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     London Theatre Tickets » List of London Theatres » Gielgud Theatre » History
Gielgud Theatre - Information & History
The Gielgud Theatre is situated on Shaftesbury Avenue in the heart of London's theatre land. It was originally designed by the famous theatre architect W.G. Sprague in the Louis XVI style and built as one of a pair of theatres side by side. This classical Edwardian domed theatre was opened in December 1906, originally called the Hicks Theatre in honour of the actor, manager and playwright Mr Seymour Hicks, with a seating capacity of 889. Its twin, known as the 'Queen's Theatre', opened in 1907.
The opening performance at the theatre was a musical play called 'The Beauty of Bath' by Seymour Hicks and Cosmo Hamilton on the 27th of December 1906 at the Hicks Theatre. Both Theatres were built by Walter Wallis of West London with ornamental facades of Portland Stone. The site of the theatre was formerly an estate agent's office and included the demolition of 17 houses in Wardour Street, Rupert Street and Upper Street (now called Winnet Street).
The Hicks Theatre was renamed only 3 years after its opening and was called the Globe Theatre. There was another Globe Theatre on Newcastle Street which had been demolished when the Aldwych, which was named after the Old Wych Street, was constructed in 1905. As is customary, every theatre was to be given a unique name so as not to create confusion.
The other theatre, the Queen's, was slightly larger than its twin the Hicks but this building was mostly destroyed in the bombing of London during the blitz in 1940, when its stone façade was obliterated and the building was mostly reduced to rubble. It remained derelict and closed until it was rebuilt in the late 50's, finally re-opening in 1959 in a more modern architectural style.
The Hicks Theatre had a reasonable sized capacity of 970 over 3 levels: the stalls, upper circle and gallery. The upper is now called the dress circle and the gallery has been renamed the upper. All of the boxes were removed in 1950 but, apart from this, the theatre still retains its original architectural layout.
The Hicks Theatre was renamed the Globe Theatre and was so named for most of its life during the 20th century. It finally changed its name once again in 1994 to the Gielgud Theatre. This was partly to commemorate the actor Sir John Gielgud but mainly to avoid confusion with the new creation on the site of the original Globe theatre. This was the work of Sam Wanamakers, who's dream was to restore the Elizabethan open style Shakespearian theatre 'The Globe' which finally opened its doors to London theatre goers on London's south bank to much publicity in 1995. This decision was made to avoid confusion of having 2 London theatres called 'The Globe', so once again the theatre took on a new identity.
From 1994 The Gielgud staged many popular shows and it had benefited from a refurbishment in 1987 when the Regency staircase and Oval gallery were given a facelift, as well as internal decoration.
The Gielgud Theatre's first long running production was Terence Frisby's 'There's a Girl in My Soup', which opened in 1966 with a run of 1064 performances. This was surpassed by Sir Andrew Lloyds Webber's production of 'Daisy Pulls it Off' in 1983, which ran for 1180 performances. However, the current longest running production at the Gielgud began in 1987 when Peter Shaffer's successful play 'Lettuce and Lovage' opened and ran for 2 years, starring Maggie Smith and Margaret Tyzack. Other than these, the Gielgud Theatre has seen a continuous flow of short runs.
Gielgud Theatre | Performances | Information | Directions | History
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