Haymarket Theatre
The Theatre Royal, Haymarket in 2008. The production is Edward Bond's The Sea.
Address	The Haymarket
City	City of Westminster, London
Designation	Grade I listed
Architect	John Nash
Owned by	Crown Estate
Capacity	888 on 4 levels
Type	West End theatre
Opened	4 July 1821
Rebuilt	1879 proscenium and removal of pit 1904 auditorium - C. Stanley Peach 1994 Major refurbishment
Previous names	1720 Little Theatre (nearby) 1767 Theatre Royal
Production	Sweet Charity
www.trh.co.uk
	Coordinates: 51°30′31″N 0°07′54″W / 51.508611°N 0.131667°W / 51.508611; -0.131667

The Theatre Royal Haymarket or Haymarket Theatre or the Little Theatre is a West End theatre in The Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use. Samuel Foote acquired the lease in 1747, and in 1766 he gained a royal patent to play legitimate drama (meaning spoken drama, as opposed to opera, concerts or plays with music) in the summer months. The original building was a little further north in the same street. It has been at its current location since 1821, when it was redesigned by John Nash. It is a Grade I listed building, with a seating capacity of 888. The freehold of the theatre is owned by the Crown Estate.^[1]

The Haymarket has been the site of a couple of significant innovations in theatre. In 1873, it was the venue for the first scheduled matinée performance, establishing a custom soon followed in theatres everywhere. Six years later, its auditorium was reconstructed, and the stage was enclosed in the first use of the picture frame proscenium.

Its managers have included Benjamin Nottingham Webster, John Baldwin Buckstone, Squire Bancroft, Cyril Maude, Herbert Beerbohm Tree, and John Sleeper Clarke, brother-in-law of John Wilkes Booth, who quit America after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Famous actors who débuted at the theatre included Robert William Elliston (1774-1831) and John Liston (1776-1846).

History of the theatre

Origins and early years

Haymarket Theatre, ca. 1900

The First Haymarket Theatre or Little Theatre was built in 1720 by John Potter, carpenter, on the site of The King's Head Inn in the Haymarket and a shop in Suffolk Street kept by Isaac Bliburgh, a gunsmith, and known by the sign of the Cannon and Musket. It was the third public theatre opened in the West End. The theatre cost £1000 to build, with a further £500 expended on decorations, scenery and costumes. It opened on December 29, 1720, with a French play La Fille a la Morte, ou le Badeaut de Paris performed by a company later known as 'The French Comedians of His Grace the Duke of Montague'.^[2] Potter's speculation was known as The New French Theatre.^[3]

The theatre's first major success was a 1729 production of a play by Samuel Johnson of Cheshire^[4] Hurlothrumbo, or The Supernatural, which ran for 30 nights - not as long as John Gay's The Beggar's Opera (62 performances), but still a long run for the time. In 1730 it was taken over by an English company, and its name changed to the 'Little Theatre in the Haymarket'. Among the actors who appeared there before 1737 when the theatre was closed under the Licensing Act 1737 were Aaron Hill, Theophilus Cibber, and Henry Fielding.^[2] In the eight to ten years before the Act was passed, the Haymarket was an alternative to John Rich's Theatre Royal, Covent Garden and the opera-dominated Drury Lane Theatre. Fielding himself was responsible for the instigation of the Act, having produced a play called The Historical Register that parodied prime minister Robert Walpole, as the caricature, Quidam.^[3]

Playwright and Poet Laureate Colley Cibber, the first actor-manager

In particular, it was an alternative to the pantomime and special-effects dominated stages, and it presented opposition (Tory party) satire. Henry Fielding staged his plays at the Haymarket, and so did Henry Carey. Hurlothrumbo was just one of his plays in that series of anti-Walpolean satires, followed by Tom Thumb. Another, in 1734, was his mock-opera, The Dragon of Wantley, with music by John Frederick Lampe. This work punctured the vacuous operatic conventions and pointed a satirical barb at Walpole and his taxation policies. The piece was a huge success, with a record-setting run of 69 performances in its first season. The work debuted at the Haymarket Theatre, where its coded attack on Walpole would have been clear, but its long run occurred after it moved to Covent Garden, which had a much greater capacity for staging. The burlesque itself is very brief on the page, as it relied extensively on absurd theatrics, dances, and other non-textual entertainments. The Musical Entertainer from 1739 contains engravings showing how the staging was performed.^[5]

Carey continued with Pasquin and others. Additionally, refugees from Drury Lane's and Covent Garden's internal struggles would show up at the Haymarket, and thus Charlotte Charke would act there in a parody of her father, Colley Cibber, one of the owners and managers of Drury Lane. The Theatrical Licensing Act, however, put an end to the anti-ministry satires, and it all but entirely shut down the theatre. From 1741 to 1747, Charles Macklin, Cibber, Samuel Foote, and others sometimes produced plays there either by use of a temporary licence or by subterfuge; one advertisement runs, "At Cibber's Academy in the Haymarket, will be a Concert, after which, will be exhibited (gratis) a Rehearsal, in the form of a Play, called Romeo and Juliet."^[2]

In 1749 a hoaxer billed as The Bottle Conjuror was advertised to appear at the theatre. The conjuror's publicity claimed that, while on stage, he would place his body inside an empty wine bottle, in full view of the audience. When the advertised act failed to appear on stage, the audience rioted and gutted the theatre. Although the identity of the hoax's perpetrator is unknown, several authors consider John Montagu, 2nd Duke of Montagu, to have been responsible.^[6]

London's third patent theatre

Samuel Foote

In 1754, John Potter, who had been rated (i.e. paid property tax) for the theatre since its opening, was succeeded by John Whitehead. In 1758 Theophilus Cibber obtained from William Howard, then the Lord Chamberlain, a general licence under which Foote tried to establish the Haymarket as a regular theatre. With the aid of the Duke of York he procured a royal licence to exhibit plays during four months in each year from May to September during his lifetime. He also bought the lease of the theatre from Potter's executors and, having added to the site by purchasing adjoining property, he enlarged and improved the building which he opened on May 14, 1767, as the Theatre Royal, the third patent theatre in London.^[7] Several successful seasons followed, with Foote producing numerous plays at the theatre, but Foote finally got himself into difficulties by his custom of caricaturing well-known persons on the stage and this, combined with increasing ill-health, resulted in his selling both the theatre and patent to George Colman, Sr. on 16 January 1777.^[7]

During the season of 1793-94 when Drury Lane Theatre was being rebuilt, the Haymarket was opened under the Drury Lane Patent. The season was notable for a 'Dreadful Accident' which occurred on 3 February 1794, 'when Twenty Persons unfortunately lost their lives, and a great Number were dreadfully bruised owing to a great Crowd pressing to see his Majesty, who was that Evening present at the Performance.'^[7] Amongst the dead was John Charles Brooke, Somerset Herald. Colman died in 1794, and the theatre descended to his son. George Colman Jr., though successful both as playwright and manager, dissipated his gains by his extravagance. For a time he lived in a room at the back of the theatre and he was finally forced to sell shares in the latter to his brother-in-law, David Morris. Monetary difficulties increased and for a while Colman managed the theatre from the King's Bench Prison, where he was confined for debt.^[7]

All the buildings on the east of the Haymarket from the theatre southward were rebuilt circa 1820 in connection with John Nash's schemes for the improvement of the neighbourhood. Nash persuaded the proprietors of the theatre to rebuild on a site a little south of the old one so that the portico should close the vista from Charles Street. The main front feature of Nash's elevation in the Haymarket was (and is) a pedimented portico of six Corinthian columns which extends in depth to the edge of the pavement and includes the whole frontage. It is sometimes stated that Nash rebuilt the theatre entirely, but there is evidence that he incorporated a house in Little Suffolk Street with the theatre, removed two shops which were in front, in the Haymarket, built a portico, increased the number of avenues and added a second gallery to the existing auditorium.^[7]

A lease dated 10 June 1821, was granted to David Edward Morris. The theatre was opened on 4 July 1821, with The Rivals.^[7] Benjamin Nottingham Webster became the theatre's manager from 1837 to 1853. He and his successor, John Baldwin Buckstone, established the theatre as a great comedy house, and the theatre hosted most of the great actors of the period.

The latter half of the 19th century

Scene from The Wicked World in The Illustrated London News, February 8, 1873

In 1862, the theatre was host to a 400-night run of Our American Cousin, with Edward Sothern as Lord Dundreary. The play's success brought the word "dreary" into common use. Robertson's David Garrick was a hit in 1864, also with Sothern in the title role. Sothern also starred in H. J. Byron's An English Gentleman at the theatre in 1871.^[8] W. S. Gilbert premiered seven of his plays at the Haymarket. The first was his early burlesque, Robinson Crusoe; or, The Injun Bride and the Injured Wife (1867, written with Byron, Tom Hood, H. S. Leigh and Arthur Sketchley). Gilbert followed this with a number of his blank verse "fairy comedies", the first of which was The Palace of Truth (1870), produced by Buckstone. These starred William Hunter Kendal and his wife Madge Robertson Kendal and also included Pygmalion and Galatea (1871), and The Wicked World (1873). Gilbert also produced here his dramas, Charity (1874), Dan'l Druce, Blacksmith (1876), and his most famous play outside of his Savoy Operas, Engaged, an 1877 farce. Buckstone's ghost has reportedly often been seen at the theatre, particularly during comedies and "when he appreciates things" playing there.^[9] In 2009, The Daily Telegraph reported that the actor Patrick Stewart saw the ghost standing in the wings during a performance of Waiting for Godot at the Haymarket.^[9]

Engaged, Gilbert's most famous play outside of his works with Sullivan, premií¨red at the Haymarket in 1877.

In 1873 matinées were introduced starting at 2.00pm. In May 1875, Sullivan's The Zoo transferred to the Haymarket.^[10] In 1879 the house was taken over by the Bancrofts, who re-opened the theatre with a revival of Edward Bulwer-Lytton's Money, followed by Victorien Sardou's Odette (for which they engaged Madame Helena Modjeska) and Fedora, and Arthur Wing Pinero's Lords and Commons, with other revivals of previous successes. The auditorium was reconstructed, and the stage enclosed in a complete picture frame proscenium. The abolition of the pit by the introduction of stalls seating divided by plain iron arms caused a small riot.

Herbert Beerbohm Tree transferred from the Comedy Theatre with The Red Lamp in 1887. He took over upon the retirement of the Bancrofts and installed electric light in the theatre. Under Tree's management, Oscar Wilde premiered his first comedy A Woman of No Importance in April 1893. In January 1895 Wilde's An Ideal Husband was first performed. Tree's next notable hit was George du Maurier's Trilby, later in 1895. This ran for over 260 performances and made such profits that Tree was able to build Her Majesty's Theatre and establish RADA.

In 1896 Cyril Maude and Frederick Harrison became lessees, opening with Under the Red Robe, an adaptation of Stanley Wyman's novel. In 1897 The Little Minister by J. M. Barrie ran for 320 performances.

The 20th century

1900 to 1950

In 1904, the auditorium was redesigned in Louis XVI style by C. Stanley Peach.^[11] The following year, Maude acquired the Playhouse Theatre by Charing Cross Station, leaving Harrison in sole control. In 1909, Herbert Trench produced Maurice Maeterlinck's The Blue Bird. Productions from then to the end of World War I included Bunty Pulls the Strings (1911), a Scottish comedy by Graham Moffat, which ran for 617 performances with Jimmy Finlayson in the lead; Ibsen's Ghosts (1914); Elegant Edward, with Henry Daniell as P. C. Hodson (1915);^[12] The Widow's Might (1916), a comedy by Leonard Huskinson and Christopher Sandeman, with Henry Daniell.^[12][13] and General Post, a comedy by J. E. Harold Terry, which opened on 14 March 1917 and ran for 532 performances, again with Daniell.^[12]

John Gielgud in 1936

In 1920, J. M. Barrie's Mary Rose had a run of 399 performances. Another long-running production was Yellow Sands, in which Ralph Richardson gave 610 performances in 1926-27. In 1926 Harrison died, and Horace Watson became General Manager under a Trust. His presentations included 632 performances of The First Mrs Fraser, by St. John Ervine, starring Marie Tempest in 1929. In 1939, under Watson's management, work began on excavating a stalls bar, but it was not completed until 1941 owing to the breakout of World War II. Wartime presentations included the London premiere of Noí«l Coward's Design for Living (1939) and John Gielgud's repertory season of The Circle (Somerset Maugham), Love for Love (Congreve), Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Duchess of Malfi.

In 1940, Gielgud directed The Beggar's Opera, with Michael Redgrave as Macheath.^[14] In 1945, two Coward plays, Present Laughter and This Happy Breed, alternated. They were followed by Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan and The Importance of Being Earnest in 1948, and Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie directed by Gielgud, starring Helen Hayes;^[15] and The Heiress, an adaptation of Henry James's Washington Square, directed by Gielgud and starring Ralph Richardson and Peggy Ashcroft, who was succeeded by Wendy Hiller (1949-50).^[16]

1950-80

In 1951-52 Waters of the Moon by N. C. Hunter starred Sybil Thorndyke, Edith Evans and Wendy Hiller. For the Coronation season in 1953, Coward gave a rare performance in a play not written by him, The Apple Cart by George Bernard Shaw, with Margaret Leighton as his co-star. To Coward, the Haymarket was "the most perfect theatre in the world".^[17] In 1956, Stuart Watson died and was succeeded by his son, Anthony. Productions under the new management included Flowering Cherry by Robert Bolt (1957) starring Ralph Richardson and Celia Johnson; Ross by Terence Rattigan (1960) and John Gielgud's production of The School for Scandal, with Ralph Richardson and Margaret Rutherford. In the 1960s, notable presentations included The Tulip Bee by N. C. Hunter starring Celia Johnson and John Clements (1961) and Thornton Wilder's Ides of March directed by Gielgud (1963).

In 1971, Louis I. Michaels became the lessee of the theatre. Productions of the decade included a revival of Enid Bagnold's The Chalk Garden, with Gladys Cooper (1971); the long-running A Voyage Round My Father (John Mortimer) starring Alec Guinness, succeeded by Michael Redgrave (1971-72); and, in 1972, Crown Matrimonial by Royce Ryton, starring Wendy Hiller as Queen Mary. Later productions were Edith Evans and Friends (1974); a revival of On Approval (Frederick Lonsdale) with Geraldine McEwan and Edward Woodward (1975); The Circle, with Googie Withers and John McCallum (1976); Rosmersholm (Ibsen) with Claire Bloom and Daniel Massey (1977); The Millionairess (Shaw), with Penelope Keith; and again Waters of the Moon, starring Wendy Hiller and Ingrid Bergman in her last stage role (1979).

1980-2000

The theatre then presented Make and Break (Michael Frayn), with Leonard Rossiter (1980). The following year, Louis Michaels died, and the theatre passed to a company, Louis I Michaels Ltd, with President, Enid Chanelle and Chairman, Arnold M Crook. They presented Overheard, by and starring Peter Ustinov; and Virginia, with Maggie Smith (1981). In 1982, the Haymarket staged a repertory season of Hobson's Choice, starring Penelope Keith; A Coat of Varnish (Ronald Millar); Captain Brassbound's Conversion (Shaw); Uncle Vanya (Chekhov); Rules of the Game (Luigi Pirandello); and Man and Superman (Shaw), starring Peter O'Toole. In 1983, productions included The School for Scandal, starring Donald Sinden; Heartbreak House (Shaw), starring Rex Harrison; Ben Kingsley in a one-man show about Edmund Kean; A Patriot for Me (John Osborne); The Cherry Orchard (Chekhov); and The Sleeping Prince (Terence Rattigan).

Productions in 1984 were The Aspern Papers by Henry James, adapted by Michael Redgrave, starring Christopher Reeve, Vanessa Redgrave and Wendy Hiller; Aren't We All? (Frederick Lonsdale) starring Claudette Colbert; and The Way of the World (Congreve). In 1985, Lauren Bacall starred in Sweet Bird of Youth (Tennessee Williams), followed in 1986 by Harold Pinter's Old Times; Antony and Cleopatra, starring Vanessa Redgrave; Breaking the Code (Hugh Whitmore), starring Derek Jacobi as Alan Turing; Long Day's Journey Into Night, starring Jack Lemmon; and The Apple Cart, starring Peter O'Toole. 1987 productions included Mad Bad and Dangerous to Know (Jane McCulloch) and Melon (Simon Gray). In 1988, another Tennessee Williams play, Orpheus Descending, starred Vanessa Redgrave; later productions that year were You Never Can Tell (Shaw); The Deep Blue Sea (Rattigan); and The Admirable Crichton (J. M. Barrie). The 1980s ended at the Haymarket with The Royal Baccarat Scandal (Royce Ryton); Veterans' Day (Donald Freed); and A Life In The Theatre (David Mamet).

In 1990, the Haymarket revived London Assurance (Dion Boucicault). This was followed by An Evening with Peter Ustinov and Gasping (Ben Elton). The next year, the theatre presented Silly Cow (Ben Elton); John Sessions' Travelling Tales; and Jean Anouilh's Becket, starring Derek Jacobi and Robert Lindsay. Lindsay also starred in a revival of Cyrano de Bergerac in 1992. This was succeeeded by new productions of Heartbreak House and A Woman of No Importance.

In 1994 the theatre closed for a £1.3 million refurbishment, re-opening later that year with An Evening with Peter Ustinov, followed by Arcadia (Tom Stoppard). Burning Blue (1995), a new play by the first time playwright David Greer, was followed by the veteran director Peter Hall's revival of Ibsen's The Master Builder, starring Alan Bates. Hall also directed the 1996 An Ideal Husband (Oscar Wilde) 100 years after its premií¨re at the Haymarket; the new production featured Martin Shaw as Lord Goring. Another production of 1996 was Neil Simon's The Odd Couple, starring Tony Randall and Jack Klugman. Hall was in charge again for the 1997 production of A Streetcar Named Desire (Tennessee Williams), starring Jessica Lange; Lady Windermere's Fan; and An Ideal Husband (returning after touring). The last production of that year was A Delicate Balance (Edward Albee), starring Maggie Smith, John Standing, Annette Crosbie and Eileen Atkins.

In 1998, Tom Stoppard's The Invention of Love, starring John Wood, transferred from the National Theatre. In 1999, Fascinating Aida's comic revue was followed by Neil Simon's The Prisoner of Second Avenue, with Richard Dreyfuss and Marsha Mason; Love Letters, by A. R. Gurney, with Charlton Heston; and a transfer of the Chichester Festival's The Importance of Being Earnest, starring Patricia Routledge.

The 21st century

Productions at the Haymarket in 2000 included Collected Stories (Donald Marguiles), starring Helen Mirren, and August Strindberg's Miss Julie, followed by The Blue Room by David Hare; Japes by Simon Gray, directed by Peter Hall (2001); The Royal Family (Edna Ferber), starring Judi Dench; Lady Windermere's Fan, directed by Peter Hall starring Vanessa Redgrave and Joely Richardson (2002); and Rose Rage, an adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry VI plays, directed by Edward Hall. In 2003, Dench and Maggie Smith appeared for the first time together on stage in The Breath of Life by David Hare. Other productions of that year were Brand (Ibsen) directed by Adrian Noble, starring Ralph Fiennes, and A Woman of No Importance, with Rupert Graves, Samantha Bond and Prunella Scales, also directed by Noble.

In 2004, the theatre presented a stage production of the film, When Harry Met Sally, starring Luke Perry and Alyson Hannigan, during which the house closed for two nights after bits of the ceiling fell down during a performance injuring about 13 people. It was followed by Singular Sensations, a season of performances by Barbara Cook, Michael Feinstein, Michael Ball and Joshua Rifkin. The last production of 2004 was a revival of Becket by Anouilh. 2005 productions were Victoria Wood's Acorn Antiques The Musical, starring Julie Walters, directed by Trevor Nunn; and A Few Good Men, starring Rob Lowe. 2006 featured three revivals: A Man for All Seasons, starring Martin Shaw; Coward's Hay Fever, with Judi Dench and Peter Bowles; and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, starring Dave Willetts and Shona Lindsay. The last production of that year was Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, starring Claire Bloom and Billy Zane.

The first production of 2007 was Pinter's People, a compilation of Harold Pinter sketches of the past 40 years, staged by a company of four, led by Bill Bailey; later productions of that year were The Lady from Dubuque (Albee), starring Maggie Smith; David Suchet in The Last Confession; and The Country Wife, starring Toby Stephens, Patricia Hodge and David Haig. The following year's productions were The Sea (Bond), starring David Haig, Eileen Atkins and Russell Tovey; Marguerite', a musical starring Ruthie Henshall and Alexander Hanson; and Girl with a Pearl Earring, a stage adaptation by David Joss Buckley of Tracy Chevalier's novel.

In 2009, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Simon Callow and Ronald Pickup starred in Waiting for Godot; this was followed by Breakfast at Tiffany's, starring Anna Friel, James Dreyfus and Suzanne Bertish. In 2010 Waiting for Godot was staged again with McKellen, Roger Rees, Matthew Kelly and Pickup, to be followed by a transfer of Sweet Charity from the Menier Chocolate Factory.

Notes

References

• Earl, John and Sell, Michael Guide to British Theatres 1750-1950, pp. 116 (Theatres Trust, 2000) ISBN 0-7136-5688-3
• Gater, Sir George and Walter H Godfrey (ed): Survey of London, Vol XX, Greater London Council, London 1940
• Gielgud, John, (ed Richard Mangan): Gielgud's Letters, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 2004, ISBN 0-297-82989-0
• Goodman, Andrew: Gilbert and Sullivan's London, Spellmount Ltd, London, 1988, ISBN 0-946771-31-6
• Lesley, Cole: The Life of Noel Coward, Jonathan Cape, London, 1976, ISBN 0-224-01288-6
• Maude, Cyril and Ralph Maude. The Haymarket Theatre: Some Records & Reminiscences, E. P. Dutton, 1903
• Plantamura, Carol, The Opera Lover's Guide to Europe, New York: Citadel Press, 1996. ISBN 0-8065-1842-1
• Sinden, Donald: A Touch of the Memoirs, Futura, London 1983, ISBN 0 7088 22851
• Theatre History and Archive Material
• Profile of the theatre and other Victorian theatres

External links

• Theatre Royal Haymarket homepage
• bbc.co.uk Theatre shuts after ceiling fall (published 2004-05-17)
• New York Times obituary, of J. B. Buckstone, November 1, 1879, describing numerous plays that he produced at the Haymarket