The Shaftesbury Theatre (to be known as the Judi Dench Theatre from February 2027) is a West End theatre, located in Shaftesbury Avenue, in the London Borough of Camden. It opened in 1911 as the New Prince's Theatre, with a capacity of 2,500. The current capacity is 1,416. The title "Shaftesbury Theatre" belonged to another theatre lower down the avenue between 1888 and 1941. The Prince's adopted the name in 1963.
The theatre, the last to be built in Shaftesbury Avenue, was originally intended to house popular melodramas, but has presented a wide range of productions, including Shakespeare, farce, opera, ballet and revue. Companies based at the theatre for London seasons have included the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, the Ballets Russes, Sadler's Wells Opera, Sadler's Wells Ballet, the Royal Swedish Ballet and the dance companies of Uday Shankar and Pearl Primus.
The theatre has presented many musicals that premiered on Broadway, from Funny Face in the 1920s to Pal Joey and Wonderful Town in the 1950s, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Hair in the 1960s, and more recently Hairspray, Memphis, Motown and Mrs Doubtfire.
The theatre was at risk of demolition in the early 1970s to make way for new roads or for commercial development, but the Save London's Theatres campaign rescued it, and it was given listed building protection in 1974. The actor, playwright and impresario Ray Cooney led a new organisation, The Theatre of Comedy, backed by a substantial group of actors and writers, which leased and then bought the theatre as a home for British comedy. The Theatre of Comedy parent company, DLT Entertainment, now owns the theatre and programming has expanded from farces and comedies to now include musicals.
History Early years The theatre was designed for the brothers Walter and Frederick Melville by Bertie Crewe and opened on 26 December 1911, the last new theatre to open in Shaftesbury Avenue.Mander and Mitchenson (1961), p. 143 The site, at the junction of Shaftesbury Avenue and High Holborn, had previously been what the theatre historians Mander and Mitchenson call "a maze of derelict property". It was originally named the New Prince's Theatre, becoming the Prince's Theatre in 1914. The original capacity of the auditorium was 2,500."New Prince's Theatre", The Stage, 14 December 1911, p. 27 The exterior is faced in terracotta and brick stone with a three-tier façade of vertically aligned windows, topped by a pillared cupola above the entrance. The New Prince's was London's first entirely steel-framed theatre, with no supporting pillars in the auditorium to obstruct the view. The original colour scheme of the auditorium was cream and gold.Coveney, p. 55
The Brothers Melville, who were already running the Lyceum Theatre, London, intended to continue their policy of staging popular melodramas. Early shows at the New Princes included Carlton Wallace's The Apple of Eden (1912),"The Apple of Eden", The Daily News, 18 April 1912, p. 5 Arthur Shirley and Ben Landeck's Women and Wine (1912)"New Prince's Theatre", The Times, 8 February 1912, p. 8 and Walter Howard's romantic drama The Story of the Rosary, (1913),Mander and Mitchenson (1961), p. 144 In 1913 the theatre presented a comedy, Brewster's Millions, and Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice with Frank Cellier as Shylock,Parker, pp. 1030 and 1047 but reverted to melodrama with On His Majesty's Service (1914), When London Sleeps (1915) and For England, Home, and Beauty (1915), which ran for a hundred performances.
In December 1916 Seymour Hicks took over the management, opening with a revival of Bluebell in Fairyland and then reviving The Catch of the Season (February 1917), followed by other popular favourites in his repertory. In 1919 C. B. Cochran succeeded Hicks in the management of the theatre, and in April it had a critical and box-office success with André Messager's romantic opera Monsieur Beaucaire, starring Maggie Teyte; it ran for 221 performances.Mander and Mitchenson (1961), p. 145 From September of that year the theatre presented a sell-out eighteen-week season of Gilbert and Sullivan operas by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, returning to the West End for the first time since 1908.Joseph, pp. 182–183 During the season the company presented ten Savoy operas including the first revival of the 1884 work Princess Ida.Rollins and Witts, p. 2
1920s From February 1920 Pretty Peggy, a musical, ran for 168 performances. In 1920 the perennial favourite Charley's Aunt played at the Prince's for the Christmas season.Parker, p. 1033 In April 1921 Sarah Bernhardt appeared in the title role of Daniel in a play by Louis Verneuil, and Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes presented a season including Petrushka, The Rite of Spring, and Les Sylphides, starring Lydia Lopokova."Return of Lopokova", The Daily Herald, 13 May 1921, p. 3
D'Oyly Carte returned in October 1921 for a 27-week season during which Ruddigore was seen in London for the first time since the original 1887 run. There followed Lucien Guitry, Sacha Guitry and Yvonne Printemps in a season of French plays; a musical called The Cousin from Nowhere (1923); The Return of Sherlock Holmes starring Eille Norwood; a comedy, Alf's Button, by W. A. Darlington (1924); and José Collins in a musical play by Franz Lehár (1925).
There were two further successful D'Oyly Carte seasons in 1924 and 1926; the latter attracted widespread notice for controversial new designs for The Mikado by Charles Ricketts.Joseph, pp. 193–194 Sybil Thorndike appeared in Macbeth with Henry Ainley (1926), and Diaghilev's company returned for a season in 1927, with a programme that included the British premiere of Nijinska and Poulenc's Les biches (under the title The House Party)."E. B.", "Russian Ballet: The House Party", The Manchester Guardian, 26 May 1925, p. 19 In December 1927 George Robey presented his revue Bits and Pieces. The following year Fred and Adele Astaire starred in the Gershwins' musical Funny Face, with Leslie Henson.Gaye, p. 1390 The run was interrupted by a gas explosion in High Holborn not far from the theatre, but after the reopening the show completed a run of 263 performances.Gaye, p. 1531 The last major production of the 1920s was a farce, A Warm Corner, starring W. H. Berry; it ran for 238 performances from December 1929.
1930s In 1930 Berry had another substantial run of 195 performances in another farce, Oh, Daddy.Mander and Mitchenson (1975), p. 201 For the next few years short runs and revivals predominated at the Prince's. In 1933 Charles Macdona revived Victorien Sardou's Diplomacy with an all-star cast that included Gerald du Maurier, Lewis Casson, Basil Rathbone, Margaret Bannerman and Joyce Kennedy."Diplomacy", The Era, 31 May 1933, p. 10
During the 1934 season the Prince's featured a revival of Edward German and Basil Hood's comic opera Merrie England, which ran for 187 performances.Gänzl, p. 1375 It was followed by a revival of Sullivan and Hood's The Rose of Persia the following year – the first professional staging of the piece since the original London run in 1899–1900."The Prince's: The Rose of Persia", The Stage, 7 March 1935, p. 10 It did not achieve the success of the revival of Merrie England, closing after 25 performances.Gänzl, p. 1751 In 1935 there was a rare venture into the classics, with a revival of The Alchemist.Gaye, p. 1347 Two of Ian Hay's adaptations of Edgar Wallace stories followed: The Frog (1936, 483 performances) and The Gusher (1937, 137 performances).Mander and Mitchenson (1975), p. 202
A 1938 success, with 260 performances, was Wild Oats, described as "a song and laugh show" with music by Noel Gay and words by Douglas Furber.Parker, p. 1837 In March 1939, aiming to attract a new, younger, audience to the theatre, J. B. Priestley arranged to have his comedy When We Are Married – which had run successfully at the St Martin's Theatre at normal West End prices – transferred to the Prince's with tickets at half the usual price."Mr J. B. Priestley takes over our Theatre Page", Sunday Pictorial, 19 March 1939, p. 24 Sitting Pretty (1939) was a comedy starring Sydney Howard."The Theatre", The Bystander, 13 September 1939, p. 14 Towards the end of the year, Firth Shephard launched a topical revue, Shephard's Pie."Firth Shephard", The Stage, 29 March 1945, p. 9
1940s
Productions during the Second World War included another Shephard revue, Fun and Games (August 1941, with a cast including Sydney Howard, Carol Raye and Richard Hearne);Farjeon, Herbert. "The Theatre", The Tatler, 3 September 1941, p. 8 Wild Rose (August 1942, a revised version of the 1920 musical Sally, starring Jessie Matthews);Horsnell, Horace. "The Theatre", The Tatler, 26 August 1942, p. 8 Old Chelsea (February 1943, starring Richard Tauber),"The Prince's", The Stage, 25 February 1943, p. 1 and Halfway to Heaven (December 1943, a comedy starring Howard and Bobby Howes)."The Prince's", The Stage, 16 December 1943, p. 1
Sadler's Wells Theatre being closed for the duration of the war, its opera and ballet companies toured, and in 1944 based themselves at the Prince's for London seasons. The opera season included The Bartered Bride, La bohème, Madame Butterfly, Rigoletto, The Marriage of Figaro and Cosi fan tutte;"Opera at Prince's", The Stage, 3 August 1944, p. 4 the company was led by Joan Cross, and included Peter Pears, Owen Brannigan and Rose Hill."The Prince's", The Stage, 10 August 1944, p. 5 The ballet season presented twelve works, including Coppélia, Swan Lake, Carnaval and the premiere of Miracle in the Gorbals, with choreography by Robert Helpmann and music by Arthur Bliss; the company included Helpmann, Margot Fonteyn, Alexis Rassine and Moira Shearer."The Prince's", The Stage, 5 October 1944, p. 5
In 1945 Evelyn Laye starred in Oscar Straus's operetta Three Waltzes, and later in that year Merrie England was revived in a radically revised version by Edward Knoblock, with a cast including Heddle Nash and Dennis Noble."The Prince's", The Stage, 13 September 1945, p. 1 In 1946 the theatre staged another Shephard revue, The Shephard Show, with Hearne, Arthur Riscoe, Douglas Byng and Marie Burke. In 1947 the Prince's came under the direction of Bertram Montague though, according to Mander and Mitchenson, "the new productions were not so successful as the ballet seasons from many parts of the world and the annual pantomimes".
1950s The next play to achieve a long run was His Excellency, a comedy by Dorothy and Campbell Christie, starring Eric Portman and Sebastian Shaw;"Vital Quality of 'His Excellency'", The Stage, 1 June 1950, p. 1 it opened in May 1950 and ran for 452 performances.Gaye, p. 1532 In 1951 the theatre presented seasons of dance by Uday Shankar and his Indian Dancers, Pearl Primus and her African Dance company and the Royal Swedish Ballet."Indian Ballet", The Stage, 29 November 1951, p. 10; "The Prince's: Pearl Primus", The Stage, 8 November 1951, p. 10; and "The Prince's: Swedish Ballet", The Stage, 15 February 1951, p. 9
Montague's management ended in 1952. The freehold of the theatre remained in the Melville family until 1961; between 1957 and 1961 the theatre was directed by Andrew Melville.