New London Theatre - History
The New London Theatre is found on Drury Lane in London, where the road meets Parker Street. Its nearest underground station is found at Covent Garden (or Holborn) and its nearest railway station located at Charing Cross.
The New London Theatre has a very apt title, being relatively young amongst some of the grandparents of Theatreland such as the Old Vic or the Theatre Royal Haymarket. It opened in 1973, meaning it never had to face the horrors of World Wars that saw many theatres hit by bombs. Its later arrival also meant it didn’t face some of the unusual laws that were placed upon theatres in the nineteenth century. These were all plights that many venues in the capital had to face. It means that the New London Theatre is a development of the late twentieth century – something that current generations can be proud of.
But that’s not to say there is no history on the site for the New London Theatre stands where the old Great Mogul once did. This building dated back to Elizabethan Times and during the course of the nineteenth century went by various names, including The Mogul Saloon, The Middlesex Music Hall and The Winter Garden. After 1900 the venue had been restored on various occasions. So it was during this time that the theatre was able to house various musical acts such as Sally by Jerome Kern (1921), who returned with The Cabaret Girl (1922) and The Beauty Prize (1923). Fred Astaire also appeared in Funny Face (1929). Then in the forties and fifties productions such as Agatha Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution (1953), Vivian Ellis and A P Herbert’s The Water Gypsies (1956) and The Iceman Cometh (1958) all appeared.
The following year ownership changed hands and the theatre was closed. The Winter Garden, as it was still known, stood on the site for a fair few years whilst it was stripped and eventually a new building was constructed – it being the one we know today as the New London Theatre.
The new structure was designed by Paul Tvrtkovic and it opened with the production of The Unkown Soldier and His Wife with Peter Ustinov (1973). It was the first new production in around 15 years in the location as the old venue had left a theatre-less site for over a decade. Ten years after it reopened the musical Cats made its appearance. It has since become a cult favourite and a household name and its run at the New London broke the record for the longest running musical to hit the West End. It stayed until 2002.
Musicals have continued to dominate the stage inside the New London Theatre. Following Cats, a revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat under Bill Kenwright appeared and since then The Blue Man Group have wowed audiences. Non musicals have appeared since with King Lear and The Seagull.
