Having looked at the Apollo Victoria and Victoria Palace Theatres in my last article, now we’re going to move across town to the Queen’s Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue. The theatre opened in October 1907 and was designed by W. G. R. Sprague. It neighbours the Gielgud Theatre and is found at the very heart of the West-end theatre neighbourhood. It has been home to some of the most renowned productions of the West-end during its long life and it’s easy to see why, with a perfect location with regards to other theatres and exceptionally fancy interiors. A german bomb landed on the theatre in 1940 destroying a large part of it, so a £250,000 restoration of the theatre had to be carried out. The theatre did not open again, until this was complete, in 1959, almost 20 years later. It is currently home to the West-end’s longest running and my personal favourite musical ‘Les Miserables’. The show has been there since 2004, so for 11 years, but that makes up just a small part of its 30 year run in the west-end. In recent years before ‘Les Miserables’ moved there, the show has also seen an adaptation of ‘The Hobbit’ by J.R.R. Tolkien, a production of ‘The Rocky Horror Show’ and the Tony Award-Winning show ‘Contact’, and has seen performers including Ramin Karimloo, Stephen Fry, Nick Jonas and Maggie Smith.
Nearby is the Cambridge Theatre. This has an irregular triangular shape to it and a steel and concrete design, which gives it a very clean, simple and minimalist look. Though it was opened in 1930, much of it was refurbished in 1950, and again in 1987, so very little of the original theatre remains. In general, productions at the theatre tend to have very short runs, as opposed to the long runs some famous shows have achieved across the West-end. ‘Chicago’, the well-known Kander and Ebb musical lasted for a short run in the theatre, but has since been revived again in the West-end, having a very successful run, moving back to the original theatre for the last 5 years of the revival’s 10 year run. The theatre has also seen a production of ‘Grease’ that lasted for 3 years, ‘Jerry Springer – The Opera’, which lasted a year and a half, and it is currently home to ‘Matilda the Musical’, which has been a ground-breaking success, winning the Olivier Award for Best New Musical and having been in the theatre for 3 and a half years now. If the success of the show continues, then the Cambridge Theatre could be packed for years to come.
Looking at these two theatres, it is clear to see the development they go through over time and it is interesting to note how wide the variety of shows that enter them is. When approaching a theatre in London, it is easy to forget that it has previously been the home to so many other shows, since the big billboards and posters have such a big impact on the image of the theatre. There are some theatres in London that I have visited a fair few times, but each time I do, there is a completely different feeling created by the use of these exterior details. The vast history of these theatres really is a wonder to me, since there is something so amazing about the number of people that have been in that building over its life and the massive number of transformations that the building has been through to suit its various purposes.
Images from: https://www.londontheatredirect.com/img/blog/QUEENSTHEATRE.jpg, http://www.theatres.tv/wp-content/uploads/Cambridge-theatre-day-300x300.jpg
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