Phoenix Theatre (London)

Infobox Theatre
name = Phoenix Theatre


caption = Phoenix Theatre, July 2007
address = Charing Cross Road
city = Camden, London
country =
designation = Grade II
latitude = 51.514444
longitude = -0.129556
architect = Giles Gilbert Scott, Bertie Crewe and Cecil Masey
owner = Ambassador Theatre Group
capacity = 1,012 on 3 levels
type = West End theatre
opened = 24 September 1930
yearsactive =
rebuilt =
closed =
othernames =
production = Blood Brothers
currentuse =
website = www.theambassadors.com/phoenix/

The Phoenix Theatre is a West End theatre in the London Borough of Camden, located on Charing Cross Road (at the corner with Flitcroft Street). The entrance is in Phoenix Street.

The theatre was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, Bertie Crewe and Cecil Masey and is Grade II listed. It has a restrained neoclassical exterior, but an interior designed in an Italianate style by director and designer Theodore Komisarjevsky. It opened on 24 September 1930 with the première of "Private Lives" by Noel Coward, who also appeared in the play, with Adrienne Allen, Gertrude Lawrence and a then young Laurence Olivier. Coward returned to the theatre with "Tonight at 8.30" in 1936 and "Quadrille" in 1952. On 16 December 1969, the long association with Coward was celebrated with a midnight matinee in honour of his 70th birthday, and the foyer bar was renamed the "Noel Coward Bar".

The Phoenix has had a number of successful plays including John Gielgud's "Love for Love" during the Second World War. "Harlequinade" and "The Browning Version", two plays by Terence Rattigan, opened on 8 September 1948 at the theatre.

In the mid 1950s, Paul Scofield and Peter Brook appeared at the theatre. In 1968, a musical version of Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales" opened and ran for around two thousand performances. "Night and Day", a 1978 play by Tom Stoppard, ran for two years.

The theatre has hosted many musicals in the 1980s and 90s, including "The Baker's Wife" by Stephen Schwarz, directed by Trevor Nunn, and "Into the Woods" by Stephen Sondheim, starring Julia McKenzie. There were also a number of plays by Shakespeare.

The current production is "Blood Brothers", a 1982 Willy Russell musical. This transferred from the Lyric Theatre in 1991, and is now the longest running production at the theatre.

The theatre is owned by the Ambassador Theatre Group.

See also

* Phoenix Garden

References

* "Guide to British Theatres 1750-1950", John Earl and Michael Sell pp. 131 (Theatres Trust, 2000) ISBN 0-7136-5688-3

External links

* [http://www.theambassadors.com/phoenix/ Phoenix Theatre] including [http://www.theambassadors.com/phoenix/info/ theatre information]
* [http://www.thisistheatre.com/londontheatre/phoenixtheatre.html Thisistheatre.com information]
* [http://www.london-theatreland.co.uk/theatres/phoenix-theatre/theatre.php London Theatre Guide]
* [http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/PhoenixTheatre.htm Theatre History and Archive Material]