Piccadilly Theatre

Piccadilly Theatre, London, in Denman Street. This theatre, with its three-tier auditorium seating 1,193, opened in 1928 with a musical play Blue Eyes and then became a cinema. It returned to live theatre in 1929 with a revival of the operetta The Student Prince, and in 1933 housed Bridie's The Sleeping Clergyman. It was then used for the transfer of long runs at reduced prices. After being closed for some time at the beginning of the Second World War, it reopened with Coward's Blithe Spirit (1941), and among later successes were Gielgud in Macbeth (1942) and the American musical Panama Hattie (1943). The building was then damaged by flying bombs and had to be closed. It did not reopen until 1945, with Agatha Christie's Appointment with Death. Successful productions were Werfel's Jacobowsky and the Colonel (1945), John Van Druten's The Voice of the Turtle (1947), and Ustinov's Romanoff and Juliet (1956). Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1964) began its long run here, and Robert Bolt's Vivat! Vivat Regina! transferred from Chichester in 1970. In 1973 the musical Gypsy had a good run, as did a revival of the musical Very Good, Eddie! in 1976. The theatre later provided a West End home for several of the RSC's productions—O'Keeffe's Wild Oats (1977), Peter Nichols's Privates on Parade (1978), Pam Gems's Piaf and Kaufman and Hart's Once in a Lifetime, which ran in repertory (1980), and Willy Russell's enormously successful Educating Rita (also 1980). The musical Mutiny! (1985) had a good run, and a revival of Sondheim's A Little Night Music moved there from Chichester in 1989.