Aldwych was also home to the earlier Royal Strand Theatre The Novello Theatre is a West End theatre on Aldwych, in the City of Westminster.

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History

The theatre was built as one of a pair with the Aldwych Theatre on either side of the Waldorf Hotel, both being designed by W.G.R. Sprague. The theatre opened as the Waldorf Theatre on 22 May 1905, and was renamed the Strand Theatre , in 1909. It was again renamed as the Whitney Theatre , in 1911 before again becoming the Strand Theatre , in 1913. In 2005, the theatre was renamed by its owners (Delfont Mackintosh Theatres) the Novello Theatre in honour of Ivor Novello, who lived in a flat above the theatre from 1913 to 1951.

The black comedy Arsenic and Old Lace had a run of 1337 performances here in the 1940s, and Sailor Beware ran for 1231 performances from 1955. Stephen Sondheim's musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum opened here on the day of Kennedy's assassination, running for nearly two years. In 1971, the comedy No Sex Please, We're British opened here, remaining for over 10 years of its 16-year run until it transferred to the Garrick Theatre in 1982.

The theatre was extensively refurbished in 1930 and again in the early 1970s. It was Grade II listed by English Heritage on 20 July 1971 ^[1]. In 2005, its 100th anniversary year, the theatre was extensively refurbished. The current seating capacity is around 1,050.

The theatre reopened on 8 December 2005 with the Royal Shakespeare Company's annual London season, playing to 4-week runs of Twelfth Night , The Comedy of Errors , A Midsummer Night's Dream and As You Like It , concluding in March 2006. In 2006 the theatre has played host to the London première of the Broadway musical Footloose , starring Cheryl Baker. Ending on 11 November, Footloose made way for the Royal Shakespeare Company's return season for 2006-7, following which the Broadway musical The Drowsy Chaperone made its European première on 6 June 2007. The London production starred Elaine Paige, Bob Martin, Summer Strallen and John Partridge. The London production closed after a run of only two months on 4 August 2007 after failing to attract audiences, despite positive notices.

It was announced on 10 July 2007, just three days after the announcement of Drowsy's premature closure that the theatre would be the home of a new musical version of the MGM motion picture Desperately Seeking Susan with music by Blondie and Deborah Harry, directed by Angus Jackson, and starring Emma Williams and Kelly Price. The musical previewed on 16 October 2007 (originally 12 October 2007 ), receiving its world première on 15 November 2007. However, just two weeks after its opening, following a critical mauling, the show announced its final performance for 15 December 2007, having played just four weeks of previews and four weeks of open run, losing over £3.5 million.

A quick replacement comes in the form of the cross-West End transfer of Shadowlands from the Wyndham's Theatre, commencing 21 December 2007 for a 12 week run to 25 February 2008. Producer Phil McIntyre opened ZooNation's adaptation of the musical Into the Woods , entitled Into the Hoods , on 26 March 2008.

Recent and current productions

• Verdict (May 22, 1858 - - ) (Strand Theatre)
• No Sex Please, We're British (June 3, 1971 - January 16, 1982)
• The Real Thing (November 16, 1982 - February 16, 1985)
• Cabaret (July 17, 1986 - May 4, 1987)
• Someone Like You (March 22 - April 26, 1990)
• Leonardo the Musical: A Portrait of Love (June 3 - July 10, 1993)
• ''Buddy (October 6, 1995 - March 3, 2002)
• The Rat Pack: Live From Las Vegas (July 1, 2003 - 28 May 2005)
• The RSC's Twelfth Night (December 8, 2005 - December 31, 2005)
• The RSC's The Comedy of Errors (January 6, 2006 - January 28, 2006)
• The RSC's A Midsummer Night's Dream (February 2, 2006 - February 25, 2006)
• The RSC's As You Like It (March 2, 2006 - March 25, 2006)
• Footloose - The Musical (April 8, 2006 - 11 November, 2006)
• The RSC's Much Ado About Nothing (December 7, 2006 - January 6, 2007)
• The RSC's Antony and Cleopatra (January 11, 2007 - February 17, 2007)
• The RSC's The Tempest (February 22, 2007 - March 24, 2007)
• The Drowsy Chaperone (June 6, 2007 - August 4, 2007)
• Desperately Seeking Susan - A New Musical (November 15, 2007 - December 15, 2007)
• Shadowlands (December 21, 2007 - February 23, 2008)
• Into the Hoods (March 14, 2008 - August 30, 2008)
• Eurobeat - Almost Eurovision (September 9, 2008 - 10 November, 2008)
• The RSC's Hamlet (December 3, 2008 - January 10, 2009)
• The RSC's A Midsummer Night's Dream (January 15, 2009 - February 7, 2009)
• The RSC's The Taming of the Shrew (February 12, 2009 - March 7, 2009)

References

1. English Heritage Listing details (as Strand theatre) accessed 23 August 2007