The Vaudeville Theatre in London is a west end theatre situated on the Strand in the City of Westminster. As the name suggests, the theatre held mostly vaudeville shows and musical revues in its early days. It first opened in 1870 and was rebuilt twice, although each new building retained elements of the previous structure. The current building opened in 1926, and the capacity is now 690 seats. Rare lightning sheets and thunder drums together with other early stage mechanisms survive in the theatre
The Vaudeville Theatre was designed by prolific architect C.J. Phipps and decorated in a Romanesque style by George Gordon, and opened on April 16th, 1870 with a comedy by Andrew Halliday called For Love Or Money and a burlesque show called Don Carlos Or The Infant In Arms.
.A notable innovation was concealed footlights, which would shut off if the glass in front of them was broken. The owner, William Wybrow Robertson, had run a failing billiard hall on the site but saw more opportunity in theatre. He leased the new theatre to three actors, David James, Thomas Thorne, and H.J. Montague. The original theatre stood behind two houses on the Strand, and the entrance was through a labyrinth of small corridors. It had a seating capacity of 1,046, rising in a horseshoe, over a pit and three galleries. The cramped site meant that facilities both front and backstage were limited.
In more recent times a proposed redevelopment of Covent Garden by the GLC in 1968 saw the theatre under threat, together with the nearby Adelphi, Garrick, Duchess and Lyceum theatres An active campaign by Equity, the musicians union and theatre owners under the auspices banner of the Save The London Theatres Campaign led to the eventual abandonment of the scheme.
Cicely Courtneidge played at the theatre in The Bride Comes Back in 1960 and Ray Cooney's Move Over Mrs Markham in 1971. . Bill Treacher made his west end debut in 1963 in the comedy Shout For Life at the Vaudeville
In 1969, the resident owners the Gatti family sold their interest in the theatre to Sir Peter Saunders and in 1970 he commissioned Peter Rice to redesign the interior of the theatre.. Among other changes were a deep red wallpaper in the auditorium and more comfortable seats. Also, the loggia above the street was glazed to make the balcony an extension of the bar. The backstage lighting was rerigged, and a forestage lift and counterweight flying system were all installed. The Vaudeville achieved some protection in 1972 when it was Grade II listed by English Heritage.
Ownership passed to Michael Codron and David Sutton in 1983 before Stephen Waley-Cohen took ownership in 1996, passing it to Max Weitzenhofer in 2002.
The dance/performance show Stomp was in residence at the Vaudeville from 2002 to 2007. Since 2003, the theatre has been owned by Max Weitzenhoffer, and in 2005, the venue was brought under the management of Nimax Theatres Limited.
Theatre tickets to all performances at the Vaudeville Theatre in London are available to purchase securely through this website
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