Guide to the 39 Current West End Shows Part 2
by Lex Green
Time to resume our guided tour of the theatres of London’s West End!
Another production that has been running since before the turn-of-the-millennium can be found at our next theatre: the Lyceum Theatre, run by ATG and located on Wellington Street. Since October 1999, Disney’s The Lion King has been running here. Despite not being a show that appears to lend itself to a stage adaptation, it has been extremely successful and is a common stop amongst tourists to the UK. Unsurprisingly, this is another show with no scheduled end date. We are now at the very mid point of the tour, with our 20th theatre, the Lyric Theatre, which can be found on Shaftesbury Avenue and is operated by Nimax Theatres. Peter Pan Goes Wrong, a play created by the same company as The Play That Goes Wrong, opened here at the end of November and closed on January 14th. It is now home to the West End’s production of Hadestown, a mythology based musical that proved very popular on Broadway, which started its run on February 10th. Next is the Noel Coward Theatre, named for the multi-talented playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, Noel Coward. This building is run by Delfont Mackintosh Theatres and is situated on St. Martin’s Lane. Currently, the play The Motive and the Cue is housed here, after opening in mid-December and being set to run until March 23rd 2024. Another long-running show is housed at the next theatre on the list, the Novello Theatre, found in Aldwych. This theatre is also operated by Delfont Mackintosh Theatres and the show playing here has been doing so since April 1999. That show is Mamma Mia!, which currently stars the winners of the TV series I Have A Dream: Tobias Turley and Stevie Doc. The popularity and commercial success of this musical is certainly not to be underestimated, and as such, it does not have any set end date. Next up is the Palace Theatre, found on Shaftesbury Avenue and operated by Nimax Theatres. This is home to one of the most commercially successful plays currently showing across the West End: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. this sequel to the Harry Potter books centres on Harry’s son, Albus Severus Potter, and the escapade he embarks on when approached by a desperate witch and a time-turner. The play opened here in July 2016 and does not have a closing date. Another popular culture-based play is housed at the next theatre, the Phoenix Theatre. This building is located on Charing Cross Road and is operated by the Ambassadors Theatre Group. In December 2023, Stranger Things: The First Shadow, a prequel to the popular four-season Netflix series, opened here. It seems to be doing reasonably well, as it has not set a closing date yet. Denman Street is the London location of our next theatre, the Picadilly Theatre, also managed by ATG. This is the current home for Moulin Rouge!, a jukebox musical based on the 2001 film of the same name. This is quite a spectacular production, with some of the highest ticket prices of all London theatre. It has been running since January 2022 - it is also another production with no end date in sight. Another ATG theatre is next, the Playhouse Theatre, or as it is currently known, the Kit Kat Club at the Playhouse Theatre, located on Craven Street. The Kit Kat Club is, of course, the main setting for the musical Cabaret, which is currently playing here. The Cabaret team have taken over the theatre, redecorating it to totally emulate the aesthetic of the show. This production opened in December of 2021, and despite it also having extremely high ticket prices, it does not appear to be ending any time soon. The Prince Edward Theatre is next, found on Old Compton Street and managed by Delfont Mackintosh Theatres. This theatre is currently empty, but will very soon become home to MJ the Musical, a jukebox musical based on the life and songs of Michael Jackson, which is set to open on March 27th 2024. This musical has been successful on Broadway and is predicted to be a hit here in the UK as well, so no closing date has been set for the show. The similarly-named Prince of Wales Theatre is next, also operated by Delfont Mackintosh Theatres and located on Coventry Street. For the last decade, this building has housed the comedy musical The Book Of Mormon, written by the creators of South Park,. Its humour has proven popular amongst audiences, even becoming a regular stop for tourists. Because of its success, this show also does not have a scheduled end date. Next up is the Savoy Theatre, which was originally used as a space for Gilbert and Sullivan operas to premiere. The Jamie Lloyd production of Sunset Boulevard, which had exceptionally good reviews, was previously running here, before its scheduled transfer to Broadway. Currently, a short run (January - March) of the play Plaza Suite is running here, and after the play’s closing, in June 2024, the theatre will become home to the West End production of Mean Girls. DLT Entertainment’s only West End theatre is next, the Shaftesbury Theatre, conveniently located on Shaftesbury Avenue. Since the end of June 2023, this theatre has been home to Mrs Doubtfire, a stage musical adaptation of the classic film. The show received mixed reviews whilst on Broadway, and so its place as a staple of the West End is not wholly confirmed quite yet, but it does seem to be doing well, with no scheduled end date. The next theatre is the only one that breaks the classic naming conventions seen by the rest, @sohoplace, and it was the first purpose-built West End theatre to open in over 50 years when it opened in 2022. The building is located on Charing Cross Road, and is operated by Nimax Theatres. The musical The Little Big Things played here between September 2023 and March 2nd this year, with the play Red Pitch set to take its place just two weeks later. For the next theatre, we head back to Shaftesbury Avenue, to a building operated by Delfont Mackintosh Theatres, the Sondheim Theatre - named, of course, for the late great Stephen Sondheim. This is home to the current longest-running West End musical (and second-longest running production overall), Les Miserables, which opened in October 1985, almost 40 years ago. This classic production is a globally-renowned show and despite its more old-fashioned style, continues to be extremely popular, with no end date in sight. Coincidentally, the next theatre on the list is home to the longest-running play (and overall production) currently on the West End. This is the St Martin’s Theatre on West Street, owned by producer Stephen Waley-Cohen, which is home to The Mousetrap, the mystery play based on an Agatha Christie novel. The Mousetrap opened all the way back in November 1952 and has been running ever since. As you have likely guessed, it does not have a set end date and is one of the most popular plays in London. The next theatre on the list is the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane - which actually has an address on Catherine Street, not Drury Lane, although it does back onto the second road. This building is operated by LW Theatres and is currently home to the stage adaptation of the hit 2013 Disney film, Frozen. The musical opened here in September 2021, after a Broadway run before the Covid-19 pandemic. Its popularity amongst families and younger children has secured its place on the West End stage for at least a little longer, as it does not have a set end date as of yet. The other ‘theatre royal,’ the Theatre Royal Haymarket, is next on our list. The Theatre Royal Haymarket is located, funnily enough, in Haymarket, and is operated by Access Entertainment, a sub-company of Access Industries Inc. Those that like interesting or fun numbers might also be interested to know that this theatre has 888 seats exactly, and at the time of writing, those seats are being filled by audiences of The Picture of Dorian Gray, which is set to run un April 13th 2024. A second play with a similar run length is the current feature of the next venue, the Trafalgar Theatre, found in Whitehall, and run by the independent Trafalgar Entertainment Group. Here a play called A Mirror has recently opened (on February 1st) and like many plays, will unfortunately only be running for a few months, before it closes on April 20th. A globally-popular musical is housed in the next theatre on the list, the Vaudeville Theatre. This venue is operated by Nimax Theatres, and is found on the Strand. It is the current home to Six the Musical on the West End, which only opened here in September 2021 but was previously housed at two other West End theatres, the Lyric and the Arts. It is also currently on tour in the UK, as well as being a hit in many other countries, and this specific production does not have a set closing date. The penultimate theatre on the list is home to the last musical currently playing, the Victoria Palace Theatre, located on Victoria Street, not far from Buckingham Palace. It is operated by Delfont Mackintosh Theatres, and the musical in question is Hamilton, the historical show written by Lin-Manuel Miranda. This is one of the most famous musicals of all time and definitely won’t be closing any time soon. The 39th and final theatre is the Wyndham’s Theatre, situated on St Martin’s Court, also operated by Delfont Mackintosh Theatres. A play called The Unfriend, starring comedian Lee Mack, played here until March 9th and was replaced by another play, Long Day’s Journey Into Night. And with that, we have reached the end of the list - that is all 39 West End theatres and the shows currently playing there! |