|
|
|
THE BUILDING London's old Theatreland which had grown up in the shadow of Drury Lane was almost wiped out in the reconstruction of the area between Wellington Street, Strand. and the beginning of Fleet Street. The whole maze of slums, stretching up towards Drury Lane on one side, and Lincoln's Inn on the other, was demolished, and the new streets, Aldwych and Kingsway, constructed.
On the large oblong site in Aldwych, between Catherine Street and Drury Lane with Tavistock Street in the rear, were planned two theatres with identical facades and an hotel, the Waldorf, which was not built until after both the theatres were opened.
The Aldwych Theatre was built by Seymour Hicks in association with the American impresario Charles Frohman. It was designed by W. G. R. Sprague (who was also responsible for the Waldorf Theatre and the new block then being planned in Shaftesbury Avenue). Its builder was Walter Wallis of Balham. The Aldwych was a two-tiered theatre. The Era of 30 December 1905 tells us:
A Painted Act Drop remained in use into the 1930s and the theatre still retains much of its old-world appearance although in post-war years the lower stage boxes were removed and the pit absorbed into the stalls seating while the gallery was transformed into an extension of the upper circle, by the removal of the benches and the substitution of tip-up seats.
In 1958 a threat to the building by a redevelopment scheme was revealed, and the L.C.C. rejected plans in October and again in July 1959. After much speculation, it was finally announced in July 1960, that arrangements had been concluded for the Governors of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre. Stratford-upon-Avon. to take over the Aldwych Theatre as their London Headquarters for the next three years. When they took possession in November, drastic alterations were commenced. An apron stage with a new proscenium and lighting was constructed, similar to that at Stratford, at a cost of £75,000.
The present management continues to maintain the high decorative standards whilst continually effecting improvements.
THE PLAYS There can be no other theatre in the world which has two such distinct and diverse claims to fame as having been the home of farce and the home of the internationally renowned Royal Shakespeare Company. This, however, is the case with the Aldwych. During the period from 1925 until 1933 the theatre housed a series of farces by Ben Travers which have gone down in history as 'The Aldwych Farces'. They include such familiar titles as A Cuckoo In the Nest, Rookery Nook, Thark, Plunder and A Cup of Kindness. Among the members of the Company were Tom Walls, Ralph Lynn, Mary Brough, Winifred Shotter and Robertson Hare.
Nearly thirty years later, on the 15th December 1960, the Royal Shakespeare Company took over the Aldwych as its London Base. During the next 21 years, prior to the Company moving to its theatre in the barbican, history was frequently made. Memorable productions such as The Wars of the Roses, The Greeks and Nicholas Nickleby immediately spring to mind together with the numerous distinguished Shakespearean productions featuring every well-known actor in the country. Also during this period the Aldwych was the home of the late Sir Peter Daubeny's World Theatre Season which succeeded against all odds in bringing to London the best of world theatre. The Aldwych's opening production, in 1905, was Blue Bell - a new version of Seymour Hicks' Bluebell in Fairyland. Over the next few years a number of other musical comedies were presented frequently featuring Hicks and his wife Ellaline Terriss.
Now the theatre's history has turned full circle. As when it originally opened in the early part of the last century it is now again owned by an American - James Nederlander - and operated on his behalf by Michael Codron Plays Ltd. Since the RSC moved, the theatre has hosted a number of successes: The Nerd starring Rowan Atkinson, a revival of Tom Stoppard's Jumpers starring Paul Eddington and Felicity Kendal, the National Theatre productions of Brighton Beach Memoirs and A View fron the Bridge, Tom Stoppard's play Hapgood with Felicity kendal, Nigel Hawthorne and Roger Rees, and an adaption of some of Chekhov's plays and short stories by Michael Frayn entitled The Sneeze, which starred Rowan Atkinson. More recent productions were a revival of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, with a star cast headed by Dame Judi Dench, Michael Frayn's comedy Look Look, a short visit by Ray Cooney's long-running farce Run For Your Wife! and Joan Collins in a sumptuous revival of Noël Coward's Private Lives. This was followed - in complete contrast - by Julian Clary is Camping at the Aldwych for a short season, and a repertory of Coriolanus and The Winter's Tale by the English Shakespeare Company - bringing Shakespeare back to the theatre for the first time since the departure of the RSC. There followed a season of the exotic dance show Tango Argentino which played to packed houses every night; Ibsen's Brand followed, and the children's show The BFG (Big Friendly Giant) adapted from the book by Roald Dahl played out 1991 and into '92.
|
This vast
operation began in the last years of the nineteenth century and was not finally completed until after the First World War. Four theatres were demolished during the early stages of the work. The Olympic Theatre in Wych Street and the Opera Comique in the Strand were closed in 1899, the Globe Theatre in Newcastle Street shut its doors in 1902. This was followed by the closure of the Gaiety Theatre in the Strand in June of the same year. 
The Waldorf Theatre (now the Strand) on the corner of Catherine Street was opened in May 1905, and its companion. the Aldwych Theatre, on the Drury Lane corner in the following December.
The theatre was again redecorated during 1963. New Circle Boxes were made and the old ones converted to stage use. Another re-seating took place in March 1971. 
In 1909, Marie Dressler appeared at the Aldwych and two years later it was the scene of the Stage Society's production of The Cherry Orchard, the first performance in England of Chekhov's play. In the early 1920's names such as Charles B. Cochran, Sacha Guitry, Yvonne Printemps Viola Tree and Donald Calthrop were all associated with the theatre prior to the 'Farces' years.
From the mid-1930s until the early1960s a wide range of productions was presented . At the time the theatre was owned by the Abrahams family and for a long while managed under the direction of Prince Littler. Plays included: Lillian Hellman's Watch on the Rhine, Gertrude Lawrence in Daphne Du Maurier's September Tide, Vivien Leigh in Tennessee Williams' A Street Car Named Desire, Christopher Fry's The Dark Is Light Enough, Peter Sellers in Brouhaha and the popular farce Watch It Sailor.
This was followed by The Cotton Club, a musical based on the '20s Harlem venue of the same name, the comedy Straight and Narrow starring Nicholas Lyndhurst and Carmel McSharry, and the Royal National Theatre transfer the very successful play by Jim Cartwright The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, The Importance of Being Earnest with Dame Maggie Smith playing the redoubtable Lady Bracknell, highly successful runs of An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley, Tom Stoppard's new play Indian Ink starring Felicity Kendal, the musical The Fields of Ambrosia and short runs of Noël Coward's Present Laughter and James Goldman's Tolstoy.
This
was followed by a highly successful run of Who's Afraid of Virginia
Woolf? starring David Suchet and the award winning Diana Rigg, the
acclaimed Tom & Clem starring Michael Gambon and Alec McCowen,
Simon Grey's Life Support starring Alan Bates, the Mart Crowley
play Boys In The Band and the Royal National Theatre's Amy's
View by David Hare starring Dame Judi Dench. 