Gielgud Theatre - History
The Gielgund Theatre is located on Shaftesbury Avenue (towards Piccadilly Circus). Its nearest underground station is Piccadilly Circus and its nearest train station is Charing Cross.
The theatre was designed by W G R Sprague in honour of the actor and playwright Seymour Hicks. It was built in Louis XVI style, including a grand auditorium with 970 seats (though since it opened in the early twentieth century, this has been reduced as boxes and seats have been removed). It appears in the capital as a pair with another theatre which sits on the adjacent street corner; the Queen’s Theatre.
The Gielgud Theatre opened on 27th December 1906, though back then it was known as the Hicks Theatre (after the actor/playwright it was in honour of). Hicks himself was behind its first few productions, including The Beauty Of Bath (1906), My Darling (1907) and The Dashing Little Duke (1909). The latter play has an interesting story behind it; it was produced by Hicks and would star his wife Ellaline Terriss in the title role of the Duke. She missed a number of shows because of illness and as a result Hicks himself took on the job, making it a rare occurrence where a wife’s role is succeeded by her husband.
1909 was also the year in which The Hicks Theatre became The Globe Theatre following an older Globe’s closure and demolition in 1902 on Newcastle Street (where the Aldwych Theatre now stands). After this a number of further productions appeared at the venue including Call It A Day (1935) by Dodie Smith, which during the period between two world wars, was considered a success with 509 performances.
The sixties brought to the theatre Terence Frisby’s There’s A Girl In My Soup (1966), which ran for a record breaking 1,064 performances (this record remained in place until 1983 when Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Daisy Pulls It Off ran for 1,180 performances at the theatre). In the same year The Matchgirls by Bill Owen opened. In 1982 Vanessa Redgrave appeared in Design for Living by Noël Coward then another hit appeared in the form of 1987’s Lettice And Lovage by Peter Schaffer. In the following years, Alan Ayckbourne premiered his play Man Of The Moment (1990) at the theatre.
Modern Day
The theatre is still receiving attention today. In 2004, there was a notable revival of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and many other productions continue to grace the stage. Back in 1994, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre was due to open on the South Bank and as a result the theatre was renamed as the Gielgud Theatre after the British actor John Gielgud. As the Gielgud, the theatre began renovation in 2007 in plans outlined by new owner Delfont Mackintosh Theatres. These included creating a joint entrance foyer which would connect the building with the Queen’s Theatre.
