Vaudeville Theatre

Vaudeville Theatre London

Opening in 1870, the Vaudeville Theatre held mostly vaudeville and musical shows in its early days. The first shows to grace the stage were Andrew Halliday's comedy 'For Love or Money' and burlesque 'Don Carlos or the Infante in Arms'. The original theatre housed 1,046 seats over a pit and three galleries, meaning front and backstage were very cramped. The building was rebuilt twice, however the structure of today opened in 1926 and has a comfortable capacity of 690.

Famous Shakespearean actor, Henry Irving had his first noticeable success as Digby Grant in James Albery's Two Roses which ran at the theatre for a successful 300 nights, extraordinary at the time. The first theatre production to achieve 500 consecutive performances was H.J.Byron's comedy 'Our Boys', which began at the Vaudeville Theatre in 1875.