West End theatre


West End theatre is mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres in and near the West End of London. Along with New York City's Broadway theatre, West End theatre represents the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. Seeing a West End show is a common tourist activity in London. Prominent screen actors, British and international alike, frequently appear on the London stage.
There are about 40 theatres in the West End. The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, opened in 1663, is the oldest theatre in London. The Savoy Theatre—built as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan—was entirely lit by electricity in 1881.
The Society of London Theatre announced that 2018 was a record year for the capital's theatre industry: attendances topped 15.5 million for the first time since the organisation began collecting audience data in 1986. Box office revenues exceeded £765 million. Attendance slipped 1.4% the next year, but box office revenues reached a record £799 million. In 2023, audiences reached a record 17.1 million.
Most West End theatres are owned by the ATG Entertainment, Delfont Mackintosh Theatres, Nimax Theatres, LW Theatres, and the Nederlander Organization.

History

Theatre in London flourished after the English Reformation. The first permanent public playhouse, known as The Theatre, was constructed in 1576 in Shoreditch by James Burbage. It was soon joined by The Curtain. Both are known to have been used by William Shakespeare's company. In 1599, the timber from The Theatre was moved to Southwark, where it was used to build the Globe Theatre in a new theatre district beyond the controls of the City corporation.
The Puritans, who regarded theatre as sinful, closed them in 1642. On 24 January 1643, actors protested the ban by writing a pamphlet, "The Actors remonstrance or complaint for the silencing of their profession, and banishment from their severall play-houses".
After the Restoration, Puritan legislation was declared null and void, and theatre exploded. Two companies were licensed to perform: the Duke's Company and the King's Company. Performances were held in converted buildings, such as Lisle's Tennis Court. The first West End theatre, known as Theatre Royal in Bridges Street, was designed by Thomas Killigrew and built on the site of the present Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. It opened on 7 May 1663 and was destroyed by a fire nine years later. It was replaced by a new structure designed by Christopher Wren and renamed the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. One of the first actresses on the stage, Nell Gwyn became a star of restoration comedy.
Outside the West End, Sadler's Wells Theatre opened in Islington on 3 June 1683. Taking its name from founder Richard Sadler and monastic springs that were discovered on the property, it operated as a "Musick House", with performances of opera; as it was not licensed for plays. In the West End, the Theatre Royal Haymarket opened on 29 December 1720 on a site slightly north of its current location, and the Royal Opera House opened in Covent Garden on 7 December 1732. John Gay's ballad opera The Beggar's Opera ran for 62 performances in 1728, and held the record for London's longest run for nearly a century. It has been called "the most popular play of the eighteenth century." Another musical show, Tom and Jerry, or Life in London, was the first London production to reach 100 consecutive performances. Tom and Jerry's combination of a tour of London interspersed with song and dance, gave rise to numerous similar, loosely constructed entertainments, and "planted the seeds for later musical comedy and revue". In 1823, Presumption; or, the Fate of Frankenstein, the first adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, was staged at the English Opera House by Richard Brinsley Peake, who also introduced the line "It lives!". Shelley attended a performance on 29 August 1823 and following the success of the play she wrote, "lo & behold! I found myself famous!".
The Patent theatre companies retained their duopoly on drama well into the 19th century, and all other theatres could perform only musical entertainments. By the early 19th century, however, music hall entertainments became popular, and presenters found a loophole in the restrictions on non-patent theatres in the genre of melodrama. Melodrama did not break the Patent Acts, as it was accompanied by music. Initially, these entertainments were presented in large halls, attached to public houses, but purpose-built theatres began to appear in the East End, such as the Pavilion Theatre in Whitechapel. The comic theatrical genre the harlequinade was also popular among London audiences. Its most famous performer, Joseph Grimaldi, best known for developing the modern day white-face clown, made his stage debut at Drury Lane in 1780.
File:Savoy pre-1920.JPG|left|thumb|Original interior of Savoy Theatre in 1881, the year it was fitted with the incandescent light bulb developed by Sir Joseph Swan to become the first public building in the world to be lit entirely by electricity.
The West End theatre district became established with the opening of many small theatres and halls, including the Adelphi in The Strand on 17 November 1806. South of the River Thames, the Old Vic, Waterloo Road, opened on 11 May 1818. The expansion of the West End theatre district gained pace with the Theatres Act 1843, which relaxed the conditions for the performance of plays, and The Strand gained another venue when the Vaudeville opened on 16 April 1870. The next few decades saw the opening of many new theatres in the West End. The Adelphi hosted A Christmas Carol; or, Past, Present, and Future in 1844, a play adapted from the novella A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens—who came to several stage rehearsals during which he made suggestions—with his book published weeks earlier in December 1843.
The Criterion Theatre opened on Piccadilly Circus on 21 March 1874, and in 1881, two more houses appeared: the Savoy Theatre in The Strand, built by Richard D'Oyly Carte specifically to showcase the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, opened in October, and five days later the Comedy Theatre opened as the Royal Comedy Theatre on Panton Street in Leicester Square. It abbreviated its name three years later. On 23 December 1886, Alice in Wonderland debuted at the Prince of Wales Theatre. Its author Lewis Carroll was involved in the stage adaptation, and he attended a performance seven days later. The Palace Theatre opened in 1891. Opened in 1892, the Duke of York's Theatre debuted J. M. Barrie's play, Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, on 27 December 1904.
Oscar Wilde, one of the most popular playwrights in London in the 1890s, premiered his second comedy, A Woman of No Importance, at Haymarket Theatre in 1893. The subject of widespread public and media interest, Lillie Langtry made her West End debut in the comedy She Stoops to Conquer in 1881. In 1878, Ellen Terry joined Henry Irving's company as his leading lady, and for more than the next two decades she was considered the leading Shakespearean and comic actress in Britain. Opened in 1903, the New Theatre debuted The Scarlet Pimpernel in 1905, a play that introduced a heroic figure with an alter ego into the public consciousness. The theatre was renamed the Noël Coward Theatre in 2006 after the playwright Noël Coward. Constructed in 1897, Her Majesty's Theatre hosted a number of premieres, including George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion in 1914 with Mrs Patrick Campbell originating the role of Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle. The theatre building boom continued until about the First World War.
In 1930, Laurence Olivier had his first important West End success in Noël Coward's Private Lives. A number of other actors made their West End debut prior to the Second World War, including John Gielgud, Alec Guinness, Vivien Leigh and Rex Harrison; the latter's performance in Terence Rattigan's 1936 comedy French Without Tears at the Criterion Theatre established him a leading light comedian. During the 1950s and 1960s, many plays were produced in theatre clubs, to evade the censorship then exercised by the Lord Chamberlain's Office. The Theatres Act 1968 finally abolished censorship of the stage in the United Kingdom.

Theatreland

"Theatreland", London's main theatre district, contains approximately 40 venues and is located in and near the heart of the West End of London. It is traditionally defined by the Strand to the south, Oxford Street to the north, Regent Street to the west, and Kingsway to the east. However, a few other nearby theatres are also considered "West End" despite being outside the area proper; an example is the Apollo Victoria Theatre, in Westminster. Prominent theatre streets include Drury Lane, Shaftesbury Avenue and the Strand. The works staged are predominantly musicals, classic and modern straight plays, and comedy performances.
Many theatres in the West End are of late Victorian or Edwardian construction and are privately owned. Many are architecturally impressive, and the largest and best maintained feature grand neo-classical, Romanesque, or Victorian façades and luxurious, detailed interior design and decoration. Theatre names, such as Empire, Lyceum, Palladium, Alhambra and Hippodrome, emphasised a grandeur of scale.
[File:Queen's Theatre at Night.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Queen's Theatre showing Les Misérables, running in London since October 1985]
However, owing to the age of the buildings, leg room is often cramped, and audience facilities such as bars and toilets are often much smaller than in modern theatres. The protected status of the buildings and their confined urban locations, combined with financial constraints, make it very difficult to make substantial improvements to the level of comfort offered. Delfont Mackintosh Theatres, which owns eight London theatres, refurbished all of their theatres beginning with the Prince Edward Theatre in 1992, with the group's owner, Sir Cameron Mackintosh, later producing the stage musical Mary Poppins in the same theatre. In 2003, the Theatres Trust estimated that an investment of £250 million over the following 15 years was required for modernisation, and stated that 60% of theatres had seats from which the stage was not fully visible.
File:Victoria palace theatre london.JPG|thumb|upright|Victoria Palace Theatre was refurbished in 2017.
Starting in 2004, there were several incidents of falling plasterwork, or performances being cancelled because of urgent building repairs being required. These events culminated in the partial collapse of the ceiling of the Apollo Theatre in December 2013. Of these earlier incidents, only one led to people being hurt, but at the Apollo 76 people needed medical treatment for their injuries. A number of West End theatres have undergone refurbishments, including the Victoria Palace Theatre following the run of Billy Elliot in 2016. The Dominion Theatre refurbishment was completed in 2017 with the unveiling of a new double-sided LED screen, the largest and highest resolution projecting screen on the exterior of a West End theatre.
In 2012, gross sales of £529,787,692 were up 0.27% and attendances also increased 0.56% to 13,992,773-year-on-year. In 2013, sales again rose this time by 11% to £585,506,455, with attendances rising to 14,587,276. This was despite slightly fewer performances occurring in 2013.
On 16 March 2020, following government advice due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all theatres in the West End were closed until further notice. Theatres in London were allowed to re-open on 17 May 2021, with full capacity permitted from 19 July. Opening in October 2022, @sohoplace is the first new West End theatre in 50 years.

Long-running shows

The length of West End shows depends on ticket sales. Agatha Christie's murder mystery play The Mousetrap is the longest-running production in the West End and the world, and has been performed continuously since 1952. The longest-running musical in West End history is Les Misérables, produced by Cameron Mackintosh, which has been running in London since October 1985. It overtook Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats, which closed in 2002 after running for 8,949 performances and 21 years, as the longest-running West End musical of all time on 9 October 2006. Other long-runners include Lloyd Webber's The [Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical)|The Phantom of the Opera], Willy Russell's Blood Brothers, and Catherine Johnson's ABBA-inspired jukebox musical Mamma Mia! which have also subsequently overtaken Cats.
Running since 2011, Matilda the Musical, an adaptation of Roald Dahl's Matilda, won a then-record seven Olivier Awards in 2012. Running since 2016, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a two-part play written by Jack Thorne based on an original story by J. K. Rowling, won a record-breaking nine Olivier Awards in 2017.

List of West End theatres

  • An * after the opening date indicates that the listed production has yet to open and is scheduled for the given date at that theatre.
  • An * after the closing date indicates that there is another show scheduled for that theatre.
  • If the next show planned is not announced, the applicable columns are left blank.
TheatreAddressOpenedCapacityOwner/OperatorCurrent productionTypeOpeningClosing
Adelphi TheatreStrand18061,500LW Theatres / Nederlander OrganizationBack to the Future: The MusicalMusical2021-09-1313 September 20212026-04-1212 April 2026
Aldwych TheatreAldwych19051,200Nederlander OrganizationShadowlandsPlay2026-02-055 February 2026*2026-05-099 May 2026*
Ambassadors TheatreWest Street1913444ATG EntertainmentParanormal ActivityPlay2025-12-055 December 20252026-04-2525 April 2026*
Apollo TheatreShaftesbury Avenue1901658Nimax TheatresI'm Sorry, Prime MinisterPlay2026-02-1212 February 2026*2026-05-099 May 2026*
Apollo Victoria TheatreWilton Road19302,328ATG EntertainmentWickedMusical2006-09-2727 September 2006Open-ended
Arts TheatreGreat Newport Street1927350JJ Goodman Ltd.
Cambridge TheatreEarlham Street19301,231LW TheatresMatilda the MusicalMusical2011-11-2424 November 2011Open-ended
Criterion TheatreJermyn Street1874588Criterion Theatre TrustTitaniqueMusical2025-01-099 January 2025Open-ended
Dominion TheatreTottenham Court Road19292,163Nederlander OrganizationThe Devil Wears PradaMusical2024-12-055 December 2024Open-ended
Duchess TheatreCatherine Street1929494Nimax TheatresThe Play That Goes WrongPlay2014-09-1414 September 2014Open-ended
Duke of York's TheatreSt. Martin's Lane1892640ATG EntertainmentWoman in MindPlay2025-12-099 December 20252026-02-2828 February 2026*
Fortune TheatreRussell Street1924432ATG EntertainmentOperation MincemeatMusical2023-03-2929 March 20232026-09-2727 September 2026
Garrick TheatreCharing Cross Road1889718Nimax TheatresThe ProducersMusical2025-09-1515 September 20252026-09-1919 September 2026
Gielgud TheatreShaftesbury Avenue1906994Delfont Mackintosh TheatresOliver!Musical2025-01-1414 January 2025Open-ended
Gillian Lynne TheatreDrury Lane19731,118LW TheatresMy Neighbour TotoroPlay2025-03-2020 March 20252026-08-3030 August 2026
Harold Pinter TheatrePanton Street1881796ATG EntertainmentHigh NoonPlay2025-12-1717 December 20252026-03-077 March 2026*
His Majesty's TheatreHaymarket18971,216LW TheatresThe Phantom of the OperaMusical1986-10-99 October 1986Open-ended
London PalladiumArgyll Street19102,286LW TheatresJesus Christ SuperstarMusical2026-07-077 July 2026*2026-09-055 September 2026
Lyceum TheatreWellington Street18342,100ATG EntertainmentThe Lion KingMusical1999-10-1919 October 1999Open-ended
Lyric TheatreShaftesbury Avenue1888915Nimax TheatresHadestownMusical2024-02-2121 February 2024Open-ended
Noël Coward TheatreSt. Martin's Lane1903942Delfont Mackintosh TheatresDraculaPlay2026-02-1717 February 2026*2026-05-3030 May 2026
Novello TheatreAldwych19051,146Delfont Mackintosh TheatresMamma Mia!Musical1999-04-066 April 1999Open-ended
Palace TheatreShaftesbury Avenue18911,400Nimax TheatresHarry Potter and the Cursed ChildPlay2016-07-2525 July 2016Open-ended
Phoenix TheatreCharing Cross Road19301,012ATG EntertainmentStranger Things: The First ShadowPlay2023-12-1414 December 2023Open-ended
Piccadilly TheatreDenman Street19281,232ATG EntertainmentMoulin Rouge! The MusicalMusical2022-01-2020 January 2022Open-ended
Playhouse TheatreCraven Street1882550ATG EntertainmentCabaretMusical2021-12-1212 December 2021Open-ended
Prince Edward TheatreOld Compton Street19301,727Delfont Mackintosh TheatresMJ the MusicalMusical2024-03-2727 March 20242026-02-2828 February 2026*
Prince of Wales TheatreCoventry Street18841,148Delfont Mackintosh TheatresThe [Book of Mormon (musical)|The Book of Mormon]Musical2013-03-2121 March 2013Open-ended
Savoy TheatreStrand18811,150ATG EntertainmentPaddington: The MusicalMusical2025-11-3030 November 2025Open-ended
Shaftesbury TheatreShaftesbury Avenue19111,416DLT EntertainmentJust for One DayMusical2025-05-1515 May 20252026-02-077 February 2026*
@sohoplaceCharing Cross Road2022602Nimax TheatresThe Spy Who Came in from the ColdPlay2025-11-1717 November 20252026-02-2121 February 2026*
Sondheim TheatreShaftesbury Avenue19071,137Delfont Mackintosh TheatresLes MisérablesMusical1985-10-88 October 1985Open-ended
St Martin's TheatreWest Street1916550Stephen Waley-CohenThe MousetrapPlay1952-11-2525 November 1952Open-ended
Theatre Royal, Drury LaneCatherine Street16631,996LW TheatresHerculesMusical2025-06-2424 June 2025Open-ended
Theatre Royal HaymarketHaymarket1821888Access EntertainmentThe [Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (musical)|The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry]Musical2026-02-1010 February 2026*2026-04-1818 April 2026*
Trafalgar TheatreWhitehall1930630Trafalgar Entertainment GroupOh, Mary!Play2025-12-1818 December 2025Open-ended
Vaudeville TheatreStrand1870690Nimax TheatresSixMusical2019-01-1717 January 2019Open-ended
Victoria Palace TheatreVictoria Street19111,557Delfont Mackintosh TheatresHamiltonMusical2017-12-2121 December 2017Open-ended
Wyndham's TheatreSt. Martin's Court1899799Delfont Mackintosh TheatresAll My SonsPlay2025-11-1414 November 20252026-03-077 March 2026*

Upcoming productions

The following shows are confirmed as future West End productions. The theatre in which they will run is either not yet known or currently occupied by another show.
ProductionTypeTheatreOpeningRef
1536PlayAmbassadors Theatre2026-05-022 May 2026
Avenue QMusicalShaftesbury Theatre2026-03-2020 March 2026
BeetlejuiceMusicalPrince Edward Theatre2026-05-2020 May 2026
The [Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (musical)|The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind]Musical@sohoplace2026-04-2525 April 2026
Crossroads Pantomime PantomimeLondon Palladium2026-12-055 December 2026
Grace PervadesPlayTheatre Royal Haymarket2026-04-2424 April 2026
The Guy Who Didn't Like MusicalsMusicalApollo Theatre2026-05-1414 May 2026
Inter AliaPlayWyndham's Theatre2026-03-1919 March 2026
Marie and RosettaPlay@sohoplace2026-03-066 March 2026
Romeo and JulietPlayHarold Pinter Theatre2026-03-1616 March 2026
Sinatra: The MusicalMusicalAldwych Theatre2026-06-033 June 2026
Teeth 'n' SmilesPlayDuke of York's Theatre2026-03-1313 March 2026

London's non-commercial theatres

The term "West End theatre" is generally used to refer specifically to commercial productions in Theatreland. However, the leading non-commercial theatres in London enjoy great artistic prestige. These include the National Theatre, the Barbican Centre, Shakespeare's Globe, the Old Vic, Royal Court Theatre, Sadler's Wells Theatre, and the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. These theatres stage a high proportion of straight drama, Shakespeare, other classic plays and premieres of new plays by leading playwrights—for example David Hare's play Pravda starring Anthony Hopkins which was described by The Telegraph as "one of the biggest hits in the history of the National Theatre." Successful productions from the non-commercial theatres sometimes transfer to one of the commercial West End houses for an extended run.
The Royal Opera House is widely regarded as one of the world's great opera houses, with its current incarnation opened in 1858. Commonly known simply as Covent Garden due to its location, it is home to the Royal Opera, Royal Ballet and a resident symphony orchestra, and hosts guest performances from other leading opera, ballet and performance companies from around the world. In 1735 its first season of operas, by George Frideric Handel, began and many of his English oratorios were specifically written for Covent Garden and had their premieres here.
Likewise, the London Coliseum is the resident home to the English National Opera. The theatre is also the London base for performances by the English National Ballet, who perform regular seasons throughout the year when not on tour. The Peacock Theatre is located on the edge of the Theatreland area. Now owned by the London School of Economics and Political Science, it is used in the evenings for dance performances by Sadler's Wells, who manage the theatre on behalf of the school.

Other London theatres

There are a great number of stage productions in London outside the West End. Much of this is known as fringe theatre which is the equivalent of off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway theatre in New York City. Among these are the Menier Chocolate Factory, Bush Theatre and the Donmar Warehouse. Fringe venues range from well-equipped small theatres to rooms above pubs, and the performances range from classic plays, to cabaret, to plays in the languages of London's ethnic minorities. The performers range from emerging young professionals to amateurs. Productions at the Donmar included the 1980 play Educating Rita which starred Julie Walters in the title role before she reprised the role in the 1983 film.
There are many theatres located throughout Greater London, such as the Lyric Hammersmith, Theatre Royal Stratford East, the Rose Theatre Kingston, the New Wimbledon Theatre, the Rudolph Steiner Theatre in Westminster, the Ashcroft Theatre in Croydon, the Secombe Theatre in Sutton, the Churchill Theatre in Bromley and the Hackney Empire in Hackney.
The theatre at the Royal Polytechnic Institution in Regent Street saw the first public demonstration of "Pepper's ghost"—a method of projecting the illusion of a ghost into a theatre —during an 1862 Christmas Eve theatrical production of the Charles Dickens novel, The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain, which caused a sensation among those in attendance.
London theatres outside the West End also played an important role in the early history of drama schools. In 1833, actress Frances Maria Kelly managed the Royal Strand Theatre in Westminster where she funded and operated a dramatic school, the earliest record of a drama school in England. In 1840, she financed the Royalty Theatre in Soho which opened as Miss Kelly's Theatre and Dramatic School.

Awards

There are a number of annual awards for outstanding achievements in London theatre: