Lyric Theatre
Address:
Lyric Theatre
29 Shaftesbury Avenue
London
W1D 7ES
Directions:
Take the Bakerloo or Piccadilly line to Piccadilly Circus and exit onto Shaftesbury Avenue. The theatre is a 5 minute walk
Access:
Infra Red
Wheelchair access
Disabled Toilets
Map
Parking:
Nearest NCP: Denman Street.
Street parking is very limited – it is strongly advises to use public transport.
Nearest Tube:
Piccadilly Circus (Piccadilly and Bakerloo Lines).
Buses:
Destination Piccadilly Circus: 24, 29, 176
Miscellaneous:
Theatre on four levels:
1) Orchestra Stalls,
2) Dress Circle,
3) Upper Circle,
4) Balcony.
Approximate seating capacity: 950
This theatre has Air Cooling.
Lyric Theatre History
Architect : C J Phipps
Opened : 17 December 1888
Seats : 967 on 4 levels
Owned by : Nimax Theatres
The Lyric Theatre was designed by C. J. Phipps and built for Henry J. Leslie by Messrs Stephens and Bastow. Leslie financed the building of his new Theatre from the profits of ‘Dorothy’ from which he apparently made the huge sum at the time of £100,000. The Theatre’s Freehold is now owned by the Theatres Trust.
The Lyric Theatre’s Windmill Street Facade showing the remains of the house that once stood there, now the Lyric’s dressing room block and stage door entrance. – Phot M.L. 06.The Lyric’s Windmill Street Facade is interesting in that it is actually the remains of a house which once stood there. The house was built in 1766 by Dr William Hunter, who was an anatomist, partly as a home and partly as an anatomical theatre and museum. Internally the house was gutted to make way for the Lyric’s dressing rooms but externally it is still much in its original form. The rear of the house was demolished so that the Lyric’s stage could be built on the site. On the Windmill Street Facade there is a Blue Plaque to commemorate the original building.
The front of house areas of the Lyric Theatre are reportedly haunted by Nellie Klute, a programme seller murdered in the early twentieth century.
The Theatre is unusual in that it still uses water to operate the iron curtain. Originally this was pumped from the Thames to most Theatres and Hotels around London’s West End and used to hydraulically operate lifts and all manor of heavy machinery. Today the Lyric’s Iron Curtain is operated via an electric pump but can also be operated manually by two people at a time, though it’s a very labour intensive job, and slow too. The Lyric was also fitted with a large revolve which is still operable today, either by a huge and ancient electric rectifier or by hand.
Past Productions
The Lyric Theatre opened in 1888 with a transfer of the comic opera Dorothy from the Prince of Wales Theatre, featuring Marie Tempest. Following productions included Mice and Men, produced by Johnstone Forbes-Robertson in 1902 which was followed in 1906 by Lewis Waller appearring in a romantic version of Robin Hood.
In 1910 The Chocolate Soldier was the first of Bernard Shaw’s plays to be set to music when Oscar Strauss composed songs for an adaptation of Arms and the Man.
When Michael Faraday became sole controller of the theatre in 1911 Yvonne Arnaud found fame in the musical The Girl in the Taxi, and in 1922 a play about the composer Franz Schubert employing his music, Lilac Time, was a great success. In 1933 Thomas Bostock took over and the building was completely re-decorated. Noel Coward directed “Royal Family” in 1934, with a cast that included Laurence Olivier.
Prince Littler took control of the building in 1943 and the following year Terence Rattigan’s Love in Idleness saw the return of the Lunts. In 1950 Robert Morley starred in The Little Hut which ran for 1,261 performances. 1955 saw Noel Coward again producing – this time with Vivien Leigh in South Sea Bubble.
More recently, 1983 saw Barbara Dickson starring in the original production of Willy Russell’s musical Blood Brothers and Judi Dench and Michael Williams were in Hugh Whitmore’s Pack of Lies. During the ’80’s and the Lyric theatre saw the sad death of Leonard Rossiter during the run of Loot, and performances by Beryl Reid, Kenneth Branagh and Sheila Hancock.
In 2000 The Lyric became a Really Useful Theatre when Lord Lloyd-Webber’s Really Useful Group and Bridgepoint Capital purchased Stoll Moss Theatres Ltd. Under the new ownership, Thelma Holt presented the first full-scale production of Noël Coward’s 1926 play Semi-Monde in 2001 prior to a short season of Barbara Cook Sings Mostly Sondheim and Brendan Fraser in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (both produced by Bill Kenwright).
Since then the Lyric has been home to Dance of Death, Hitchcock Blonde, The Secret Rapture, the musical Beautiful and Damned, Death of a Salesman, Night of the Iguana and of course currently showing Flamenco Flamen’ka and from January 2009 to be the home of the new musical based on the songs of The Jackson Five and Michael Jackson – Thriller – Live.
General Rules:
No photography or recording devices inside the theatre.
Please note: Latecomers will not be admitted until the interval 1 hour and 15 minutes after curtain up. Please arrive at the theatre in good time.
Children Rules:
No babes in arms. Young children are admitted but not encouraged unless the parent is confident that the child is old enough to be attentive to the performance and not a distraction for other members of the audience. Everyone must have a valid ticket and occupy a seat. Accompanying adults will be asked to remove any noisy infants.
Lyric Theatre
Please note: The term Lyric Theatre as well as all associated graphics, logos, and/or other tradermarks, tradenames or copyrights are the property of the Lyric Theatre and are used herein for factual descriptive purposes only. We are in no way associated with or authorized by the Lyric Theatre and neither that entity nor any of its affiliates have licensed or endorsed us to sell tickets, goods and or services in conjunction with their events.
Disclaimer:
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