Garrick Theatre - History
The Garrick Theatre is found on Charing Cross Road in the City of Westminster, London. Its nearest underground station is either Charing Cross or Leicester Square with the nearest train station as Charing Cross.
The theatre was designed by Walter Emden with the help of C J Phipps’ consultations to help in creating the venue on the top of an underground river. It eventually opened in 1889 with 800 seats on 4 levels, but in years since the lop level, or gallery, has been closed and as a result the current seating capacity is at 656. The first show that appeared at the theatre was Arthur Wing Pinero’s The Profilgate
The types of performances that are normally associated with the theatre are comedies and comedy-dramas. In 1890, the French style comical play A Pair Of Spectacles opened. This was followed by Pinero’s The Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith with Mrs Patrick Campbell in 1895. Though things had started well with these plays in its opening years, the era following this included some decline for the theatre. This was reversed with the leasing of the venue by Arthur Bourchier and later J M Barrie’s The Wedding Guest appeared in 1900 followed by various plays be Rutland Barrington including the ‘fairy play’ Water Babies in 1902. Then onwards until 1932 the venue hosted the likes of The Fairy’s Dilemma (1904), The Edge O’ Beyond with Basil Rathbone (1921), The Man In Dress Clothes with Sir Seymour Hicks (1922), Cobra with Henry Daniell (1925) and Marriage By Purchase also with Daniell in 1932.
In the later half of the twentieth century, there were productions such as No Sex Please, We’re British (1982), which originated at the theatre and played for four years, followed by Mr And Mrs Nobody in 1986 with Judi Dench and Michael Williams. The play humorously titled When Did You Last See Your Trousers? appeared in 1987 by John Antrobus and Ray Galton and in 1988 the play Easy Virtue by Noel Coward appeared after transferring from the King’s Head, Islington. Later on in 1995, the theatre was home to the Royal National Theatre’s award winning production of J B Priestley’s An Inspector Calls. This was followed by The Live Bed Show with Paul Merton and Caroline Quentin and Unforgettable – The Nat King Cole Story with Clarke Peters.
Modern Day
In recent years, the Garrick theatre has been home to more comedy and great plays, including Feelgood in 2001 and in the same year J B Priestley’s Dangerous Corner. In 2003 there were a number of productions including Wait Until Dark and Jus’ Like That. It was also the year that Ross Noble appeared at the theatre (and a performance at the Garrick can be seen on his Unrealtime DVD). 2004 brought another comedian in the form of The Office funny man Ricky Gervais and in 2006 the reprisal of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest with Christian Slater and Alex Kingston.
The most recent production as of 2008 is Zorro from director Christopher Renshaw, which has been running since September.
