A Delfont Mackintosh Theatre
Currently the permanent home to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s acclaimed, Pulitzer Prize winning musical Hamilton.
VICTORIA PALACE THEATRE HISTORY
PRODUCTION HIGHLIGHTS
1910 Theatre owner, manager and impresario Alfred Butt purchases the Royal Standard Music Hall on this site and demolishes it to build the Victoria Palace designed by renowned theatre architect Frank Matcham and costing £12,000. A gilded statue of ballerina Anna Pavlova is installed on the theatre’s cupola which is subsequently lost when removed for safekeeping during World War II.
1910 The Victoria Palace opens on 6 November with a Variety show and in the succeeding years the best known variety stars of their day appear here including Harry Lauder, Little Tich and Vesta Tilley.
1929 The Show’s the Thing, a revue by Archie Pitt starring Gracie Fields is a huge hit.
1934 A production of Young England by the Rev Walter Reynolds, a full-blooded patriotic melodrama, receives such awful reviews that it becomes a cult show seen by over 250,000 people.
1937 On 16th December Me And My Girl opens starring Lupino Lane, Teddie St Denis and George Graves. The song ‘Lambeth Walk’ becomes a universal dance craze that helps boost morale during the war years. Lupino Lane subsequently appears in a series of shows including Twenty-to-One and Sweetheart Mine.
1947 On 17th April 1947 Together Again the first of seven popular shows presented by the much loved Crazy Gang opens. The Gang become almost full-time occupants of the theatre for an incredible 15 years. Their final retiring performance of Young in Heart took place on 19th May 1962.
1962 The Black and White Minstrel Show – the stage version of the popular Saturday night BBC tv show is seen by five and a half million people and runs for 4,344 performances until November 1972.
1970’s During the 70’s, productions at the theatre include: SwingalongaMax with Max Bygraves, Basil Brush in his own show, Carry on London with the cast of the popular films (1973), and Cilla Black in her weekly televised show Cilla At The Palace (1976).
1978 The original London production of musical Annie opens on 3rd May, starring Sheila Hancock as Miss Hannigan, and runs for 4,344 performances. It is revived in 1998 to mark its 21st anniversary.
1982 Elizabeth Taylor makes her London stage debut in Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes, reprising her Tony-nominated Broadway role as Regina Hubbard Giddens.
1985 Michael Crawford reprises his athletic, award winning role as American showman Barnum. This is followed by the musical Charlie Girl starring Cyd Charisse.
1989 Buddy begins its long run at the Victoria Palace until 1995 when the show transfers to the Strand Theatre. Following Buddy comes the hugely popular Jolson starring one of Britain’s best loved entertainers, Brian Conley.
1991 The theatre is bought from Stoll Moss by Sir Stephen Waley-Cohen who enlarges the foyer and bar facilities and increases the number of dressing rooms. On 25th November the Royal Variety Performance attended by HM The Queen pays tribute to the Musical World of Cameron Mackintosh.
2001 On 16th October, the Broadway smash hit revival of Kiss Me Kate opens and wins the Laurence Olivier award for Best Musical Revival.
2005 Elton John and Lee Hall’s Billy Elliot, the musical version of the film, opens to great acclaim in March. Critic Charles Spencer describes it as ‘the greatest British musical I have seen’ and it plays for 11 years.
2006 A replica of the original golden statue of Anna Pavlova recreated by Harry Franchetti is installed on the theatre’s cupola.
2014 Delfont Mackintosh Theatres purchase the theatre from Sir Stephen Waley-Cohen. On 9th April 2016 the theatre closes for a major 20 month refurbishment.
2017 The Victoria Palace Theatre, magnificently restored for the 21st century, reopened with the European premiere of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s acclaimed, Pulitzer Prize winning musical Hamilton. The production went on to win seven Olivier Awards, including Best New Musical.
