Evelyn Laye, the Piccadilly's first leading lady (1923 photograph)
The impresario Edward Laurillard acquired a site behind Piccadilly Circus occupied by derelict stables, and built a theatre there. It was designed by Bertie Crewe and Edward A. Stone. A simple façade concealed an elaborate Art Deco interior designed by Marc-Henri Levy and Gaston Laverdet, with a 1,232-seat auditorium decorated in shades of pink;[1] it was claimed that if all the bricks used in the building were laid in a straight line, they would stretch from London to Paris.[2]
The theatre opened on 27 April 1928. The opening production, Blue Eyes, a musical with words by Guy Bolton and Graham John and music by Jerome Kern, starred Evelyn Laye; it ran at the Piccadilly and then at Daly's Theatre for a total of 276 performances.[1]
The next production (September 1933) was James Bridie's A Sleeping Clergyman, considered by some to be Bridie's best play, according to the theatre historians Mander and Mitchenson; Ernest Thesiger and Robert Donat both scored great successes in the piece.[1] It had 230 performances and was followed by Counsellor at Law by Elmer Rice (April 1934, 126 performances) and Queer Cargo by Noel Langley (August 1934, 109 performances). After that there was, in Mander and Mitchenson's words "a bad patch in this theatre's history", during which the Windmill Theatre, known for its nude tableaux vivants, extended its activities to the Piccadilly.[1]
In December 1937 the Piccadilly reopened after redecoration and the addition of new bars and stalls entrances, with Choose your Time, a novel form of entertainment devised by Firth Shephard. It consisted of a miscellaneous programme of newsreels, a live "swingphonic" orchestra, individual turns, Donald Duck films, and, as what The Stage called its pièce de résistance, a one-act stage comedy called Talk of the Devil by Anthony Pelissier, featuring Yvonne Arnaud, John Mills and Naunton Wayne.[4] After this the theatre became a receiving house for transfers of long runs at reduced prices.[1]
1940s
Poster for Blithe Spirit, premiered at the Piccadilly in 1941
After that came two musicals, both in 1943; the first was Oscar Hammerstein II and Sigmund Romberg's Sunny River, presented by Emile Littler, starring Laye, Dennis Noble, Edith Day and Bertram Wallis.[7] The critic James Agate wrote that the plot did not hold water but he nonetheless rated it the best musical show since Coward's 1929 Bitter Sweet, for numerous reasons, chief of which were that "the plot is not more nonsensical than any other ... there is a complete absence of jazz or swing ... the songs are sung, not crooned, and the singers have the voices to sing them".[8] Despite this, the show did not have a long run, closing after 86 performances.[9]
Later productions included Coward's revue Sigh No More (1945), starring Cyril Ritchard, Madge Elliott, Joyce Grenfell and Graham Payn. Despite several songs that later became well known, such as "I Wonder What Happened to Him", "That Is the End of the News" and "Matelot", it fell far short of the success of Blithe Spirit, running for 213 performances.[13]A Man About the House (1946), a crime story, starred Flora Robson and Basil Sydney.[14] Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra with Edith Evans and Godfrey Tearle (1946) divided critical opinion. Tearle received uniformly excellent notices, but Evans (aetat 59) convinced some critics more than others.[15]
John van Druten's The Voice of the Turtle (1947) was described by The Observer as "a little New York piece of the Boy-Meets-Two-Girls order", and closed after 62 performances.[16] Mander and Mitchenson describe the next six years as a period of short runs and transfers.[1]
Four fairly successful runs followed in the next three years. Rodney Ackland's courtroom drama A Dead Secret starred Scofield as a (probable) poisoner, and ran from July 1957 for 212 performances.[20]Benn Levy's comedy The Rape of the Belt was a modern treatment of a classical legend, starring Hammond as Hippolyta, John Clements as Heracles, Constance Cummings as Antiope, Richard Attenborough as Theseus and Nicholas Hannen as Zeus; it ran for 298 performances from December 1957.[21] André Roussin's comedy Hook, Line and Sinker, adapted by and starring Robert Morley, co-starred Joan Plowright and Bernard Cribbins;[22] it opened in November 1958 and ran until 28 March 1959.[23]The Marriage-go-Round, a comedy by Leslie Stevens starring Hammond, Clements and Angela Browne opened in November 1959 and ran for 210 performances.[24]
1960s
1953 Piccadilly programme
For the Piccadilly the decade started with two conspicuous failures. The Golden Touch, a musical depicting a colony of beatniks on a Greek island, opened and closed in May 1960, and Bachelor Flat, described by The Stage as "yet another American play based on the well-worn theme of the teenage girl, half-baby, half-sophisticate"[25] ran for less than a week in June 1960.[9] A revival of Shaw's Candida from the Oxford Playhouse starred Michael Denison and Dulcie Gray and ran for 160 performances at the Piccadilly and then at Wyndham's Theatre.[26]
The comedy The Amorous Prawn transferred from the Saville in January 1961, with a cast headed by Laye.[29] It completed a total run of 911 performances in February 1962.[30] For the rest of 1962 the Piccadilly had a series of short runs – some limited seasons and others unsuccessful productions. The former included a Festival of French Theatre and two seasons by Marcel Marceau.[9] On 8 October the West End production of the musical Fiorello! opened. The show, about the political reformer Fiorello La Guardia, had been a big success on Broadway, running for 795 performances,[31] but reviewers felt that the London cast failed to put the show across with suitable Broadway flair and vigour, not helped by interpolations intended to explain New York politics to British audiences.[32] It closed on 24 November after 56 performances, and Marceau returned for his second limited season (19 performances).[33] A stage version of the popular television comedy series The Rag Trade, starring Peter Jones and Miriam Karlin, did not match the appeal of the small-screen original, and ran for 85 performances from 19 December 1962 to 23 February 1963.[34]
Most of 1963 was occupied by what Mander and Mitchenson describe as "seasons of ballet, an Italian musical and some French plays".[9] In September Ronald Millar's adaptation of C. P. Snow's novel The Masters, transferred from the Savoy, and continued until early in 1964. The next big success at the Piccadilly was Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which opened in February 1964. For the first weeks of the run the leading roles were played by Uta Hagen and Arthur Hill, who had created them on Broadway; they were succeeded in May by Constance Cummings and Ray McAnally.[35] The production transferred to the Globe in July to make way for a musical, Instant Marriage, starring Joan Sims. Despite being described in The Times as "wretchedly written ... ill-constructed", it ran for 366 performances from 1 August 1964.[36]
Productions at the Piccadilly in the rest of the 1970s included Alun Owen's Male of the Species, a set of three short plays (24 October 1974);[50] and a thriller by Francis Durbridge, The Gentle Hook (142 performances from December 1974;[51] Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys opened in May 1975 starring Alfred Marks and Jimmy Jewel; it ran for 77 performances, falling far short of the original Broadway run of 538.[52]Henry Fonda made his British stage debut at the Piccadilly in Clarence Darrow in July 1975; it ran for 47 performances,[53] and was followed by two musicals, Kwa Zulu, which ran for 166 performances from September,[54] succeeded in March 1976 by a revival of Bolton and Kern's 1915 musical Very Good Eddie, which had a run of 411 performances.[55]
The Royal Shakespeare Company occupied the Piccadilly for transfers of two of its productions: the 1791 comedy Wild Oats in April 1977 (324 performances),[56] and Privates on Parade in February 1978 (208 performances).[57]Vieux Carré by Tennessee Williams opened in August 1978; it divided critical opinion, which ranged from The Observer's view that it was on the same level as A Streetcar Named Desire to The Guardian's that it was "a vortex of silliness ... dire bathos".[58] It had a run of 118 performances, which was 112 more than it had achieved when premiered in New York.[59]
Over the 1978–79 Christmas season the theatre presented matinées of Toad of Toad Hall and evening performances of Barry Humphries's one-man show A Night with Dame Edna.[60] An evening based on French songs, The French Have a Song for It, transferred from the intimate King's Head Theatre and ran briefly in May 1979,[61] followed later in the month by Can You Hear Me at the Back?, a drama by Brian Clark; it ran for 300 performances.[62]
1980s
Educating Rita, starring Julie Walters, opened at the Piccadilly in August 1980 and ran until September 1982; Shirin Taylor took over the title role in April 1981.[63] In January 1983 what was described as "a unique £1.5 million theatre experiment, backed entirely by continental money" was announced for the Piccadilly.[64] In an attempt to convert Londoners to a new style of entertainment, the auditorium was converted to resemble a nightclub for the opening of a new musical called i in March.[64] The show was scrapped before the opening night, with heavy losses for its backers.[65] A replacement show, given the title Y, opened in June,[66] and ran until July 1984.[67]
In September 1984 an American musical, Pump Boys and Dinettes opened, running at the Piccadilly until June 1985, when it continued its run at another theatre.[68]Mutiny – a musical telling of the mutiny on the Bounty, by and starring David Essex – opened on 18 July 1985 and ran until October the following year.[69] In November 1986 Frankie Howerd starred in a revival of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,[70] which ran until 27 December.[71] In February and March 1987 Fascinating Aida played a limited season.[72]Lady Day, a musical about Billie Holiday, then ran briefly,[73] followed by a three-month run of Tom Stoppard's comedy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, from June to September.[74]
"Blues in the Night", described by The Times as a "hit black blues show", opened on 28 September and ran until 23 July 1988.[75] It was followed in August by Stop! In the Name of Love, celebrating female singing groups of the 1960s; this ran until November.[76]
The theatre was closed from then until March 1989, when a musical adaptation of the 1927 science fiction film Metropolis opened; one of the West End's most expensive shows up to that time, it closed in September, making a loss of £2.5 million.[77] The Piccadilly's last production of the 1980s was a revival of Stephen Sondheim's musical A Little Night Music, from the Chichester Festival, starring Dorothy Tutin, Peter McEnery and Susan Hampshire. It opened on 10 October and ran until 17 February 1990.[78]
1990s
In one of its many revivals The Rocky Horror Show opened at the Piccadilly in July 1990 and ran until June 1991.[79] Over the Christmas season Cilla Black starred in a pantomime, Jack and the Beanstalk.[80] In March 1991 a musical, Moby Dick, described as "Sixth-form girls perform Herman Meville's novel in their school swimming-pool",[81] opened to poor notices, and closed in early July.[82] In 2015 it was rated by The Daily Telegraph in an article about flops as the sixth worst West End musical so far. The Piccadilly followed it with a show rated by the Telegraph as the second worst:[81][n 1]Which Witch, received even worse reviews:[83]Michael Billington of The Guardian described the show as "three mind-numbing hours ... an all-too-graphic glimpse of purgatory" and two critics referred to it as "the musical from hell".[84] It opened on 22 October 1992 and ran for ten weeks, closing on 12 December.[85] In February 1993 a third musical in succession was staged at the Piccadilly – Robin: Prince of Sherwood. The production was notable for cheap ticket prices ("Kids all seats £5!") and for playing on Sundays – highly unusual in the West End[86] – but the show was not well received. The Stage remarked "Come back Which Witch, all is forgiven".[87] The show ran for four months.[88]
In December 1993 the Peter Hall Company presented Piaf by Pam Gems, with Elaine Paige as Edith Piaf.[89] When Paige left the cast in May 1994 bookings slumped and the show closed on 18 June.[90]Only the Lonely, a musical play about Roy Orbison, opened in September 1994 and ran until October the following year.[91] After prolonged negotiations the 1974 Broadway musical Mack and Mabel had its West End premiere at the Piccadilly on 7 November, running until 29 June 1996.[92]
On 11 September 1996 Matthew Bourne's award-winning production of Swan Lake, first seen at Sadler's Wells Theatre the previous November, opened at the Piccadilly. Ballet was a rarity in the commercial West End theatre, but Bourne had the support of the impresario Cameron Mackintosh.[93] The orchestra was reduced to thirty from the usual full symphonic forces, and the most remarked aspect of the production was the corps de ballet, consisting of bare-torsoed male dancers as the swans.[93] The production ran at the Piccadilly until 1 February 1997.[94]
Hall's company returned in March with Molière's The School for Wives, starring Peter Bowles and Eric Sykes,[95] which ran at the Piccadilly until the end of April, before transferring to the Comedy Theatre.[96] This was followed by a revival of Nell Dunn's comedy Steaming with Jenny Eclair, which ran from 16 May to 14 June 1997.[97] and then a limited twelve-week run from June to September of the 1977 musical Elvis.[98] Adventures in Motion Pictures returned in October, this time with their production of the ballet Cinderella, which ran until mid-January 1998.[99]
The musical La Cava transferred from the Victoria Palace Theatre, opening on 21 August 2000 for a six-month run.[110] After a short season of Shockheaded Peter between February and April 2001,[111][112] the National Theatre's revival of Michael Frayn's farce Noises Off played its first West End engagement from the 3rd May until 26 January 2002.[113] The Chichester Festival Theatre presented the London premiere of My One and Only for a six-month run from February 2002, 19 years after the show premiered on Broadway.[114] The English language premiere of the French musical Romeo and Juliet by Gérard Presgurvic opened on 4 November, though bad reviews resulted in its closing three months later.[115][116]
Jailhouse Rock – The Musical ran for a year, from 19 April 2004 to 23 April 2005,[120] and was followed by another musical, a revival of the 1950 show Guys and Dolls, which previewed from 18 May 2005, opened on 31 May, and ran until 14 April 2007; the opening cast included Ewan McGregor, Jane Krakowski, Jenna Russell and Douglas Hodge.[121] The last production of the 2000s was the musical Grease, which ran from 25 July 2007 to 30 April 2011.[122] The production ran for more than 1,300 performances and was the longest running show in the theatre's history.[123] The leads were cast via ITV's Grease Is the Word, with Danny Bayne and Susan McFadden playing Danny and Sandy.[124][125]
Pretty Woman, starring Danny Mac and Aimie Atkinson previewed from 13 February and opened on 1 March 2020, but its run was curtailed within a fortnight, when West End theatres closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.[134] (The show reopened at the Savoy in July 2021.) The Piccadilly reopened with the musical Moulin Rouge!, which previewed from 12 November 2021, opened in January 2022 and was due to run until 28 May,[135] but the run was extended and (2023) the show was booking into 2024.[136]
Notes, references and sources
Notes
^The musical beating Which Witch to the top of the Telegraph's list of worst musicals was the 1988 Carrie.[81]
^Wallace, Pat. "A bit too British", The Tatler, 24 October 1962, p. 253; Marriott, R. B. "Crusader who cleaned up New York", The Stage, 11 October 1962; Tynan, Kenneth. "A musical mayor transplanted", The Observer, 14 October 1962, p. 28; and Shulman, Milton. "Sorry, Fiorello! You'll have to do without my vote", The Evening Standard, 9 October 1962, p. 4
^"Theatres", The Times, 26 November 1962, p. 2; and Wearing (2021), p. 123
^Trewin, J. C. "The World of the Theatre", Illustrated London News, 5 January 1963, p. 28; and "Chit Chat", The Stage, 14 February 1963, p. 8
^"Cast change at the Piccadilly", The Stage, 30 April 1964, p. 1
^Gaye, p. 1533; and "Lively numbers not enough", The Times, 5 August 1964, p. 11
^"Infallible comedy", The Times, 25 November 1965, p. 5; and Mander and Mitchenson (1975), p. 153
^Trewin, J. C. "The Young Visiters", Birmingham Daily Post, 24 December 1968, p. 19
^"Return of Prospect", The Stage, 18 December 1969, p. 14
^Hope-Wallace, Philip. "Vivat! Vivat! Regina!", The Guardian, 9 October 1970, p. 12; and Wearing, p. 474
^"Edith Evans matchless in Anouilh", The Stage, 27 May 1971, p. 11: and "Glittering Anouilh from Chichester to the Piccadilly", The Stage, 11 November 1971, p. 15
^Nightingale, Benedict. "Whale of a yarn drowns in an ocean of pointless mediocrity", The Times, 18 March 1992, p. 18; "Moby needs to camp out for a breath of fresh air", The Stage, 26 March 1992, p. 15; and "Entertainments", The Times, 30 June 1992, p. 36
^De Jongh, Nicholas. "Witches who spell a disaster", The Evening Standard, 23 October 1992, p. 48; Nightingale, Benedict. "Dreams, drips and doggerel", The Times, 24 October 1992, p. 50; and Hepple, Peter. "Witch's brew spells disaster", The Stage, 5 November 1992, p. 13
^Billington, Michael. "Theatre", The Guardian, 24 October 1992, p. 29; and Beaumont, Peter. "The musical from hell weathers fire and brimstone", The Observer, 1 November 1992, p. 9
^"The witches are driven out of town by the critics", The Evening Standard, 9 December 1992, p. 3
^"Entertainments", The Times, 19 April 1993, p. 32
^Gould, Helen, "What a performance!", The Stage, 18 February 1993, p. 13
^Hepple, Peter. "Piccadilly", The Stage, 21 October 1999, p. 12; and Baracaia, Alexa. "Fame cast feel in the dark over auditions", The Stage, 24 August 2000, p. 2
^Nightingale, Benedict. "A dance to the music of ragtime", The Times, 20 March 2003, p. 19; and "Entertainments", The Times, 9 June 2003
^"Entertainments", The Times, 12 July 2003, and 10 November 2003, p. 56
^"Theatres", The Times, 3 November 2003, p. 58, and 6 March 2004, p. 113
^"Jailhouse Rock", Theatricalia. Retrieved 24 June 2023
^"Entertainments", The Times, 18 May 2005, p. 95; Nightingale, Benedict. "A pinch of Broadway pizzazz and a swinging good nature", The Times, 2 June 2005, p. 9; and "Guys and Dolls", The Times, 4 April 2007, p. 105
^"Entertainments", The Times, 13 July 2007, p. 106, and 30 April 2011, p. 116
Mander, Raymond; Joe Mitchenson (2000) [1957]. Theatrical Companion to Coward. Barry Day and Sheridan Morley (2000 edition, ed.) (second ed.). London: Oberon Books. ISBN978-1-84002-054-0.
Wearing, J. P. (2014). The London Stage 1950–1959: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel. London: Rowman and Littlefield. ISBN978-0-81-089308-5.
