Palace Theatre
Shaftesbury Avenue, London, W1A 4AF

Nearest underground:
Leicester Square (Northen Line, Piccadilly Line)

Nearest rail:
Charing Cross

‘The World’s Greatest Artistes Have Passed And Will Pass Through These Doors’ is engraved above the stage doors of the gigantic Palace. It occupies an entire block on Cambridge Circus, nearby Leicester Square. Its terracotta frontage and domed towers make it one of the more unusual looking of London’s theatres. Its interior is just as splendid and in 1982 was completely restored by Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Company, revealing its lovely marble and Mexican onyx panelling. The highly ornate red and gold stalls bar is particularly dazzling.

The great impresario Richard D’Oyly Carte instigated the building of the Palace, then the Royal English Opera House, in 1891, as a place for English opera to flourish. However his plan was misjudged, only one English opera, by Arthur Sullivan was ever performed, and just a year afterwards the building was sold. Music hall variety bills, revues, musical comedy then operettas followed. It was here that Ivor Novello’s King’s Rhapsody was being staged when the composer and star died in 1950. In the 1960s the theatre restaged many Broadway classics, although not all of them were hits. It was Jesus Christ Superstar (1972) and then Les Miserables (1985) that provided the theatre with its longest innings.

What's on at Palace Theatre

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