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Noël Coward Theatre

New Theatre Albery Theatre
Noël Coward Theatre in 2009
Address	St Martin's Lane London, WC2 United Kingdom
Coordinates	51°30′40″N 0°07′38″W / 51.511111°N 0.127222°W / 51.511111; -0.127222Coordinates: 51°30′40″N 0°07′38″W / 51.511111°N 0.127222°W / 51.511111; -0.127222
Public transit	Leicester Square
Owner	Salisbury estate
Operator	Delfont Mackintosh Theatres
Designation	Grade II listed[1]
Type	West End theatre
Capacity	872 on 4 levels
Production	All About Eve
Construction
Opened	1903; 116 years ago (1903)
Architect	W. G. R. Sprague
Website
Official website at Delfont Mackintosh Theatres

The Noël Coward Theatre, formerly known as the Albery Theatre, is a West End theatre on St. Martin's Lane in the City of Westminster, London. It opened on 12 March 1903 as the New Theatre and was built by Sir Charles Wyndham behind Wyndham's Theatre which was completed in 1899. The building was designed by architect W. G. R. Sprague with an exterior in the classical style and an interior in the Rococo style.

In 1973 it was renamed the Albery Theatre in tribute to Sir Bronson Albery who had presided as its manager for many years. Since September 2005, the theatre has been owned by Delfont-Mackintosh Ltd. It underwent major refurbishment in 2006, and was renamed the Noël Coward Theatre when it re-opened for the London premiere of Avenue Q on 1 June 2006. Noël Coward, one of Britain's greatest playwrights and actors, appeared in his own play, I'll Leave It To You, at the then New Theatre in 1920, the first West End production of one of his plays.

The theatre seats 872 patrons on four levels. The building is now a Grade II Listed structure.

New Theatre, postcard, circa 1905

Notable productions

After opening in 1903 with a production of Rosemary starring Charles Wyndham and his wife, Mary Moore (3 July 1861 – 6 April 1931), the Noël Coward Theatre has hosted a number productions. I'll Leave it to You, in 1920, was Coward's first play. George Bernard Shaw's St. Joan with an acclaimed performance by actress Sybil Thorndike ran in 1924.

The 1930s saw the greatest commercial success of John Gielgud's career, Richard of Bordeaux (1933). Gielgud followed up this triumph with a legendary production of Hamlet in which he both played the title role and directed a company that included Jessica Tandy, Jack Hawkins and a young Alec Guinness in one of his first professional roles as Osric. Gielgud also appeared with Laurence Olivier, Peggy Ashcroft and Edith Evans in Romeo and Juliet. With the Blitz came the destruction of the theatres that were home to the Old Vic and Sadler's Wells Theatre Companies. Both companies made the New Theatre home until their respective theatres were rebuilt in the 1950s. One of the most successful shows to play the New Theatre opened 30 June 1960. It was Lionel Bart's Oliver!, which ran for 2,618 performances.

A 1970 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Dion Boucicault's London Assurance, directed by Ronald Eyre, with Donald Sinden as Sir Harcourt Courtly, (for which he received the 1975 Drama Desk Special Award)^[2]Roger Rees as Charles, Judi Dench as Grace and Dinsdale Landen as Dazzle, transferred to the New Theatre in 1972 for a year, prior to its 1974 run in New York.

In 1981, Children of a Lesser God won Olivier Awards for Best New Play and for actors Trevor Eve and Elizabeth Quinn. Among some of the 1980s productions is the 1994 revival of Turgenev's A Month in the Country starring Helen Mirren and John Hurt.

In the 2000s the theatre has played host to several Shakespeare productions including a production of Twelfth Night set in India with an entirely Asian cast. The production played to packed houses and only closed as the Royal Shakespeare Company themselves had exclusive rights to perform their annual London season of Tragedies there. Between December 2004 and April 2005, they presented Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, King Lear and a brand new production of Euripides' Hecuba starring Vanessa Redgrave.

On 8 June 2005, Dion Boucicault's Victorian melodrama The Shaughraun opened; however, its success at the Dublin Gate Theatre was not repeated in London and it closed on 30 July. A dark period of around three months followed before the theatre was transferred to the ownership of Delfont Mackintosh Limited and reopened in October 2005 with The Right Size's new production Ducktastic!. Once again this failed to live up to expectations and closed just three weeks after opening on 19 November 2005. A short Christmas season of Patrick Stewart's one-man version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol played from 6 to 31 December 2005, before the theatre hosted the Edinburgh International Festival hit drama Blackbird starring Roger Allam. The award-winning play Enron (directed by Rupert Goold, starring Samuel West and Tim Pigott-Smith) transferred here after a sellout run at the Royal Court. The European premiere of the Broadway hit, Avenue Q, started previewing on 2 June 2006 and had its opening night on 28 June 2006, finally closing on 28 March 2009 prior to transferring to the Gielgud Theatre.

Following a production of Deathtrap, directed by Matthew Warchus and starring Simon Russell Beale and Jonathan Groff, the theatre became the home of jukebox musical Million Dollar Quartet in February 2011.

Recent, present and future productions

• 
  Endgame (10 March 2004 – 1 May 2004) by Samuel Beckett, starring Lee Evans and Michael Gambon
  


• 
  Suddenly Last Summer (14 May 2004 – 31 July 2004) by Tennessee Williams, starring Diana Rigg
  


• 
  Twelfth Night (26 August 2004 – 30 October 2004) by William Shakespeare, starring Raza Jaffrey and Kulvinder Ghir
  


• The RSC's Hamlet (23 November 2004 – 11 December 2004) by William Shakespeare, starring Toby Stephens
  


• 
  Peter Pan – 100 Years of Peter Pan (19 December 2004) by JM Barrie
  


• The RSC's Romeo and Juliet (21 December 2004 – 8 January 2005) by William Shakespeare
  


• The RSC's King Lear (18 January 2005 – 5 February 2005) by William Shakespeare, starring Corin Redgrave
  


• The RSC's Macbeth (16 February 2005 – 5 March 2005) by William Shakespeare
  


• The RSC's Hecuba (7 April 2005 – 7 May 2005) by Tony Harrison, adapted from Euripides, starring Vanessa Redgrave
  


• 
  The Shaughraun (8 June 2005 – 30 July 2005) by Dion Boucicault


• 
  Ducktastic! (19 October 2005 – 19 November 2005) by Sean Foley and Hamish McColl
  


• 
  Celebration – Harold Pinter (1–3 December 2005) by Harold Pinter
  


• 
  A Christmas Carol (7 December 2005 – 31 December 2005) by Patrick Stewart. adapted from Charles Dickens, starring Patrick Stewart
  


• 
  Blackbird (13 February 2006 – 13 May 2006) by David Harrower, starring Roger Allam and Jodhi May
  


• 
  Avenue Q (28 June 2006 – 28 March 2009)


• 
  Calendar Girls (13 April 2009 – 9 January 2010)


• 
  Enron (26 January 2010 – 14 August 2010)


• 
  Deathtrap (7 September 2010 – 15 January 2011) by Ira Levin starring Simon Russell Beale and Jonathan Groff
  


• 
  Million Dollar Quartet (28 February 2011 – 14 January 2012)


• 
  Hay Fever (23 February 2012 – 2 June 2012) by Noël Coward starring Lindsay Duncan, Jeremy Northam, Kevin McNally and Olivia Colman
  


• 
  Gatz (13 June 2012 – 15 July 2012)


• 
  Julius Caesar (8 August 2012 – 15 September 2012) (RSC transfer starring Paterson Joseph, Ray Fearon, Jeffery Kissoon and Cyril Nri)


• 
  Much Ado About Nothing (22 September 2012 – 27 October 2012) (RSC transfer starring Meera Syal)


• 
  Uncle Vanya (5 November 2012 – 10 November 2012) (performed in Russian with English subtitles)


• 
  The Full Monty (25 February 2014 – 29 March 2014)


• 
  Good People (19 April 2014 – 14 June 2014) starring Imelda Staunton
  


• 
  Shakespeare in Love (25 July 2014 – 18 April 2015)


• 
  Death of a Salesman (13 May 2015^[3] – 18 July 2015) by Arthur Miller (RSC transfer starring Antony Sher and Harriet Walter)


• 
  Impossible (24 July 2015 – 29 August 2015)


• 
  A Christmas Carol (9 December 2015 – 30 January 2016) by Charles Dickens, adapted by Patrick Barlow, starring Jim Broadbent
  


• 
  Mrs Henderson Presents (16 February 2016 – 18 June 2016) starring Tracie Bennett
  


• 
  Impossible (13 July 2016 – 27 August 2016)


• 
  Half A Sixpence (17 November 2016^[4] – 2 September 2017)


• 
  Girl from the North Country (11 January 2018 – 24 March 2018)


• 
  Quiz (10 April 2018 – 16 June 2018) by James Graham
  


• 
  The Inheritance (13 October 2018 – 5 January 2019) by Mattthew Lopez, starring John Benjamin Hickey and Vanessa Redgrave
  


• 
  All About Eve (12 February 2019 – 11 May 2019) starring Gillian Anderson and Lily James
  


• 
  The Night of the Iguana (16 July 2019 – 28 September 2019) by Tennessee Williams, starring Clive Owen and Lia Williams
  


• 
  Dear Evan Hansen (19 November 2019 – )

Michael Grandage Company

• 
  Privates on Parade by Peter Nichols (10 December 2012 – 2 March 2013) starring Simon Russell Beale
  


• 
  Peter and Alice by John Logan (25 March 2013 – 1 June 2013) starring Judi Dench and Ben Whishaw
  


• 
  The Cripple of Inishmaan by Martin McDonagh (18 June 2013 – 31 August 2013) starring Daniel Radcliffe
  


• 
  A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare (17 September 2013 – 16 November 2013) starring Sheridan Smith and David Walliams
  


• 
  Henry V by William Shakespeare (3 December 2013 – 15 February 2014) starring Jude Law
  


• 
  Photograph 51 by Anna Ziegler (14 September 2015^[5] – 21 November 2015) starring Nicole Kidman
  


• 
  Labour of Love by James Graham (3 October 2017 – 2 December 2017) starring Martin Freeman and Tamsin Greig
  


• 
  The Lieutenant of Inishmore by Martin McDonagh (4 July 2018 – 8 September 2018) starring Aidan Turner
  

References

• 
  Guide to British Theatres 1750–1950, John Earl and Michael Sell pp. 97 (Theatres Trust, 2000)
  ISBN 0-7136-5688-3
  

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Noël Coward Theatre.

• Theatre History