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     London Theatre Tickets » List of London Theatres » Fortune Theatre » History
Fortune Theatre - Information & History
The Fortune Theatre is situated on Russell Street and first opened its doors on the 8th of November 1924 with a play called 'Sinners' by Laurence Cowen, who incidentally had paid to build the Fortune Theatre, so the theatre's first performance was by its creator. Designed by Schaufelberg the Architect and constructed by Bovis Ltd., the Fortune Theatre took over twice as long to construct as originally intended. It stands on the site formerly occupied by the Albion Tavern public house and was the very first theatre constructed after the First World War.
The Fortune Theatre was an interesting building with a strange mixture of medieval art along its renaissance style façade and with the same theme continued in the interior with a lavish use of Marble, Copper, Onyx and wrought iron. Vivid colours were used, such as Gold, Red, Blue-Greys, Creams and deep rich Browns, to decorate the Fortune's lush interior, which led the theatre to be described as one of London's most beautiful theatres. The frontage of the theatre is in the style of Italian Renaissance. It has tall walls and turrets painted in pale green with granite grey masonry. The metal crittall windows and doors are of the original design and made beautifully.
The original theatre had a seating capacity of only 440. Each seat was well upholstered in dark blue leather, set in solid Mahogany frames and wrought iron bases. The Fortune Theatre was indeed a well decorated and aesthetically designed theatre with every seat having a clear view of the stage.
The Fortune Theatre faces the 18th Century columned portico which leads to Drury Lane and its name revived the famous house that Shakespeare himself had acted in centuries before. The Fortune welcomes all visitors into an elegant entrance hall with an inscription 'There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune'.
The very first Fortune named theatre was built in early 1600 and stood in Golden Lane, Cripplegate but this building burnt to the ground in 1621. There was a theatre that formerly stood on the site that the current Fortune theatre stands called the Cockpit, which was renamed the Phoenix and constructed around 1610. It was a haunt for actors during the Elizabethan times and throughout Georgian and Victorian times.
The Fortune Theatre utilised the then famous Schwabe-Hazait lighting system which was installed. This meant that not one single lamp was visible to the naked eye and its discreet concealed lighting was an innovative technique to create a subtle lighting within the theatre.
The Fortune has undergone several refurbishments and the current theatre has an increased seating capacity. The original lush blue leather seating has been replaced with less luxurious and smaller seating so as to increase its capacity considerably from 400 to 650 over 2 floors. The stage is still its original shape in the form of a trumpet mouth and the acoustics are near perfect.
The Fortune Theatre is slightly dwarfed by it most famous neighbour the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. The Fortune has housed some long running productions and numerous famous actors and actress have tread the boards, namely, Dirk Bogarde, Dame Judy Dench, Maureen Lipman, as well as Peter Cooke and Dudley Moore in Alan Bennett's 'Beyond The Fringe' which ran for 1,184 performances.
More recently the most successful run must be the West End Thriller 'The Woman in Black' based on the novel by Susan Hill which was brought to the Fortune Theatre in June 1989. At time of writing, this brilliant play is still running at the Fortune Theatre some 17 years after it opened. The Fortune celebrated 5,000 performances of this show in July 2001 with a fiesta party that, according to all that attended, was an unforgettable extravaganza.
For many years The Fortune Theatre was privately owned, but in December 2001 the Fortune became part of the hugely successful Ambassador Theatre Group. The Fortune Theatre is still an intimate theatre with a unique blend of architecture and style of its own.
Showing: The Woman in Black Fortune Theatre | Performances | Information | Directions | History
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