Gielgud Theater

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Gielgud Theater
Gielgud Theater near Piccadilly Circus, London.
location
Address: Shaftesbury Avenue
City: London
Coordinates: 51 ° 30 '42 "  N , 0 ° 7' 59"  W Coordinates: 51 ° 30 '42 "  N , 0 ° 7' 59"  W.
Architecture and history
Opened: December 27, 1906
Spectator: 986 seats
Architect: WGR Sprague
Internet presence:
Website: delfontmackintosh.co.uk/theatres/gielgud-theatre/

The Gielgud Theater is a theater in London located on Shaftesbury Avenue near Piccadilly Circus . Opened in 1906, the theater was initially called the Hicks Theater until it was renamed the Globe Theater in 1909 . It got its current name in 1994 as a tribute to the actor John Gielgud .

history

Beginnings

The theater was designed by architect WGR Sprague for British theater maker Seymour Hicks in Louis-seize . When it opened on December 27, 1906, it initially had 970 seats, but these became fewer over the years. It shares the logistics with the Queen's Theater , which opened opposite in 1907.

The first play to be played in the theater was the musical comedy The Beauty of Bath by Seymour Hicks and Cosmo Hamilton . My Darling followed in 1907 , also by Hicks. The first successes were Brewster's Millions based on a novel by George Barr McCutcheon and the opera A Waltz Dream by Oscar Straus .

In the musical comedy The Dashing Little Duke by Hicks, his wife Ellaline Terriss played the title role. It was a travesty comedy in which she played a man as a woman. When she was out due to illness, her husband took over the lead role. This was probably the only case in which an actress was replaced by her husband.

Globe Theater

After Hicks was replaced in 1909 by the theater director Charles Frohman , this changed the name to Globe Theater. The premiere under the new name was His Borrowed Plumes by Jennie Churchill (the mother of later Prime Minister Winston Churchill ). The musical Peg o 'My Heart , which was performed during the First World War , was a great success . Other important pieces were Fallen Angels by Noel Coward , which in 1925 had its premiere at the Globe Theater and Call It a Day by Dodie Smith , which brought it to all 509 performances and was later filmed. In 1938 John Gielgud directed a performance of The Importance of Being Earnest , which many critics consider to be the best performance of the play of the 20th century.

Gielgud directed The Lady's Not for Burning by Christopher Fry in 1949 . 1960 A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt premiere, originally as a radio play on BBC Radio was written 1954th Terence Frisby's play There's a Girl in My Soup eventually became the theater's most-played piece at 1064 until Andrew Lloyd Webber's Daisy Pulls It Off (based on a play by Denise Deegan ) set the record with 1180 performances.

In 1975 the tomcat Beerbohm first came to the theater as a mouse catcher. The cat developed into a mascot and a specialty of the theater, especially since it appeared on stage at least once in every production, much to the delight of the audience and critics. When the animal died in March 1995, the British theater newspaper dedicated the front page to the cat.

In 1987 the theater was renovated. This was followed by some notable performances in the theater, including Man of the Moment by Alan Ayckbourn , An Ideal Husband after Oscar Wilde , Lettice and Lovage by Peter Shaffer with Maggie Smith and Margaret Tyzack , Design for Living (best known from the film adaptation of Serenade zu third ) by Noël Coward and a new edition of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Tell Me on a Sunday.

Gielgud Theater

As part of the new building and reopening of the Globe Theater on the south bank of the Thames, which dates from William Shakespeare's time and was demolished in 1644, the theater was given its current name "Gielgud Theater" in 1994 to avoid confusion.

In the 2000s, Equus premiered , which featured a then 17-year-old Daniel Radcliffe in a nude scene. Radcliff was already known as a Harry Potter actor at the time. The play was subsequently performed on Broadway . Other achievements include the stage version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest , the musicals Hair and Avenue Q .

In 2006 Cameron Mackintosh and his company Delfont Mackintosh Theaters took over the theater. From 2007 to 2008 the facade was renewed and the interior was also restored. The theater was featured as one of 40 theaters in the documentary Great West End Theaters by and with Donald Sinden .

Well-known productions (selection)

Advert for Chariots of Fire (featured Jack Lowden , Vangelis, and James McArdle )

literature

  • John Earl and Michael Sell: Guide to British Theaters 1750-1950 , Theaters Trust, 2000 ISBN 0-7136-5688-3 p. 112
  • Who's Who in the Theater , edited by John Parker, Jan. Revised edition, London 1947, pp. 477–478 and 1183.
  • Ronald Bergan: The Great Theaters of London. An Illustrated Companion Prion, 1990. ISBN 1-85375-057-3
  • Patricia Dee Berry: Theatrical London (Britain in Old Photographs) . Alan Sutton, 1995 ISBN 0-7509-0942-0 .

Web links

Commons : Gielgud Theater  - Collection of Pictures

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Seymour Hicks. In: gsarchive.net. Retrieved May 3, 2019 .
  2. ^ Online Museum Victoria and Albert Museum: Notable Productions of 'The Importance of Being Earnest' after 1900. April 14, 2011, accessed on May 3, 2019 .
  3. ^ John Gielgud: Mr. Gielgud discovers Mr. Fry; Reliance on designer . In: The New York Times . November 5, 1950, ISSN  0037-3222 , p. 98 .
  4. ^ Archive Page for Daisy Pulls It Off. In: Albemarle of London. February 5, 2012, accessed May 3, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Theater Cats. In: Moggies.co.uk. Retrieved May 3, 2019 .
  6. ^ Alistair Smith: Exclusive: Cats to return to West End | News. In: The Stage. July 8, 2009, Retrieved May 3, 2019 (American English).
  7. ↑ BBC - London - Entertainment - Theater - Tell Me On A Sunday, a first night review -. Retrieved May 3, 2019 .
  8. ^ Naked stage role for Potter star . July 28, 2006 ( bbc.co.uk [accessed May 3, 2019]).
  9. ↑ Video review: Great West End Theaters - Theater Royal Haymarket. Retrieved May 3, 2019 (UK English).