Queen's Theatre
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The Queen's Theatre is a West End theatre located in Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster. It is next to the Gielgud Theatre, as whose twin it was designed by W.G.R. Sprague at the beginning of the 20th century. The theatre opened in 1906. The theatre has a modern shell but an Edwardian interior following a hit on the facade by a German bomb in September 1940.
The Queen's Theatre has seen such talents as Edith Evans, George Bernard Shaw, Henry Daniell, Basil Rathbone, John Gielgud, Noel Coward, Kenneth Branagh, Marlene Dietrich, Miranda Richardson, Nigel Hawthorne, Jane Lapotaire, Alec Guinness, Fiona Shaw and Maggie Smith. Recent notable shows at the Queen's include the Tony award winning musical Contact; Cyberjam, a production by the Emmy and Tony Award winning creators of Blast!; and The Taming of the Shrew.
Since April 2004, the theatre has played host to Cameron Mackintosh's production of Les Misérables which transferred after 18 years at the nearby Palace Theatre. The musical celebrated its 20th anniversary at the venue on 8th October 2005 and overtook Cats as the longest running musical of all time a year later on 8th October 2006 [1].
The Queen's is set to form part of owner Cameron Mackintosh's masterplan for a new Shaftesbury Avenue theatre complex. As part of this scheme, the foyer will be amalgamated with the adjoining Gielgud Theatre (also owned by Mackintosh), and the Queen's will be transformed into 1200 seats over two levels. On the roof, will be the new Sondheim Theatre scheduled to open in late 2007.
[edit] References
- Who's Who in the Theatre, edited by John Parker, tenth edition, revised, London, 1947, pps: 477-478 and 1183.
