Coliseum, The

Coliseum, The, London, in St Martin's Lane, was originally a music-hall, which opened under the management of Sir Oswald Stoll in 1904. It was the first London theatre to have a revolving stage, made up of three concentric circles. Seating 2,358 people in four tiers, it had a proscenium width of 49 ft. and a stage depth of 80 ft. Not at first successful, it closed for 18 months from June 1906, but from 1908 onwards its fortunes improved and many famous ‘turns’ were seen. Actresses appearing there included Ellen Terry and Edith Evans in 1917 in scenes from Shakespeare, Lillie Langtry, and Sarah Bernhardt. Diaghilev's Russian Ballet gave three seasons between 1918 and 1925. In 1931 variety gave way to musical comedy, inaugurated by the long-running White Horse Inn. Subsequently the theatre was used for every kind of entertainment, including ice-shows, and a Christmas pantomime became an annual event for some years from 1936. In 1945 a spectacular revue, The Night and the Music, began a long run, after which the theatre housed a series of American musicals—Annie Get Your Gun (1947), Kiss Me, Kate! (1951), Guys and Dolls (1953), Can-Can (1954), The Pajama Game (1955), Damn Yankees and Bells are Ringing (both 1957), and The Most Happy Fella (1960). The theatre then closed, reopening in 1961 as a cinema. In 1968 the building was modernized and taken over by the Sadler's Wells Opera Company to become the permanent London home of the English National Opera.