Royal Avenue Theatre Avenue Theatre | |
 My Name Is Rachel Corrie at the Playhouse Theatre in 2006 | |
 Interactive map of Playhouse Theatre | |
| Address | Craven Street London,WC2 United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 51°30′25″N0°7′25″W / 51.50694°N 0.12361°W /51.50694; -0.12361 |
| Public transit |  Charing Cross;Embankment Charing Cross |
| Owner | ATG Entertainment |
| Operator | ATG Entertainment |
| Designation | Grade II listed[1] |
| Type | West End theatre |
| Capacity | 550 on 3 levels (as the Kit Kat Club) |
| Production | Cabaret |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 11 March 1882; 143 years ago (1882-03-11) |
| Rebuilt | 1907 (Blow and Billerey) |
| Architect | F. H. Fowler & Hill |
| Website | |
| Playhouse Theatre at Ambassador Theatre Group | |
ThePlayhouse Theatre is aWest End theatre in theCity of Westminster, inNorthumberland Avenue, nearTrafalgar Square, central London. The theatre was built by F. H. Fowler and Hill with aseating capacity of 1,200. It was rebuilt in 1907 and retains its original substage machinery. As of November 2021, the theatre has been refurbished and advertised as theKit Kat Club while it is hosting a revival of the musicalCabaret.
Built bySefton Henry Parry as theRoyal Avenue Theatre, it opened on 11 March 1882 with 1,200 seats. The first production at the theatre wasJacques Offenbach'sMadame Favart. In its early seasons, the theatre hostedcomic operas,burlesques and farces for several years. For much of this time, the low comedianArthur Roberts, a popular star of themusic halls, starred at the theatre. By the 1890s, the theatre was presenting drama, and in 1894Annie Horniman, the tea heiress, anonymously sponsored the actressFlorence Farr in a season of plays at the theatre. Farr's first production was unsuccessful, and so she prevailed upon her friend,George Bernard Shaw, to hurry and make hisWest End début at the theatre withArms and the Man in 1894. It was successful enough to allow him to discontinue music criticism to focus full-time on play writing. The actressGladys Cooper managed the theatre for some years.[citation needed]
The theatre was rebuilt in 1905 to the designs of Blow and Billerey. During the work, part of the roof of the adjacentCharing Cross railway station collapsed. The roof and girders fell across the train lines but part of the station's western wall also fell and crashed through the roof and wall of the theatre. This resulted in the deaths of three people in the station, and three workmen on the theatre site and injuries to many more. The theatre was repaired and re-opened asThe Playhouse on 28 January 1907 with a one-act play calledThe Drums of Oudh and a play calledToddles, byTristan Bernard and Andre Godferneaux. Shaw wrote a sketch entitledThe Interlude at the Playhouse for the occasion.
The new theatre had a smallerseating capacity of 679.W. Somerset Maugham'sHome and Beauty premièred at the Playhouse on 30 August 1919, running for 235 performances, andHenry Daniell appeared here in February 1926 as the Prince of Karaslavia inMr. Abdulla.Nigel Bruce appeared in February 1927 as Robert Crosbie in Somerset Maugham'sThe Letter, and again in May 1930 as Robert Brennan inDishonoured Lady.Alec Guinness made his stage début here in Ward Dorane's playLibel! on 2 April 1934. Daniell returned in November that year as Paul Miller inHurricane.
In 1951 it was taken over by theBBC as a recording studio for live performances.The Goon Show and the radio versions ofHancock's Half Hour andSteptoe and Son were recorded here, although at least the first two shows were also recorded at other venues during their runs. The stage also hosted live performances byKiss,Queen,Led Zeppelin,The Who,The Beatles andThe Rolling Stones. On 3 April 1967, a livePink Floyd concert was broadcast from the theatre.[2]
When the BBC left around 1976, the theatre went dark and was in danger of demolition.
In 1986, rock bandQueen used the Playhouse Theatre as the set for their "A Kind of Magic" music video.
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The theatre was restored to its 1907 design by impresario Robin Gonshaw with the help ofIain Mackintosh of theatre consultants Theatre Projects, opening again in October 1987 with the musicalGirlfriends. A commercial building, Aria House, was erected above the theatre.[3]
In 1988, novelist and politicianJeffrey Archer bought the Playhouse for just over £1 million. The following year, the theatre was offered commercial sponsorship by a financial services' company, and for a while it was known as the MI Group Playhouse. In 1991, the Playhouse became home to thePeter Hall Company, and a number of critically and commercially successful plays were performed there, includingTennessee Williams'The Rose Tattoo (1991), starringJulie Walters andMoliere'sTartuffe (1991), starringPaul Eddington andFelicity Kendal. Around this time the basement bar area of the theatre was converted into a private restaurant, Shaws, but the enterprise was unsuccessful and the space was later converted back into a bar/cafe.
In 1992, Archer sold the Playhouse to the writer and impresarioRay Cooney for just over £2 million. That year Cooney staged the West End premiere of his latest farceIt Runs in the Family at the Playhouse. This was followed byJane Eyre (1993), adapted byFay Weldon and starringTim Pigott-Smith;Frederick Lonsdale'sOn Approval, (1994), starringSimon Ward,Martin Jarvis andAnna Carteret; andRay Cooney'sFunny Money in 1995.
In 1996, Cooney sold the Playhouse to American investment banker Patrick Sulaiman Cole, whose first production was a critically acclaimed revival ofHenrik Ibsen'sA Doll's House in 1996, directed by Anthony Page and starringJanet McTeer. Later that year, the theatre was closed for complete refurbishment under the direction ofEnglish Heritage, with the auditorium luxuriously decorated, with grandiose murals,caryatids, golden pillars, carvedbalustrades, and shining gold decoration.
The theatre reopened in 1997 with Sulaiman Cole's production and the West End première ofAnton Chekhov'sThe Wood Demon. This was followed by Sulaiman Cole's production of a first ever West EndSnoo Wilson premiere, "HRH", directed bySimon Callow, about theBritish royal family'sDuke andDuchess of Windsor, which opened the day after the death ofDiana, Princess of Wales. The play was harshly reviewed[by whom?] as anti-Royal. The theatre returned to life as a commercialreceiving house with several seasons ofAlmeida Theatre andCheek by Jowl productions, including the premiere of David Hare'sThe Judas Kiss.
Successes at the Playhouse since the late 1990s have includedNaked (1998);J. B. Priestley'sAn Inspector Calls (2001) andJourney's End, directed by David Grindley.
American theatrical producers Ted and Norman Tulchin's Maidstone Productions purchased the theatre at the end of 2002,[4] with the venue managed byATG Entertainment. The Playhouse hostedRichard Eyre's 2003Olivier Award-winning production ofVincent in Brixton, starringClare Higgins; Eyre's 2005 production ofHedda Gabler, starringEve Best; andMegan Dodds in a transfer ofMy Name Is Rachel Corrie byAlan Rickman andKatharine Viner in 2006.
More recent successes include the musicalDancing in the Streets,The Adventures of Tintin based on the famous comic-book detective,The Harder They Come, andLa Cage Aux Folles.
In December 2013, ATG had acquired 100 percent ownership of the Playhouse.[5]
From December 2019, it was announced thatThe Jamie Lloyd Company would take up residence with a series of revivals, beginning withCyrano de Bergerac starringJames McAvoy,The Seagull starringEmilia Clarke andA Doll's House starringJessica Chastain.The Seagull andA Doll's House were cancelled due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.
Following renovations to the theatre during the pandemic, the theatre re-opened as the Kit Kat Club to house a new revival ofCabaret starringEddie Redmayne andJessie Buckley which began previews on 15 November 2021. The renovations included converting the theatre into anin-the-round layout and reducing the capacity to 550.
Media related toPlayhouse Theatre, London at Wikimedia Commons
