Adelphi Theatre
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Adelphi Theatre is a 1500-seat West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, today it is a receiving house for a variety of productions, including many musicals.
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[edit] History
[edit] 19th century
It was founded in 1806 as the Sans Pareil ("Without Compare"), by merchant John Scott. On October 18, 1819 it was reopened under its present name, which was adopted from the Adelphi Buildings opposite.[1]
In its early years, the theatre was known for melodrama], called Adelphi Screamers.[1] Many stories by Charles Dickens were also adapted for the stage here, including John Baldwin Buckstone's The Christening, a comic burletta, which opened on October 13, 1834, based on the story The Bloomsbury Christening. This is notable for being thought the first Dickens adaption performed. This was the first of many of Dickens's early works adapted for the stage of the Adelphi, including The Pickwick Papers as W. L. Rede's The Peregrinations of Pickwick; or, Boz-i- a-na, a three-act burletta first performed on April 3, 1837, Yates's production of Nicholas Nickleby; or, Doings at Do-The-Boys Hall in November and December 1838, and Edward Stirling's two-act burletta The Old Curiosity Shop; or, One Hour from Humphrey's Clock (November and December 1840, January 1841).[1] The theatre itself, makes a cameo appearance in The Pickwick Papers[2]
The Adelphi came under the management of Madame Celeste and comedian Ben Webster, in 1844, and Buckstone was appointed its resident dramatist. Dramatisations of Dickens continued to be performed, including A Christmas Carol; or, Past, Present, and Future opening on February 5th; and Beckett's The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that rang an Old Year out and a New One In. In 1848, The Haunted Man was performed.[1]
The old theatre was demolished, and on December 26, 1858, The New Adelphi was opened and was considered an improvement on the cramped circumstances of the original, which had been described as a "hasty conversion from a tavern hall, permanently kept in its provisional state". The new theatre could seat 1,500 people, with standing room for another 500. The interior was lighted by a Stroud's Patent Sun Lamp, a brilliant array of gas mantles passed through a chandelier of cut-glass.
In the mid-1800s, John Lawrence Toole established his comedic reputation at the Adelphi. Also in the mid-1800s, the Adelphi hosted a number of French operettas, including La Belle Hélène. In 1867, however, the Adelphi gave English comic opera a boost by hosting the first public performance of Arthur Sullivan's first opera, Cox and Box.
An actor who performed regularly at the Adelphi in the latter half of the nineteenth century, William Terriss, was stabbed to death on December 16, 1897, as recorded on a plaque on the wall by the stage door. Outside a neighbouring pub, a sign says that the killer was one of the theatre's stage hands, but Richard Archer Prince committed the murder. It has been said that Terriss' ghost haunts the theatre. Terriss' daughter was Ellaline Terriss, a famous actress, and her husband, actor-manager Seymour Hicks managed the Adelphi for some years at the end of the 19th century.
[edit] 20th century
On September 11, 1901, the third theatre was opened as the Century Theatre, although the name reverted in 1904. This theatre was built by Frank Kirk to the design of Ernest Runtz. George Edwardes, the dean of London musical theatre, took over management of the theatre in 1908. In the early part of the 20th century, the Adelphi was home to a number of musical comedies, the most successful of which included The Earl and the Girl (1904), The Quaker Girl (1910), The Boy (1917), Clowns in Clover (1927), and Mr. Cinders (1929).
The present Adelphi opened on December 3, 1930, redesigned in the art deco style by Ernest Schaufelberg. It was named the 'Royal Adelphi Theatre' and re-opened with the hit musical Ever Green, by Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers, based on the book Benn W. Levy. The operetta Balalaika (a revised version of the Gay Hussar) played at the theatre in 1936, and in 1940 the theatre's name again reverted to 'The Adelphi'. The theatre continued to host comedy and musicals, including Bless The Bride (1947), Maggie May (1964), and A Little Night Music (1975), as well as dramas (see below for a list beginning in 1979).
A proposed redevelopment of Covent Garden by the GLC in 1968 saw the theatre under threat, together with the nearby Vaudeville, Garrick, Lyceum and Duchess theatres. An active campaign by Equity, the Musicians' Union, and theatre owners under the auspices of the Save London Theatres Campaign led to the abandonment of the scheme[3].
In 1993, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group purchased the theatre and completely refurbished it prior to the opening of his adaptation of Sunset Boulevard. The 1998 video of Lloyd Webber's musical Cats was filmed at the theatre.
[edit] 21st century
Between 1997 and April 2006 the venue was the setting for the popular musical Chicago. On April 22, 2006, the production transferred to the Cambridge Theatre, to make way for Michael Grandage's new production of Lloyd Webber's Evita, which started previews on the 2nd of June 2006.
Brian Wilson performed his album Pet Sounds for the last ever time in the UK in the Adelphi in November 2006.
[edit] Recent productions
- My Fair Lady (October 25, 1979 - October 31, 1981)
- The 1981-82 D'Oyly Carte Opera Company Season (November 11, 1981 - February 27, 1982)
- The American Dream Machine (October 20, 1982 - December 1, 1982)
- Marilyn (March 17, 1983 - July 30, 1983)
- Poppy (November 12, 1983 - February 4, 1984)
- Lena Horne - The Lady and Her Music (August 6, 1984 - September 29, 1984)
- Jungle Book (December 4, 1984 - January 12, 1985)
- Me and My Girl (February 12, 1985 - January 16, 1993)
- Sunset Boulevard (July 12, 1993 - January 21, 1995)
- Damn Yankees (June 4, 1997 - August 9, 1997)
- Chicago (November 19, 1997 - April 22, 2006)
- Evita (June 20, 2006 - May 29, 2007)
- Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (from August 2007)
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Victorian Web - Victorian Theatres accessed 5 Mar 2007
- ^ The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens (1836) Chapt. 31
- ^ Vaudeville Theatre accessed 28 Mar 2007
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Nearby tube stations
[edit] External links
- The Adelphi Theatre 1806-1900: A Calendar of Performances, from an Eastern Michigan University website
- Adelphi Theatre History
- Information about Ever Green and the 1930 re-opening of the theatre
