 Piccadilly Theatre in November 2023 | |
 Interactive map of Piccadilly Theatre | |
| Address | Denman Street London,W1 United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 51°30′38″N0°08′03″W / 51.510611°N 0.134194°W /51.510611; -0.134194 |
| Public transit |  Piccadilly Circus |
| Owner | ATG Entertainment |
| Type | West End theatre |
| Capacity | 1,232 on 3 levels |
| Production | Moulin Rouge! |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 27 April 1928; 97 years ago (1928-04-27) |
| Architect | Bertie Crewe and Edward A. Stone |
| Website | |
| www | |
ThePiccadilly Theatre is aWest End theatre located at the junction of Denman Street and Sherwood Street, nearPiccadilly Circus, in theCity of Westminster, London. It opened in 1928.
In its early years the theatre presented a wide range of productions, and was briefly a cinema. During theSecond World War it presented productions ranging from the premiere ofNoël Coward'sBlithe Spirit toJohn Gielgud's lavish production ofMacbeth. Later productions in the 1940s and 1950s includedCole Porter'sPanama Hattie (1943), Coward's revueSigh No More (1945) andPeter Ustinov'sRomanoff and Juliet (1956).
In 1964 the Piccadilly presented the British premiere ofWho's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, but by this time musicals had begun to outnumber non-musical plays at this theatre, with revivals ofOliver! andMan of La Mancha, and later productions includingGypsy (1973),A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1986),A Little Night Music (1989),The Rocky Horror Show (1990),Guys and Dolls (2005),Grease (2007),Jersey Boys (2014) andMoulin Rouge! (2022). The house has had more success with revivals than with premieres of musicals, and has been the scene of several new shows that closed shortly after opening.
The theatre has been home to many productions of the classics, with plays by Shakespeare,Marlowe,Molière,Shaw and more modern authors includingSamuel Beckett,Arthur Miller,Alan Bennett,Tom Stoppard andWilly Russell. Among the actors appearing at the Piccadilly have beenHenry Fonda,Frankie Howerd,Marcel Marceau,Ian McKellen,Simon Russell Beale,Paul Scofield andTimothy West; actresses have includedGladys Cooper,Edith Evans,Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies,Joyce Grenfell,Angela Lansbury,Evelyn Laye,Prunella Scales andJulie Walters.
The impresarioEdward Laurillard acquired a site behindPiccadilly Circus occupied by derelict stables, and built a theatre there. It was designed byBertie Crewe and Edward A. Stone. A simple façade concealed an elaborateArt Deco interior designed by Marc-Henri Levy and Gaston Laverdet, with a 1,232-seat auditorium decorated in shades of pink;[1] it was claimed that if all the bricks used in the building were laid in a straight line, they would stretch from London to Paris.[2]
The theatre opened on 27 April 1928. The opening production,Blue Eyes, a musical with words byGuy Bolton and Graham John and music byJerome Kern, starredEvelyn Laye; it ran at the Piccadilly and then atDaly's Theatre for a total of 276 performances.[1]
The Piccadilly was briefly taken over byWarner Brothers and operated as acinema using theVitaphone system; among the films shown wasThe Singing Fool withAl Jolson. The theatre reopened in November 1929, with a production ofThe Student Prince, which was followed in January 1931 byFolly to be Wise, arevue byDion Titheradge andVivian Ellis, starringCicely Courtneidge withNelson Keys andMary Eaton; it ran for 257 performances.[1][3]
The next production (September 1933) wasJames Bridie'sA Sleeping Clergyman, considered by some to be Bridie's best play, according to the theatre historiansMander and Mitchenson;Ernest Thesiger andRobert Donat both scored great successes in the piece.[1] It had 230 performances and was followed byCounsellor at Law byElmer Rice (April 1934, 126 performances) andQueer Cargo byNoel Langley (August 1934, 109 performances). After that there was, in Mander and Mitchenson's words "a bad patch in this theatre's history", during which theWindmill Theatre, known for its nudetableaux vivants, extended its activities to the Piccadilly.[1]
In December 1937 the Piccadilly reopened after redecoration and the addition of new bars and stalls entrances, withChoose your Time, a novel form of entertainment devised byFirth Shephard. It consisted of a miscellaneous programme ofnewsreels, a live "swingphonic" orchestra, individual turns,Donald Duck films, and, as whatThe Stage called itspièce de résistance, a one-act stage comedy calledTalk of the Devil byAnthony Pelissier, featuringYvonne Arnaud,John Mills andNaunton Wayne.[4] After this the theatre became a receiving house for transfers of long runs at reduced prices.[1]
From the outbreak of theSecond World War in September 1939 the Piccadilly was closed untilNoël Coward'sBlithe Spirit premiered there in July 1941, starringFay Compton,Kay Hammond,Cecil Parker andMargaret Rutherford.[5] The play ran at the Piccadilly until March 1942, before transferring to the smallerSt James's and later theDuchess Theatres to complete its run of 1,997 performances.[5] Other wartime productions at the Piccadilly includedMacbeth in 1942 starringJohn Gielgud andGwen Ffrangcon-Davies in a lavish production designed byMichael Ayrton andJohn Minton, with music byWilliam Walton.[6]
After that came two musicals, both in 1943; the first wasOscar Hammerstein II andSigmund Romberg'sSunny River, presented byEmile Littler, starring Laye,Dennis Noble,Edith Day andBertram Wallis.[7] The criticJames Agate wrote that the plot did not hold water but he nonetheless rated it the best musical show since Coward's 1929Bitter Sweet, for numerous reasons, chief of which were that "the plot is not more nonsensical than any other ... there is a complete absence of jazz or swing ... the songs are sung, not crooned, and the singers have the voices to sing them".[8] Despite this, the show did not have a long run, closing after 86 performances.[9]
The second musical wasCole Porter'sPanama Hattie, starringBebe Daniels,Max Wall andClaude Hulbert.[10] It ran for 308 performances.[11] Towards the end of the war the Piccadilly was damaged by German bombing, and remained closed for some months. It reopened withAgatha Christie's thrillerAppointment with Death in March 1945.Mary Clare led the cast, which also includedJoan Hickson andCarla Lehmann.[12]
Later productions included Coward's revueSigh No More (1945), starringCyril Ritchard,Madge Elliott,Joyce Grenfell andGraham Payn. Despite several songs that later became well known, such as "I Wonder What Happened to Him", "That Is the End of the News" and "Matelot", it fell far short of the success ofBlithe Spirit, running for 213 performances.[13]A Man About the House (1946), a crime story, starredFlora Robson andBasil Sydney.[14] Shakespeare'sAntony and Cleopatra withEdith Evans andGodfrey Tearle (1946) divided critical opinion. Tearle received uniformly excellent notices, but Evans (aetat 59) convinced some critics more than others.[15]
John van Druten'sThe Voice of the Turtle (1947) was described byThe Observer as "a little New York piece of the Boy-Meets-Two-Girls order", and closed after 62 performances.[16] Mander and Mitchenson describe the next six years as a period of short runs and transfers.[1]
A Question of Fact byWynyard Browne (December 1953) had a cast headed byPamela Brown,Paul Scofield andGladys Cooper, and ran for 332 performances.[17] A spell of unsuccessful presentations followed until December 1955, whenA Girl Called Jo – a musical adaptation ofLittle Women – opened. It starredJoan Heal andDenis Quilley, and ran until the following May.[1][18] It was followed byPeter Ustinov's romantic and satirical comedyRomanoff and Juliet, which ran from May 1956 for 379 performances.[19]
Four fairly successful runs followed in the next three years.Rodney Ackland's courtroom dramaA Dead Secret starred Scofield as a (probable) poisoner, and ran from July 1957 for 212 performances.[20]Benn Levy's comedyThe Rape of the Belt was a modern treatment of a classical legend, starring Hammond asHippolyta,John Clements as Heracles,Constance Cummings as Antiope,Richard Attenborough as Theseus andNicholas Hannen as Zeus; it ran for 298 performances from December 1957.[21] André Roussin's comedyHook, Line and Sinker, adapted by and starringRobert Morley, co-starredJoan Plowright andBernard Cribbins;[22] it opened in November 1958 and ran until 28 March 1959.[23]The Marriage-go-Round, a comedy byLeslie Stevens starring Hammond, Clements andAngela Browne opened in November 1959 and ran for 210 performances.[24]
For the Piccadilly the decade started with two conspicuous failures.The Golden Touch, a musical depicting a colony ofbeatniks on a Greek island, opened and closed in May 1960, andBachelor Flat, described byThe Stage as "yet another American play based on the well-worn theme of the teenage girl, half-baby, half-sophisticate"[25] ran for less than a week in June 1960.[9] A revival of Shaw'sCandida from the Oxford Playhouse starredMichael Denison andDulcie Gray and ran for 160 performances at the Piccadilly and then atWyndham's Theatre.[26]
After a season of foreign dance companies, the Dublin Festival Company appeared in a revival ofThe Playboy of the Western World starringDonal Donnelly as Christy andSiobhan McKenna as Pegeen; it ran for 110 performances.[27] That was followed in November 1960 byLilian Hellman's drama,Toys in the Attic, withWendy Hiller,Diana Wynyard,Coral Browne andIan Bannen.[28] In December it emerged that the impresariosBernard Delfont andDonald Albery were in rival bids to take over the theatre; Albery won, and installed his sonIan as general manager.[9] The Alberys had the theatre refurbished, and installed back-stage improvements.[9]
The comedyThe Amorous Prawn transferred from the Saville in January 1961, with a cast headed by Laye.[29] It completed a total run of 911 performances in February 1962.[30] For the rest of 1962 the Piccadilly had a series of short runs – some limited seasons and others unsuccessful productions. The former included a Festival of French Theatre and two seasons byMarcel Marceau.[9] On 8 October the West End production of the musicalFiorello! opened. The show, about the political reformerFiorello La Guardia, had been a big success onBroadway, running for 795 performances,[31] but reviewers felt that the London cast failed to put the show across with suitable Broadway flair and vigour, not helped by interpolations intended to explain New York politics to British audiences.[32] It closed on 24 November after 56 performances, and Marceau returned for his second limited season (19 performances).[33] A stage version of the popular television comedy seriesThe Rag Trade, starringPeter Jones andMiriam Karlin, did not match the appeal of the small-screen original, and ran for 85 performances from 19 December 1962 to 23 February 1963.[34]
Most of 1963 was occupied by what Mander and Mitchenson describe as "seasons of ballet, an Italian musical and some French plays".[9] In SeptemberRonald Millar's adaptation ofC. P. Snow's novelThe Masters, transferred from theSavoy, and continued until early in 1964. The next big success at the Piccadilly wasWho's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which opened in February 1964. For the first weeks of the run the leading roles were played byUta Hagen andArthur Hill, who had created them on Broadway; they were succeeded in May by Constance Cummings andRay McAnally.[35] The production transferred to theGlobe in July to make way for a musical,Instant Marriage, starringJoan Sims. Despite being described inThe Times as "wretchedly written ... ill-constructed", it ran for 366 performances from 1 August 1964.[36]
1965 was mainly a year of short runs, including seasons of folk dancers and further ballets.[9]Neil Simon's comedyBarefoot in the Park, starringMildred Natwick,Daniel Massey andMarlo Thomas, ran for 243 performances between November 1965 and June 1966.[37] A revival ofLionel Bart's musicalOliver! opened in April 1967, starringBarry Humphries andMarti Webb, running for 331 performances.[38] The next musical,Man of La Mancha, withKeith Michell, opened in April 1968, and was followed over the Christmas season by a musical adaptation ofDaisy Ashford's novel,The Young Visiters withAlfred Marks as Mr Salteena andJan Waters as Ethel.[39]Man of La Mancha returned in the new year, this time withRichard Kiley (who had created the title role on Broadway) in the lead.[9]
TheProspect Theatre Company presented a transfer from theEdinburgh Festival of Shakespeare'sRichard II andMarlowe'sEdward II in a limited season from 20 January to 21 March 1970.Ian McKellen played the title roles, and the company includedTimothy West,James Laurenson,Robert Eddison andPeggy Thorpe-Bates.[40] A thriller,Who Killed Santa Claus?, starringHonor Blackman, ran from April to September 1970. The following monthVivat! Vivat Regina! byRobert Bolt transferred from theChichester Festival withEileen Atkins as Elizabeth I,Sarah Miles as Mary Queen of Scots andRichard Pearson as Cecil;The Guardian called it the best historical play in London for a decade; it ran for 442 performances.[41] In November 1971, again from Chichester, cameJean Anouilh'sDear Antoine, withIsabel Jeans in the role of Carlotta (created at Chichester by Edith Evans) and Clements in the title role.[42] Despite enthusiastic notices the production closed after 45 performances.[43] In February 1972 there was a further transfer from Chichester, a revival ofRobert E. Sherwood's 1931 romantic comedyReunion in Vienna, starringNigel Patrick andMargaret Leighton. The play – though not the actors – received lukewarm notices and the production closed after 44 performances.[44]
After that was a transfer from thePrince of Wales Theatre ofThe Threepenny Opera, withJoe Melia as Macheath,[45] and in July 1972 there was a new British musical "for kids of all ages",Pull Both Ends.[46] In November another musical,I and Albert, was presented but is described by Mander and Mitchenson as an expensive failure, closing after 120 performances.[47] In May 1973 the Piccadilly had a solid success with the musicalGypsy starringAngela Lansbury, who was later succeeded byDolores Gray. It ran for 300 performances.[48] In March 1974Tennessee Williams's popular melodramaA Streetcar Named Desire was revived withClaire Bloom,Joss Ackland andMartin Shaw, and ran for 243 performances.[49]
Productions at the Piccadilly in the rest of the 1970s includedAlun Owen'sMale of the Species, a set of three short plays (24 October 1974);[50] and a thriller byFrancis Durbridge,The Gentle Hook (142 performances from December 1974;[51] Neil Simon'sThe Sunshine Boys opened in May 1975 starring Alfred Marks andJimmy Jewel; it ran for 77 performances, falling far short of the original Broadway run of 538.[52]Henry Fonda made his British stage debut at the Piccadilly inClarence Darrow in July 1975; it ran for 47 performances,[53] and was followed by two musicals,Kwa Zulu, which ran for 166 performances from September,[54] succeeded in March 1976 by a revival of Bolton and Kern's 1915 musicalVery Good Eddie, which had a run of 411 performances.[55]
TheRoyal Shakespeare Company occupied the Piccadilly for transfers of two of its productions: the 1791 comedyWild Oats in April 1977 (324 performances),[56] andPrivates on Parade in February 1978 (208 performances).[57]Vieux Carré by Tennessee Williams opened in August 1978; it divided critical opinion, which ranged fromThe Observer's view that it was on the same level asA Streetcar Named Desire toThe Guardian's that it was "a vortex of silliness ... dire bathos".[58] It had a run of 118 performances, which was 112 more than it had achieved when premiered in New York.[59]
Over the 1978–79 Christmas season the theatre presented matinées ofToad of Toad Hall and evening performances of Barry Humphries's one-man showA Night with Dame Edna.[60] An evening based on French songs,The French Have a Song for It, transferred from the intimateKing's Head Theatre and ran briefly in May 1979,[61] followed later in the month byCan You Hear Me at the Back?, a drama by Brian Clark; it ran for 300 performances.[62]
Educating Rita, starringJulie Walters, opened at the Piccadilly in August 1980 and ran until September 1982;Shirin Taylor took over the title role in April 1981.[63] In January 1983 what was described as "a unique £1.5 million theatre experiment, backed entirely by continental money" was announced for the Piccadilly.[64] In an attempt to convert Londoners to a new style of entertainment, the auditorium was converted to resemble a nightclub for the opening of a new musical calledi in March.[64] The show was scrapped before the opening night, with heavy losses for its backers.[65] A replacement show, given the titleY, opened in June,[66] and ran until July 1984.[67]
In September 1984 an American musical,Pump Boys and Dinettes opened, running at the Piccadilly until June 1985, when it continued its run at another theatre.[68]Mutiny – a musical telling of themutiny on the Bounty, by and starringDavid Essex – opened on 18 July 1985 and ran until October the following year.[69] In November 1986Frankie Howerd starred in a revival ofA Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,[70] which ran until 27 December.[71] In February and March 1987Fascinating Aida played a limited season.[72]Lady Day, a musical aboutBillie Holiday, then ran briefly,[73] followed by a three-month run ofTom Stoppard's comedyRosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, from June to September.[74]"Blues in the Night", described byThe Times as a "hit black blues show", opened on 28 September and ran until 23 July 1988.[75] It was followed in August byStop! In the Name of Love, celebrating female singing groups of the 1960s; this ran until November.[76]
The theatre was closed from then until March 1989, when a musical adaptation of the 1927 science fiction filmMetropolis opened; one of the West End's most expensive shows up to that time, it closed in September, making a loss of £2.5 million.[77] The Piccadilly's last production of the 1980s was a revival ofStephen Sondheim's musicalA Little Night Music, from the Chichester Festival, starringDorothy Tutin,Peter McEnery andSusan Hampshire. It opened on 10 October and ran until 17 February 1990.[78]
In one of its many revivalsThe Rocky Horror Show opened at the Piccadilly in July 1990 and ran until June 1991.[79] Over the Christmas seasonCilla Black starred in apantomime,Jack and the Beanstalk.[80] In March 1991 a musical,Moby Dick, described as "Sixth-form girls performHerman Meville's novel in their school swimming-pool",[81] opened to poor notices, and closed in early July.[82] In 2015 it was rated byThe Daily Telegraph in an article about flops as the sixth worst West End musical so far. The Piccadilly followed it with a show rated by theTelegraph as the second worst:[81][n 1]Which Witch, received even worse reviews:[83]Michael Billington ofThe Guardian described the show as "three mind-numbing hours ... an all-too-graphic glimpse of purgatory" and two critics referred to it as "the musical from hell".[84] It opened on 22 October 1992 and ran for ten weeks, closing on 12 December.[85] In February 1993 a third musical in succession was staged at the Piccadilly –Robin: Prince of Sherwood. The production was notable for cheap ticket prices ("Kids all seats £5!") and for playing on Sundays – highly unusual in the West End[86] – but the show was not well received.The Stage remarked "Come backWhich Witch, all is forgiven".[87] The show ran for four months.[88]
In December 1993 thePeter Hall Company presentedPiaf byPam Gems, withElaine Paige asEdith Piaf.[89] When Paige left the cast in May 1994 bookings slumped and the show closed on 18 June.[90]Only the Lonely, a musical play aboutRoy Orbison, opened in September 1994 and ran until October the following year.[91] After prolonged negotiations the 1974 Broadway musicalMack and Mabel had its West End premiere at the Piccadilly on 7 November, running until 29 June 1996.[92]
On 11 September 1996Matthew Bourne's award-winning production ofSwan Lake, first seen atSadler's Wells Theatre the previous November, opened at the Piccadilly. Ballet was a rarity in the commercial West End theatre, but Bourne had the support of the impresarioCameron Mackintosh.[93] The orchestra was reduced to thirty from the usual full symphonic forces, and the most remarked aspect of the production was thecorps de ballet, consisting of bare-torsoed male dancers as the swans.[93] The production ran at the Piccadilly until 1 February 1997.[94]
Hall's company returned in March withMolière'sThe School for Wives, starringPeter Bowles and Eric Sykes,[95] which ran at the Piccadilly until the end of April, before transferring to theComedy Theatre.[96] This was followed by a revival ofNell Dunn's comedySteaming withJenny Eclair, which ran from 16 May to 14 June 1997.[97] and then a limited twelve-week run from June to September of the 1977 musicalElvis.[98] Adventures in Motion Pictures returned in October, this time with their production of the balletCinderella, which ran until mid-January 1998.[99]
The Hall company returned again in March 1998, in association with the impresarioBill Kenwright,[100] for a year-long season that began withWaiting for Godot, withAlan Dobie andJulian Glover,[101] followed by Molière'sThe Misanthrope,[102] Shaw'sMajor Barbara,[103]Eduardo de Filippo'sFilumena,[104] andAlan Bennett'sKafka's Dick.[105] After a brief run forSlava's Snowshow in March 1999,[106]Prunella Scales and Timothy West starred inHarold Pinter'sThe Birthday Party, which ran from 20 April to 3 July.[107] Ajukebox musical,4 Steps to Heaven, ran for a nine-week season from 27 July.[108] The last production of the 1990s at the Piccadilly was the musicalSpend Spend Spend which opened in October and ran until August 2000.[109]
The musicalLa Cava transferred from theVictoria Palace Theatre, opening on 21 August 2000 for a six-month run.[110] After a short season ofShockheaded Peter between February and April 2001,[111][112] theNational Theatre's revival ofMichael Frayn's farceNoises Off played its first West End engagement from the 3rd May until 26 January 2002.[113] The Chichester Festival Theatre presented the London premiere ofMy One and Only for a six-month run from February 2002, 19 years after the show premiered on Broadway.[114] The English language premiere of the French musicalRomeo and Juliet byGérard Presgurvic opened on 4 November, though bad reviews resulted in its closing three months later.[115][116]
Ragtime, a musical, starredMaria Friedman and ran from 19 March 2003 to 14 June 2003.[117]Noises Off returned for a limited eight-week season, from 4 August to 8 November 2003,[118] and was followed by theNational Theatre's production of Stoppard's comedyJumpers, withSimon Russell Beale, which ran from 14 November 2003 to 6 March 2004.[119]
Jailhouse Rock – The Musical ran for a year, from 19 April 2004 to 23 April 2005,[120] and was followed by another musical, a revival of the 1950 showGuys and Dolls, which previewed from 18 May 2005, opened on 31 May, and ran until 14 April 2007; the opening cast includedEwan McGregor,Jane Krakowski,Jenna Russell andDouglas Hodge.[121] The last production of the 2000s was the musicalGrease, which ran from 25 July 2007 to 30 April 2011.[122] The production ran for more than 1,300 performances and was the longest running show in the theatre's history.[123] The leads were cast viaITV'sGrease Is the Word, with Danny Bayne andSusan McFadden playing Danny and Sandy.[124][125]
The first six productions of the 2010s at the Piccadilly were all musicals:Ghost the Musical (19 July 2011 – 6 October 2012);[126]Viva Forever (27 November 2012 – 29 June 2013);[127]Dirty Dancing (13 July 2013 – 22 February 2014);[128]Jersey Boys (15 March 2014 – 26 March 2017) based on the story ofFrankie Valli and the Four Seasons;Annie (23 May 2017 – 18 February 2018;[129] andStrictly Ballroom, starringWill Young, which ran from 24 April to 27 October 2018.[130]
The other three productions at the theatre during the decade were all non-musical dramas. The first two were National Theatre productions in limited seasons, firstThe Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (29 November 2018 – 27 April 2019);[131] and thenThe Lehman Trilogy (11 May 2019 – 31 August 2019), with Russell Beale,Adam Godley andBen Miles;.[132] The third wasDeath of a Salesman (24 October 2019 – 4 January 2020), from theYoung Vic, starringWendell Pierce andSharon D Clarke.[133]
Pretty Woman, starringDanny Mac andAimie Atkinson previewed from 13 February and opened on 1 March 2020, but its run was curtailed within a fortnight, when West End theatres closed because of theCOVID-19 pandemic.[134] (The show reopened at the Savoy in July 2021.) The Piccadilly reopened with the musicalMoulin Rouge!, which previewed from 12 November 2021, opened in January 2022 and was due to run until 28 May,[135] but the run was extended and was still booking in September 2025.[136]
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