Garrick Theatre

This article is about the West End theatre in London. For other uses, see Garrick Theatre (disambiguation).

Garrick Theatre

Garrick Theatre in July 2007
Address	2 Charing Cross Road Westminster, London, WC2H 0HH UK
Coordinates
Owner	Nimax Theatres
Designation	Grade II* listed
Type	West End theatre
Capacity	656 on 3 levels (present) 800 on 4 levels (1889)
Production	The Winter's Tale/Harlequinade
Construction
Opened	24 April 1889
Architect	Walter Emden, with C. J. Phipps
Website
www.nimaxtheatres.com/nimax/garrick

The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster, named for the stage actor David Garrick. It opened in 1889 with The Profligate, a play by Arthur Wing Pinero, and another Pinero play, The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith, was an early success at the theatre. In its early years, the Garrick appears to have specialised in the performance of melodrama. The theatre later became associated with comedies, including No Sex Please, We're British, which played for four years from 1982 to 1986.

History

There was previously another theatre that was sometimes called the Garrick in London, on Leman Street, opened in 1831 and demolished in 1881. The new Garrick Theatre was financed in 1889 by the playwright W. S. Gilbert, the author of over 75 plays, including the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas. It was designed by Walter Emden, with C. J. Phipps brought in as a consultant to help with the planning on the difficult site after an underground river was discovered in the excavation. Originally the theatre had 800 seats on four levels, but the gallery (top) level has since been closed and the seating capacity reduced to 656.

The theatre's first manager was Gilbert's friend John Hare. The first play at the theatre, The Profligate, by Arthur Wing Pinero and starring Hare, opened on 24 April 1889. Sydney Grundy's long-running French-style comedy A Pair of Spectacles opened here in February 1890. Mrs Patrick Campbell starred five years later in Pinero's The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith. Afterwards, the theatre suffered a short period of decline until it was leased by Arthur Bourchier for six years, whose wife, Violet Vanbrugh, starred in a series of successful productions ranging from farce to Shakespeare. In 1900, the theatre hosted J. M. Barrie's The Wedding Guest. Rutland Barrington presented several stage works at the Garrick, including his popular "fairy play" called Water Babies in 1902, based on Charles Kingsley's book, with music by Alfred Cellier, among others. The only piece actually premiered by W. S. Gilbert here was Harlequin and the Fairy's Dilemma (retitled The Fairy's Dilemma after a few days), a "Domestic Pantomime" (1904). In 1921, Basil Rathbone played Dr. Lawson in The Edge o' Beyond at the Garrick, and the following year Sir Seymour Hicks appeared in his own play, The Man in Dress Clothes. In 1925 Henry Daniell played there as Jack Race in Cobra and appeared there again as Paul Cortot in Marriage by Purchase in March 1932.

A proposed redevelopment of Covent Garden by the GLC in 1968 saw the theatre under threat, together with the nearby Vaudeville, Adelphi, 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. The gold-leaf auditorium was restored in 1986 by the stage designer Carl Toms, and in 1997 the front façade was renovated.

The theatre has mostly been associated with comedies or comedy-dramas. More recent productions are listed below and include No Sex Please, We're British (1982), which played for four years at the theatre before transferring to the Duchess Theatre in 1986. In 1995, the Royal National Theatre's multi-award winning production of J. B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls opened here, having played successful seasons at the Royal National Theatre's Lyttelton and Olivier theatres as well as the Aldwych Theatre and a season on Broadway.

In 1986, the Garrick was acquired by the Stoll Moss Group, and, in 2000, it became a Really Useful Theatre when Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group and Bridgepoint Capital purchased Stoll Moss Theatres Ltd. In October 2005, Nica Burns and Max Weitzenhoffer purchased the Garrick Theatre, and it became one of five playhouses operating under their company name of Nimax Theatres Ltd, alongside the Lyric Theatre, Apollo Theatre, Vaudeville Theatre and Duchess Theatre.

The interior retains many of its original features, and was Grade II* listed by English Heritage in September 1960.

Notable productions

• 1895 – The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith, starring Mrs Patrick Campbell
• 1947 – Laurence Olivier directed Jack Buchanan in Born Yesterday
• 1950 – Richard Attenborough transferred from the Savoy Theatre in To Dorothy a Son.
• 1955 – The revue La Plume de Ma Tante was an enormous success, during the run of which Jack Buchanan died, in 1957.
• 1958 – Dora Bryan in Living for Pleasure.
• 1959 – Margaret Rutherford and Peggy Mount in Farewell Farewell Eugene.
• 1960 – The Stratford East production of Lionel Bart's Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be began a two-year run with Miriam Karlin.
• 1962 – Sheila Hancock in Rattle of a Simple Man.
• 1967 – Brian Rix presented and appeared in Stand By Your Bedouin, the first in a season of farces, including Uproar in the House and Let Sleeping Wives Lie.
• 1971 – The last of these farces was Don't Just Lie There, Say Something!.
• 1972 – Anthony Shaffer's Sleuth transferred.
• 1973 – Dandy Dick starred Alastair Sim and Patricia Routledge.
• 1975 – Robert Stigwood presented Aspects of Max Wall for a six-week sell-out season.
• 1976 – Richard Beckinsale headlined the risque comedy Funny Peculiar.
• 1977 – Side By Side By Sondheim transferred and was a continuing success with three casts.
• 1978 – Ira Levin's thriller Deathtrap began a long run until 1981.
• 1982 – No Sex Please, We're British transferred from the Strand Theatre and remained until 1986.
• 1986 – Judi Dench and Michael Williams in Mr and Mrs Nobody.
• 1987 – William Gaunt and Susie Blake in When Did You Last See Your Trousers? by Ray Galton and John Antrobus.
• 1988 – Jane How and Zena Walker transferred from the King's Head, Islington in Noël Coward's Easy Virtue.
• 1989 – Rupert Everett and Maria Aitken in another Coward, The Vortex; and Timberlake Wertenbaker's Our Country's Good transferred from the Royal Court Theatre.
• 1990 – Short seasons of Bent with Ian McKellen and Frankie Howerd At His Tittermost; The Rehearsal by Jean Anouilh transferred from the Almeida Theatre.
• 1991 – Brian Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa transferred from the Phoenix Theatre.
• 1993 – John Godber's On the Piste and Steven Berkoff's One Man.
• 1994 – Tom Courtenay in Moscow Stations and a festive season with Fascinating Aida.
• 1995 – The Live Bed Show with Paul Merton and Caroline Quentin, the Abbey Theatre production of Sean O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars; the Royal National Theatre's An Inspector Calls, which began its second prolonged season in the West End.
• 2001 – Feelgood transferred from Hampstead Theatre followed by J B Priestley's Dangerous Corner.
• 2002 – The hit British premiere production of This is Our Youth plays two seasons either side of a successful run of The Lieutenant of Inishmore.
• 2003 – Wait Until Dark.
• 2004 – A revival of David Mamet's Oleanna; The Solid Gold Cadillac, starring Patricia Routledge and Roy Hudd.
• 2005 – The Anniversary with Sheila Hancock, Elmina's Kitchen by Kwame Kwei-Armah, On The Ceiling with Ralf Little, You Never Can Tell with Edward Fox.
• 2006 – One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest starring Christian Slater and Alex Kingston, Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell starring Tom Conti, Amy's View starring Felicity Kendal.
• 2007 – Billie Piper makes her stage debut in a new production of Christopher Hampton's Treats, Bad Girls: The Musical, Absurd Person Singular.
• 2008 – Derren Brown's Mind Reader – An Evening of Wonders, Zorro.
• 2009 – A Little Night Music transferred from the Menier Chocolate Factory, The Mysteries by the Isango Portobello Theatre Company, Arturo Brachetti's Change.
• 2010 – The Little Dog Laughed starring Tamsin Greig, Rupert Friend, Gemma Arterton and Harry Lloyd, All the Fun of the Fair, a jukebox musical based on the songs of David Essex, When We Are Married starring Maureen Lipman and Roy Hudd.
• 2011 – The Hurly Burly Show a contemporary burlesque revue starring Miss Polly Rae; Pygmalion, starring Rupert Everett, Kara Tointon and Diana Rigg, Chicago transferred from the Cambridge Theatre starring America Ferrera, closing in 2012 after 15 years in the West End.
• 2012 – Loserville, a new musical by Elliot Davis and James Bourne, starring Aaron Sidwell and Lil' Chris.
• 2013 – Rock of Ages transfers from the Shaftesbury Theatre. Twelve Angry Men starring Martin Shaw and Robert Vaughn.
• 2014 – Let It Be and The Scottsboro Boys.
• 2015 – Let It Be returned for a limited run; Kenneth Branagh presents a season starring himself with the following co-stars: The Winter's Tale – Judi Dench, Harlequinade – Zoë Wanamaker, The Painkiller – Rob Brydon, Romeo and Juliet – Lily James, Richard Madden and Derek Jacobi, and The Entertainer. Branagh's company is scheduled to be resident at the Garrick for a year from October 2015.

References

• Guide to British Theatres 1750–1950, John Earl and Michael Sell pp. 111 (Theatres Trust, 2000) ISBN 0-7136-5688-3
• Who's Who in the Theatre, edited by John Parker, tenth edition, revised, London, 1947, pps: 477–478 and 1184.

External links

• Official Garrick Theatre Website
• Article on Garrick Theatre
• Information about the Garrick and other Victorian theatres