St James's Theatre

St James's Theatre, London, in King Street, Piccadilly. Designed by Samuel Beazley, this theatre opened with a seasonal burletta licence in 1835. His venture was a failure, but among the plays he staged were the first dramatic works of Charles Dickens, the two-act farce The Strange Gentleman, and a ballad opera The Village Coquettes (both 1836). The theatre was renamed the Prince's in honour of Queen Victoria's consort, but in 1842 returned to its original name. For a time it became a home of French drama, Rachel appearing there on several occasions. In 1866 Irving enjoyed his first London success as Rawdon Scudamore in Boucicault's Hunted Down; a month later W. S. Gilbert's first burlesque, Dulcamara; or, The Little Duck and the Great Quack, was produced. In 1869 Mrs John Wood took the theatre and had it partly reconstructed, remaining in nominal control until 1876 when she left for America. John Hare and W. H. Kendal took over in 1879 and again reconstructed the building as a four-tier theatre with a seating capacity of 1,200, reopening it on 4 Oct. They enjoyed a steady success and established a tradition of good stagecraft, much attention being paid to scenery, furniture, and costumes. Among the productions by their excellent company were several early plays by Pinero, including The Money Spinner and The Squire (both 1881), and they also engaged the young George Alexander who later became manager of the theatre, inaugurating its most brilliant period in 1891 with the transfer of R. C. Carton's Sunlight and Shadow. In 1899 the theatre closed for the reconstruction of the interior, to reopen in 1900 with Anthony Hope's Rupert of Hentzau. Alexander remained until 1917. He died a year later, and Gilbert Miller, the American impresario, son of Henry Miller, took over the theatre, remaining in control until it was demolished. During the next few years many famous players appeared at the St James's, including Sybil Thorndike and Lewis Casson, Edith Evans, and Noël Coward, but there were few memorable plays until 1923, when George Arliss starred in William Archer's long-running thriller The Green Goddess. In 1925 Gladys Cooper and Gerald Du Maurier had great success with Lonsdale's The Last of Mrs Cheyney. The 1930s saw A. A. Milne's Michael and Mary (1930), The Late Christopher Bean (1933), adapted by Emlyn Williams from the French, an excellent adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (1936), and Clifford Odets's Golden Boy (1938). The biggest success of the war years was Turgenev's A Month in the Country in 1943, with Michael Redgrave as Rakitin. The run of Agatha Christie's Ten Little Niggers was interrupted when the roof was damaged by bombing in 1944, but in 1945 Emlyn Williams appeared in his own play The Wind of Heaven, and in 1949 Paul Scofield had his first leading role in the West End as Alexander the Great in Rattigan's Adventure Story. In 1950 Laurence Olivier took over the theatre, opening with Fry's Venus Observed and scoring a great success with Vivien Leigh alternating Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra with Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra during 1951 for the Festival of Britain. In the same year the St James's returned to an old tradition when it housed the Renaud–Barrault company in a season which included Salacrou's Les Nuits de la colère, Claudel's Partage de midi with Edwige Feuillère, and Marivaux's Les Fausses Confidences with Madeleine Renaud. The only later productions of note were Odets's Winter Journey (1952) and Rattigan's Separate Tables (1954), which gave the theatre its longest run—726 performances-with Margaret Leighton and Eric Portman playing the leading roles in both parts. The theatre closed in 1957 and, after an unsuccessful campaign to preserve it, was pulled down and replaced by offices.