Kids Weeks 2010

Apollo Victoria Theatre, London

Current show: Wicked the Musical.
Architect: E Warmsley Lewis with W E Trent
Opened: 1930
Listed: Grade II*
Seats: 2,208 on 2 levels
Archive: Previous shows at this theatre

Built as a 'super-cinema' and was called the New Victoria Cine-Variety Theatre when it opened in 1930. This strikingly art deco cinema was designed, as were all super-cinemas of the period, with facilities for stage shows that would precede the cinema films.

The cinema closed in 1975, then reopened for live entertainment in 1981 under it's present name. The opening show was a Shirley Bassey concert. Other productions included The Sound of Music with Petula Clark in 1981, Camelot with Richard Harris in 1982, Dash with Wayne Sleep in 1983 and Fiddler on the Roof with Topol also in 1983. Then 1,262 seats where removed to accomodate a roller-skating track and much of the auditorium was painted black for the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Starlight Express which opened on 27 March 1984 and played for 7,406 performances up to 12 January 2002. After it closed the theatre was extensively refurbished - including the reinstatement of the seats removed to accommodate the Starlight Express skating track - and the interior was once again returned to its former glory. The new musical Bombay Dreams, presented by Andrew Lloyd Webber in his producing capacity, opened on 19 June 2002.

List of shows currently playing in London's West End

List by date built

Adelphi Theatre
Aldwych Theatre
Ambassadors Theatre
Apollo Theatre
Apollo Victoria Theatre
Barbican Theatre
Cambridge Theatre
Comedy Theatre
Criterion Theatre
Dominion Theatre
Drury Lane Theatre
Duchess Theatre
Duke of York's Theatre
Fortune Theatre
Garrick Theatre
Gielgud Theatre
Haymarket Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre
London Coliseum
London Palladium
Lyceum Theatre
Lyric Theatre
National Theatre
New London Theatre
Noel Coward Theatre
Novello Theatre
Old Vic Theatre
Palace Theatre
Phoenix Theatre
Piccadilly Theatre
Playhouse Theatre
Prince Edward Theatre
Prince of Wales Theatre
Queen's Theatre
Royal Opera House
St Martin's Theatre
Sadler's Wells
Savoy Theatre
Shaftesbury Theatre
Shakespeare's Globe Theatre
Trafalgar Studios
Vaudeville Theatre
Victoria Palace Theatre
Wyndham's Theatre