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     London Theatre Tickets » List of London Theatres » Apollo Shaftesbury » History
Apollo Shaftesbury Theatre - Information & History
The Apollo Theatre is one of 2 theatres named after the Greek God Apollo. This one is on Shaftesbury Avenue and originally was to be called the Mascot Theatre. The owner, a Mr.Henry Lowenfield, commissioned the Architect Mr.Lewin Sharp and first opened its doors on the 21st of February 1901. This was one month after the death of Queen Victoria in the January, ending the Victorian theatre era, and The Apollo became the first Edwardian Theatre of the West End.
The Apollo Theatre is said to have the steepest 3rd circle balcony in all of London's Theatres so be warned! This was intended to improve acoustics for the musicals that were held there, and the seating capacity was stated to be 893 over 4 tiers. The Apollo Theatre was in fact the 4th Theatre constructed on the Shaftesbury Avenue, the first being the Shaftesbury Avenue Theatre in 1888. The next was The Lyric, opening the same year, then the Royal English Opera House, which later became The Palace Theatre in 1891, and then finally came the Apollo Theatre in 1901. The Apollo Theatre was one of the few freehold theatres in the West End and changed hands for only £150,000.
The Apollo was devoted to Musical performances and its first showing was the American Musical Comedy 'The Belle of Bohemia", which unfortunately flopped. This was followed by early exceptions to the musical intentions of the Apollo, when it started with a season of Martin Harvey's productions, including 'The Cigarette Maker's Romance' and 'The Only Way'. However, the first real success at the Apollo was the musical version of 'Kitty Grey'. Another storming success, when the Apollo was crowded for several nights performances, was the production of George Huntley's 'Johnnie' , which was a rather unusual and original production. Following came more successful productions, including 'The Girl from Kay's' in 1903, under the directorship of George Edwardes, 'Veronique' in 1904 and 'Tom Jones' in 1907.
Charles Hawtrey, the famous Actor, produced a number of successful plays performed by his companies during the period of 1913 to 1924, throughout the First World War. One of which was 'General John Regan' starring Catherine Nesbit who portrayed the leading part as the character Mary Ellen the Irish Slave. Other productions included 'A Little Fowl Play' in 1913, 'Never Say Die' and 'Things We'd Like to Know' in 1914, in which Charles Hawtrey co starred with Dorothy Minto.
The 1920's saw performances of 'Such a Nice Young Man', a comedy by H. F. Maltby, and further short run but successful performances of 'The Best Policy', 'Galley Slaves' and 'The Wheel' by J.B Fagan. One of the earliest longest running plays was the performance of 'A Roof and Four Walls' which ran for 132 performances. 1924 saw great successes at the Apollo Theatre with 'The Fake' and 'Is Zat So' in 1926, which ran for 234 performances.
The Apollo Theatre saw a series of short run performances specialising in light comedies, farces and thrillers until Camoletti's 'Boeing Boeing' opened in 1962, before transferring to the smaller Duchess Theatre in 1965 where it completed a massive run of over 2,000 performances. Another of Camoletti's productions opened at the Apollo in 1991 with 'Don't Dress For Dinner' which, a year later, also transferred to the Duchess Theatre where it ran for a further 5 years.
More recently, Broadway success stories tried to open at the Apollo 'Slyvia' in 1996, which failed to take off. This proves not all Broadway success stories translate well to the London Stage, and the same is very true of English productions moving to New York.
Apollo and his twin sister Artemis were the children of Zeus and Leto. Born in the little island of Delos he has been called "the most Greek of all the gods." He is a beautiful figure in Greek poetry, the master musician who delights the gods of Olympus with his golden lyre, the Archer god, master of the silver bow, and he is the god of Light. In all the gods, like in men, there is a continuous struggle between good and evil, their light and dark sides, whatever the proportion of one to the other might be. In Apollo there was almost no darkness at all, his primitive and cruel side was shown only briefly and in very few myths. He is also the god of Truth, no false word ever fell from his lips, and it is because of this his oracle at Delphi was very important to people, serving as a link between men and gods. He was also the Healer god, who first taught men medicine and the art of healing.
Apollo Shaftesbury | Performances | Information | Directions | History
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