Sweeney Todd

Adelphi Theatre - History

The Adelphi Theatre is located in Strand in the City of Westminster, London. It is a Grade II listed building which is built on the site of three previous theatres. Its nearest underground station is Charing Cross/Embankment and its nearest train station is Charing Cross station.

The theatre has a grand history which begins in the early nineteenth century. It opened on 27th Novenver 1806 under The Sans Pareil (Without Compare) under the management of John Scott and his daughter and theatre manager, playwright and performer Jane. In 1809 the Sans Perail became licensed to house musical entertainment shows, burletta and pantomime and subsequently Jane Scott wrote many productions, which ranged from comedies, pantomimes, adaptations and historical dramas.

In 1819 it changed its name to The Adelphi, which came from the Adelphi Building which was housed opposite. The theatre then became well known for its melodrama with many Charles Dickens adaptations appearing at the theatre. This generation of the building lasted until the late fifties, with the building being demolished in 1958 to make way for its replacement the New Adelphi. This came after the new owners took over the theatre in the forties. These were Ben Webster and Madame Celeste and under their management the Dickens adaptations continued. The New Adelphi was considered a vast improvement over the old building and could now seat 1,500 people with 500 people standing.

In 1867 it became The Royal Adelphi, the same year it hosted Cox And Box, which was pivotal in English comic opera. The mid 1800s saw a lot of opera at the theatre with French operettas hitting the stage.

Modern History
In 1930 the Adelphi was redesigned by Ernest Schaufelberg and this more closely resembled the Adelphi we know today. The twentieth century itself was kind to the theatre with many notable productions making there way onto its famous stage. The thirties saw Noël Coward (Word and Music) and Cole Portner (Nymph Errant) productions. The sixties were important as well, with productions such as Charlie girl appearing in front of 2,000 audiences, then in the eighties Noel Gay’s Me And My Girl opened and ran for over seven years.

1997 saw the opening of Chicago, where it stayed until April 2006, making it the longest running show at the Adelphi and the longest running American musical in the history of the West End. The popular American musical has also been made into a movie, which cements its popularity.

The building is currently standing much as it was in 1930, after threats of closure in the sixties and a restoration in 1993, the theatre is currently a great landmark of British theatre. The current owners are the Adelphi Theatre Company which comprises Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group and  James Nederlander’s Nederlander International. It is only fitting then that the prodution that replaced Chicago was an adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita and after that Joseph And His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, the star of which chosen by the BBC reality TV show Any Dream Will Do.

Notable Productions
Notable productions at the Adelphi include My Fair Lady (1979), The American Dream Machine (1982), Poppy (1983), Jungle Book (1984), Sunset Boulevard (1993), Chicago (1997), Evita (2006), Joseph And His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (2007).