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     Prince Edward Theatre - Information & History
The Prince Edward Theatre is situated on Old Compton Street parallel with Shaftesbury Avenue and the junction with Charring Cross Road. The Prince Edward was named after the then Prince of Wales and first opened its doors on the 3rd of April 1930 with a production by Harry Tierney called 'Rio Rita'. This opening production only ran for 59 performances. The year of 1930 saw a flurry of building activity with no less than 5 new London theatres opening their doors.
The Prince Edward Theatre was designed and constructed by Edward Stone and Griggs & Son on a site that was formerly a 100 year old large drapers business called the Emporium, which used to be frequented by Royalty.
The Prince Edward Theatre was designed in the style of an Italian Palace with an Art Deco interior created by Marc-Henri Levy and Gaston Laverdet. The auditorium was constructed on only 2 levels, stalls and dress circle with a generous seating capacity of 1,650 in a certain degree of comfort. Equipped for the showing of movies the Prince Edward was designed and built for the expanding mediums and this gave the theatre a certain degree of flexibility.
Unfortunately, the Prince Edward Theatre struggled to make money and after only 5 years the theatre was sold for a meagre £25,000 and was converted into a Cabaret Restaurant. The conversion works included the stage being converted into a dance floor and the under stage was transformed into the kitchens. The auditorium was altered to provide stair access to the dress circle and the seating was removed for tables and chairs, which did prove to be a slight problem with a sloping floor. The Prince Edward Theatre finally opened its doors as a Cabaret Restaurant on the 2nd of April 1936 and was renamed the London Casino. It proved to be a great success until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1940.
With the outbreak of the War and the London Blitz the London Casino was forced to close and all such fun had to stop under the constant nightly German air raids. For two years the theatre was in the dark.
It reopened in July 1942 as the Queensberry All-Services Club and was used from 1942 as a forces theatre and put on shows for Radio Broadcast. After the war was over the building was converted back into a theatre from 1946 and was the home of variety performances, notably including Robert Nesbit's 'Latin Quarter', and Christmas pantomimes, which became annual events at the Prince Edward Theatre, staged by Emile Littler. This continued right up to 1954 when the Prince Edward Theatre was once again converted back to being a cinema and the building was renamed this time to be known as the Casino Cinerama Theatre. It was the first cinema in London to accommodate a wide semi-circular screen called Cinerama, which was the latest craze.
The Building continued for twenty years struggling to make a profit until it was acquired by Bernard Delfont [theatrical impresario] who took over the theatre in 1974. He invested in the building with the removal of the Cinerama screen and the installation of a conventional large flat cinema screen at a cost of £150,000, with other internal refurbishments. The new Casino Theatre reopened with Christmas Pantomime 'Cinderella' in December 1974.
Four years past when a further investment was made to refurbish the theatre and the removal of the screen and the building was converted back into a dedicated theatre proper and renamed again the Prince Edward Theatre. The opening production on the 21st of June 1978 was the world premier of the musical called 'Evita', the story of Eva Peron. This couldn't have been a better choice as this production ran for a glorious 8 years and was a fantastic success.
The huge success of 'Evita' was followed by another big seller 'Chess', which ran from May 14th 1986 to April 8th 1989. This gave the opportunity for the owners Bernard Delfont and Cameron Mackintosh in 1990 to commit a major refurbishment totalling £3 million. This included the increase to the stage, the adding of side boxes, improving the acoustics, lighting, computerisation and general re decoration, and once again the Prince Edward Theatre was ready to entertain. It reopened on the 3rd of March 1993, after almost three years of closure, with the opening production of 'Crazy for You'. This was followed by the famous 'Mama Mia' Abba revival show which ran for 5 years before transferring to the Prince of Wales Theatre.
Showing: Jersey Boys
Thursday 28th February 2008 to Open ended run Prince Edward Theatre | Performances | Information | Directions | History
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