The Palace Theatre in London is a west end theatre in the City of Westminster. It is an imposing red brick building that dominates the west side of Cambridge Circus near the intersection of Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road. The Palace Theatre's current seating capacity is 1,400. The Palace Theatre was Grade II listed by English Heritage in June 1960.
The Palace Theatrer was commissioned by impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte in the late 1880s, the theatre was designed by Thoma Edward Collcutt. Carte intended it to be the home of English grand opera, much as his Savoy Theatre had been built as a home for English light opera, beginning with the Gilbert and Sullivan series. The foundation stone, laid by his wife Helen in 1888, can still be seen on the façade of the theatre, almost at ground level to the right of the main entrance. The theatre's design was considered to be novel. The upper levels are supported by heavy steel cantilevers which are built into the back walls, removing the need for supporting pillars that impede the view of the stage. The tiers, corridors, staircases, landings are all constructed of concrete to reduce the risk and damage that might be done by fire.
The theatre opened as the "Royal English Opera House" in January 1891 with Arthur Sullivan's Ivanhoe. No expense was spared to make the production a success, including a double cast and "every imaginable effect of scenic splendour. It ran for 160 performances, but when it finally closed in July, Carte had no new work to replace it, and the opera house unfortunately had to close. One opera is not enough to sustain an opera house venture.
It was, as critic Herman Klein observed, "the strangest comingling of success and failure ever chronicled in the history of British lyric enterprise!"
The Palace re-opened in November 1891, with Andre Messenger's La Basoche, at first alternating in repertory with Ivanhoe and then La Basoche alone, closing in January 1892. Carte had no other works ready, and so he leased the theatre to Sarah Bernhardt for a season and sold the opera house within a year at a loss. It was then converted by Walter Emden into a grand music hall and renamed the Palace Theatre of Varieties, and managed by Charles Morton who was known as the 'Father of Music Halls', who made it into a successful enterprise.
Denied permission by the London County Council to construct the promenade, which was such a popular feature of adult entertainment at the time at the Empire and Alhambra theatres, the Palace compensated by featuring apparently nude women in tableau vivants although the concerned LCC hastened to reassure patrons that the girls who featured in these displays were actually wearing flesh toned body stockings and were not naked.
In March 1897, the theatre began to screen films from the American Biograpgh Company as part of its programme of entertainment, these films pioneered the 70 mm format which helped give an exceptionally large and clear image filling the proscenium arch. The performances included early newsreels from around the world, including film of the Ango-Boer War in 1900. The Palace continued to shows films as part of its variety and musical programmes.
In 1904, Morton was succeeded as manager by Alfred Butt, who introduced many innovations to the theatre, including dancers, such as Maud Allen, famous for her 'Salome'and Anna Pavlova as well as the elegant pianist-singer Margaret Cooper.
Oliver Pike premièred his first film, In Birdland at the theatre in August 1907. This was the first British wildlife film to be screened to a paying audience. On 26 February 1909, the general public first saw Kenemacolor in a programme of 21 short films shown at the Theatre.
The name was finally changed to The Palace Theatre in 1911. Herman Fink.was musical director at the theatre from 1900 until 1920, with whose orchestra he made many recordings. The theatre was famous not only for its orchestra, but also for the beautiful Palace Girls, for whom Finck composed many dances. In 1912, the theatre hosted a Royal Command Performance. The Marx Brothers also appeared at the theatre in 1922, performing selections from their Broadway shows.
On 11th March 1925, the musical comedy No No Nanette opened at the Palace. The run of 665 performances made it the third longest-running musical in the west end in the 1920s. Princess Charming.ran for 362 performances beginning in 1926 and the Palace Theatre was also the venue for Rogers and Hart's in1927) and Fred Astaire's final stage musical Gay Divorce in 1933. The Sound Of Music ran for 2,385 performances at the Palace after opening on 18 May 1961.
The last decades of the twentieth century saw two further exceptional runs at The Palace with Jesus Christ Superstar, with 3,358 performances from 1972 to 1980 and Les Miserables. The latter ran at the theatre for nineteen years, having transferred from the Barbican Theatre on 4th December 1985. The show is still running tday at the Queens Theatre, having transferred there in April 2004. On 8th October 2006, it became the longest-running musical in the world, overtaking the former record set by Cats.
In August 1983 Andrew Lloyd-Webber, announced that he had purchased the freehold of the theatre for £1.3 million and subsequently set out on a series of restoration works to the theatre. During work on the auditorium, a layer of plum-coloured paint was removed, revealing the famous marble and onyx panels to be untouched. Following the transfer of Les Miserables in 2004, the facade of the theatre and front of the house were completely refurbished and restored, the marble walls uncovered, and new chandeliers were installed.
Lloyd Webber's musical The Woman In White received its world première on in 2004 and ran for 19 months. Bill Kenwright's production of Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman's musical Whistle Down The Wind was a disappointment in 2006, lasting only five months. but was then followed by Monty Python's Spamalot which opened on in September 2006 and ran until January 2009. Spamalot was replaced by Priscilla Queen Of The Desert in March 2009.
Theatre tickets to all performances at the Palace Theatre in London are available to book securely online through this website.
