coyle Chase
Mary Coyle Chase was an American journalist, playwright and screenwriter, known primarily for writing the Broadway play Harvey, later adapted for film starring James Stewart...
's comedy about an imaginary rabbit, was a success, as was Diamond Lil in 1948 starring Mae West
Mae West
Mae West was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades....
. In the 1950s, the theatre hosted variety and revues, starring such famous performers as Norman Wisdom
Norman Wisdom
Sir Norman Joseph Wisdom, OBE was an English actor, comedian and singer-songwriter best known for a series of comedy films produced between 1953 and 1966 featuring his hapless onscreen character Norman Pitkin...
, Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers
Richard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr...
, Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
, Gracie Fields
Gracie Fields
Dame Gracie Fields, DBE , was an English-born, later Italian-based actress, singer and comedienne and star of both cinema and music hall.-Early life:...
, Benny Hill
Benny Hill
Benny Hill was an English comedian and actor, notable for his long-running television programme The Benny Hill Show.-Early life:...
, Hughie Green
Hughie Green
Hughie Green was the host of numerous British television shows.-Early life:Hugh H. Green was born in London; his Scottish father was a former British Army Major who made his fortune supplying tinned fish to the Allied forces in World War I, while his mother Violet was the Surrey-born daughter of...
, Frankie Howerd
Frankie Howerd
Francis Alick "Frankie" Howerd OBE was an English comedian and comic actor whose career, described by fellow comedian Barry Cryer as "a series of comebacks", spanned six decades.-Early career:...
, and Morecambe and Wise
Morecambe and Wise
Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise, usually referred to as Morecambe and Wise, or Eric and Ernie, were a British comic double act, working in variety, radio, film and most successfully in television. Their partnership lasted from 1941 until Morecambe's death in 1984...
. In 1959, Paul Osborn
Paul Osborn
Paul Osborn was an American playwright and screenwriter best known for writing the screen adaptation of East of Eden as well as South Pacific, The Yearling, The World of Suzie Wong and Sayonara....
's The World of Susie Wong became the theatre's longest-running play to date with 832 performances.
Neil Simon
Neil Simon
Neil Simon is an American playwright and screenwriter. He has written numerous Broadway plays, including Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, and The Odd Couple. He won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Lost In Yonkers. He has written the screenplays for several of his plays that...
's play, Come Blow Your Horn
Come Blow Your Horn
Come Blow Your Horn was Neil Simon's first play, which premiered in the United States in 1961 and had a London production in 1962 at the Prince of Wales Theatre.-Act Summaries:Time: The Present...
, starring Michael Crawford
Michael Crawford
Michael Crawford OBE is an English actor and singer. He has garnered great critical acclaim and won numerous awards during his career, which covers radio, television, film, and stagework on both London's West End and on Broadway in New York City...
, played in 1962, followed by a season of Martha Graham
Martha Graham
Martha Graham was an American modern dancer and choreographer whose influence on dance has been compared with the influence Picasso had on modern visual arts, Stravinsky had on music, or Frank Lloyd Wright had on architecture.She danced and choreographed for over seventy years...
's dance company, including the world première of her ballet Circe. Next was a string of Broadway musicals, including Funny Girl in 1966 with Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
, Sweet Charity
Sweet Charity
Sweet Charity is a musical with music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Dorothy Fields and book by Neil Simon. It was directed and choreographed for Broadway by Bob Fosse starring his wife and muse Gwen Verdon. It is based on Federico Fellini's screenplay for Nights of Cabiria...
(1967), and Promises, Promises
Promises, Promises
Promises, Promises is a musical based on the 1960 film The Apartment. The music is by Burt Bacharach, lyrics by Hal David, and book by Neil Simon. Musical numbers for the original Broadway production were choreographed by Michael Bennett; Robert Moore directed and David Merrick produced...
(1969). The Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera is a musical by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, in collaboration with translator Elisabeth Hauptmann and set designer Caspar Neher. It was adapted from an 18th-century English ballad opera, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, and offers a Marxist critique...
was revived in 1972. In 1976, Bernard Slade
Bernard Slade
Bernard Slade is a Canadian playwright and screenwriter.Born in St. Catharines, Ontario, Slade began his career as an actor with the Garden Center Theatre in Vineland, Ontario. In the mid-1960s, he relocated to Hollywood and began to work as a writer for television sitcoms, including Bewitched...
's Same Time, Next Year
Same Time, Next Year
Same Time, Next Year is 1975 comedy play by Bernard Slade. The plot focuses on two people, married to others, who meet for a romantic tryst once a year for two dozen years.-Plot:...
was a hit, as was I Love My Wife
I Love My Wife
I Love My Wife is a musical with a book and lyrics by Michael Stewart and music by Cy Coleman, based on a play by Luis Rego.A satire of the sexual revolution of the 1970s, the musical takes place on Christmas Eve in suburban Trenton, New Jersey, where two married couples who have been close friends...
(1977), and Bedroom Farce
Bedroom Farce (play)
Bedroom Farce is a 1975 comedic play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. It had a London production at the Prince of Wales Theatre in 1978.-Overview:...
(1978). In 1982, Underneath the Arches was a long-running hit. 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 Aspects of Love
Aspects of Love
Aspects of Love is a musical/chamber opera with a book and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Don Black and Charles Hart. It is famous for the song "Love Changes Everything."...
(1989) smashed all previous box-office records at the theatre, running for 1,325 performances. More recent productions are listed below.
Refurbishment was carried out in 2004 to increase the 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...
slightly to 1,160 seats and to modernise the theatre's facilities. New bars were added, the auditorium completely rebuilt, the backstage areas refurbished and the theatre's famous tower and exterior completely gutted and refurbished with new LED lighting and a crisp modern finish.
The theatre re-opened with its present show, ABBA
ABBA
ABBA was a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1970 which consisted of Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Agnetha Fältskog...
's musical Mamma Mia!
Mamma Mia!
Mamma Mia! is a stage musical written by British playwright Catherine Johnson, based on the songs of ABBA, composed by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, former members of the band. Although the title of the musical is taken from the group's 1975 chart-topper "Mamma Mia", the plot is fictional, not...
on 16 April 2004. On 18 August 2007, Mamma Mia! became the longest-running show ever at the Prince of Wales, overtaking the previous record held by Aspects of Love with 1,326 performances at the venue and counting. The production marked another landmark on Thursday 23 August 2007, celebrating its 3,500th performance since its 1999 world premiere at the Prince Edward Theatre
Prince Edward Theatre
The Prince Edward Theatre is a West End theatre situated on Old Compton Street, just north of Leicester Square, in the City of Westminster.The theatre was designed in 1930 by Edward A. Stone, with an interior designed by Marc-Henri Levy and Gaston Laverdet...
in Old Compton Street, London.
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 April 1999.
Recent and present productions
- It's MagicPaul DanielsPaul Daniels, born Newton Edward Daniels on 6 April 1938, is a British magician and television performer. He achieved international fame through his television series The Paul Daniels Magic Show, which ran on the BBC from 1979 to 1994.-Early life:...
(10 December 1980 - 6 February 1982) - South PacificSouth Pacific (musical)South Pacific is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The story draws from James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book Tales of the South Pacific, weaving together characters and elements from several of its...
(20 January 1988 - 14 January 1989) - Aspects of LoveAspects of LoveAspects of Love is a musical/chamber opera with a book and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Don Black and Charles Hart. It is famous for the song "Love Changes Everything."...
(17 April 1989 - 20 June 1992) - Annie Get Your Gun (musical)Annie Get Your Gun (musical)Annie Get Your Gun is a musical with lyrics and music written by Irving Berlin and a book by Herbert Fields and his sister Dorothy Fields. The story is a fictionalized version of the life of Annie Oakley , who was a sharpshooter from Ohio, and her husband, Frank Butler.The 1946 Broadway production...
(November - December 1992) - CopacabanaCopacabana (musical)Copacabana is a TV-musical, stage musical, and nightclub show written by Barry Manilow, based on the song of the same name. The show toured the United States and, as of 2006, became available to license to performing companies and schools for the first time....
(23 June 1994 - 9 September 1996) - Smokey Joe's CafeSmokey Joe's CafeSmokey Joe's Cafe is a musical revue showcasing 39 pop standards, including rock and roll, rhythm and blues songs written by songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller...
(23 October 1996 - 3 October 1998) - West Side Story (January 1999 - September 1999)
- RentRent (musical)Rent is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème...
(November 1999 - January 2000) - FosseFosseFosse is a three-act musical revue showcasing the choreography of Bob Fosse. After 21 previews, the original Broadway production, conceived and directed by Richard Maltby, Jr...
(8 February 2000 - 6 January 2001) - The Witches of EastwickThe Witches of Eastwick (musical)The Witches of Eastwick is a 2000 musical based on the novel of the same name by John Updike. It was adapted by John Dempsey and Dana P. Rowe , directed by Eric Schaeffer, and produced by Cameron Mackintosh....
(23 March 2001 - 27 October 2001) - The Full MontyThe Full Monty (musical)The Full Monty is a musical with a book by Terrence McNally and score by David Yazbek.In this Americanized musical stage version adapted from the 1997 British film of the same name, six unemployed Buffalo steelworkers, low on both cash and prospects, decide to present a strip act at a local club...
(March 2002 - October 2002) - RentRent (musical)Rent is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème...
(October 2002 - March 2003) - Cliff - The MusicalCliff - The MusicalCliff - The Musical was a musical based on the life of Sir Cliff Richard which was staged at The Prince of Wales Theatre, London from 17 March 2003 to June 2003. The show was written by Mike Read and Trevor Payne, with Payne directing...
(March 2003 - June 2003) - Mamma Mia!Mamma Mia!Mamma Mia! is a stage musical written by British playwright Catherine Johnson, based on the songs of ABBA, composed by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, former members of the band. Although the title of the musical is taken from the group's 1975 chart-topper "Mamma Mia", the plot is fictional, not...
(9 June 2004 - 1 September 2012)
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....
- Piccadilly CircusPiccadilly Circus tube stationPiccadilly Circus tube station is the London Underground station located directly beneath Piccadilly Circus itself, with entrances at every corner...
External links
- Prince of Wales Theatre official website
- Prince of Wales Theatre Seating Plan