London Theatre Breaks

The Palace Theatre, London

Current show: Priscilla Queen of the Desert the Musical
Architect: T E Collcutt and G H Holloway
Opened: 31 January 1891
Listed: Grade II*
Seats: 1,394 on 4 levels
Archive: Previous shows at this theatre

Opened in 1891 as the Royal English Opera House, grand opera flopped here and the theatre was re-opened at the Palace, a music hall, two years later on 10 December 1892.

During the late 1950s the interior mable work was painted over but, thankfully, during the last half of the 1980s the theatre was extensively restored to it's former glory without closing the theatre - interior painting was removed to once again reveal the marble and onyx, while on the exterior, the huge illuminated billboards advertising productions at the theatre have been removed to provide a clear view of the building which holds a prominent position at Cambridge Circus at the Junction of Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road.

Since the mid 1920s the Palace has been mostly home to musicals which have included in 1925 No, No, Nanette! which run for 655 performances. Song of Norway in 1946. 839 performances of King's Rhapsody in 1949. The Sound of Music in 1961 which run for 2,385 performances. Cabaret in 1968 and in 1972 Jesus Christ Superstar which run for 3,358 performances. The current production, Les Miserables, originally opend at the Barbican Theatre on 8 October 1985 before transferring here on 4 December 1985. Les Miserables became the Palace's longest running production on 10 January 1994. Then, on 27 March 2004, and after 18 years and 7,602 performances, Les Miserables closed at The Palace Theatre and transferred to The Queen's Theatre where it opened on 3 April 2004.

In September 2004 Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical The Woman in White opened, marking the return to the West End of the musical theatre star Michael Crawford who was last seen in London in the original cast of Webber's Phantom of the Opera.

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
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
St Martin's Theatre
Savoy Theatre
Shaftesbury Theatre
Shakespeare's Globe Theatre
Trafalgar Studios
Vaudeville Theatre
Victoria Palace Theatre
Wyndham's Theatre