The Adelphi was founded in 1806 as the Sans Pareil ("Without Compare"), by merchant John Scott, and his daughter Jane (1770–1839). Jane was a British theatre manager, performer, and playwright. Together, they gathered a theatrical company and by 1809 the theatre was licensed for musical entertainments, pantomime, and burletta. She wrote more than fifty stage pieces in an array of genres: melodramas, pantomimes, farces, comic operettas, historical dramas, and adaptations, as well as translations. Jane Scott retired to Surrey in 1819, marrying John Davies Middleton (1790–1867). On 18 October 1819, the theatre reopened under its present name, which was adopted from the Adelphi Buildings opposite.
In its early years, the theatre was known for melodrama, called Adelphi Screamers. Many stories by Charles Dickens were also adapted for the stage here. The theatre itself, makes a cameo appearance in The Pickwick Papers. The Adelphi came under the management of Madame Celeste and comedian Benjamin Webster, in 1844, and Buckstone was appointed its resident dramatist.
The old theatre was demolished, and on 26 December 1858, The New Adelphi was opened and was considered an improvement on the cramped circumstances of the original, which had been described as a "hasty conversion from a tavern hall, permanently kept in its provisional state". The new theatre could seat 1,500 people, with standing room for another 500. The interior was lighted by a Stroud's Patent Sun Lamp, a brilliant array of gas mantles passed through a chandelier of cut-glass.
In the mid-19th century, John Lawrence Toole established his comedic reputation at the Adelphi. Also in the mid-19th century, the Adelphi hosted a number of French operettas. In 1867, however, the Adelphi gave English comic opera a boost by hosting the first public performance of Arthur Sullivan's first opera, Cox and Box. The building was renovated in 1879 and again in 1887 when a public house called The Hampshire Hog and the house next door, and the Nell Gwynne Tavern in Bull Inn Court were all bought by the Gattis, in order to enlarge the Theatre. They also built a new enlarged Facade and part of this can still be seen today above the Crystal Rooms next door to the present Adelphi Theatre.
An actor who performed regularly at the Adelphi in the latter half of the 19th century, William Terriss, was stabbed to death during the run of ‘Secret Service’ on 16 December 1897 whilst entering the Theatre by the royal entrance in Maiden Lane which he used as a private entrance. This is now recorded on a plaque on the wall by the stage door. Outside a neighbouring pub, a sign says that the killer was one of the theatre's stage hands, but Richard Archer Prince committed the murder. It has been said that Terriss' ghost haunts the theatre. Terriss' daughter was Ellaline Terriss, a famous actress, and her husband, actor-manager Seymour Hicks managed the Adelphi for some years at the end of the 19th century. The stage door of the current Adelphi is in Maiden Lane but back then it was in Bull Inn Court. William Terriss would later have a Theatre named after him, the Terriss Theatre in Rotherhithe, later known as the Rotherhithe Hippodrome.
The adjacent, numbers 409 and 410 Strand, were built in 1886–87 by the Gatti Brothers as the Adelphi Restaurant. The frontage remains essentially the same, but with plate glass windows, and, like the theatre, is a Grade II listed building.
On 11 September 1901, the third theatre was opened as the Century Theatre, although the name reverted in 1904. This theatre was built by Frank Kirk to the design of Ernest Runtz. George Edwardes, the dean of London musical theatre, took over management of the theatre in 1908.
The present Adelphi opened on 3 December 1930, redesigned in the Art Deco style by Ernest Schaufelberg. It was named the 'Royal Adelphi Theatre' and re-opened with the hit musical Ever Green, by Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers, based on the book Benn W. Levy. Noël Coward's Words and Music premièred at the theatre in 1932. The operetta Balalaika (a revised version of The Gay Hussars) played at the theatre in 1936, and in 1940 the theatre's name again reverted to 'The Adelphi'.
A proposed redevelopment of Covent Garden by the GLC in 1968 saw the theatre under threat, together with the nearby Vaudeville, Garrick, Lyceum and Duchess theatres. An active campaign by Equity, the Musicians' Union, and theatre owners under the auspices of the Save London Theatres Campaign led to the abandonment of the scheme.
On 27 February 1982 the Adelphi hosted the final night of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company for a concert performance of songs from all thirteen Savoy Operas as well as Cox and Box and Thespis. In 1993, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group purchased the theatre and completely refurbished it prior to the opening of his adaptation of Sunset Boulevard. The 1998 video of Lloyd Webber's musical Cats was filmed at the theatre.
As the Adelphi Theatre (1940-Present)
Date | Play |
---|---|
Nov 6, 2012 | The Bodyguard |
Mar 10, 2012 | Sweeney Todd |
Nov 21, 2011 | One Man, Two Guvnors |
Mar 9, 2010 | Love Never Dies |
Sep 24, 2009 | The Rat Pack |
Jun 15, 2009 | Derren Brown: Enigma |
Jul 6, 2007 | Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat |
Jun 20, 2006 | Evita |
Oct 27, 1997 | Chicago |
May 29, 1997 | Damn Yankees |
Jul 12, 1993 | Sunset Boulevard |
Feb 12, 1985 | Me and My Girl |
Dec 4, 1984 | The Jungle Book |
Aug 6, 1984 | Lena Horne |
Nov 22, 1983 | Poppy |
Mar 17, 1983 | Marilyn |
Oct 20, 1982 | The American Dream Machine |
Oct 25, 1979 | My Fair Lady |
Jun 19, 1979 | Charley's Aunt |
1978 | Beyond the Rainbow |
1975 | Irene |
1974 | A Little Night Music |
1973 | The King and I |
1970 | Green Room Rags |
1970 | Show Boat |
1969 | Charlie Girl |
1966 | Green Room Rags |
1965 | Charlie Girl |
1964 | Maggie May |
1963 | Six of One |
1963 | Green Room Rags |
1963 | Marcel Marceau |
1962 | Blitz |
1962 | London Laughs |
1961 | The Music Man |
1961 | Scapa |
1960 | Cinderella |
1960 | Once Upon a Mattress |
1960 | Little Darling |
1959 | When in Rome |
1959 | Auntie Mame |
1959 | Freres Jacques |
1959 | Cyrano de Bergerac |
1958 | A Raisin in the Sun |
1958 | The French Mistress |
1957 | Simply Heaven |
1957 | Classical Theatre of China |
1956 | United Notions |
1956 | The Country Wife |
1955 | Such is Life |
1954 | The Talk of the Town |
1953 | You'll Be Lucky |
1951 | Ballet Russe |
1951 | The Moment of Truth |
1951 | Behind the Throne |
1951 | Danzes Latino-America |
1950 | Take It From Us |
1950 | Ram Gopal |
Dec 7, 1949 | Castle in the Air |
1949 | Golden City |
1948 | Tough at the Top |
1947 | Bless the Bridge |
1946 | Les Ballets des Camps Elysees |
1945 | Cinderella |
1945 | Big Ben |
1945 | Can-Can |
1944 | Sweet Yesterday |
1944 | Desert Rats |
1942 | Russian Ballet |
1941 | The Dancing Years |
As the Royal Adelphi Theatre (1930-1940)
Date | Play |
---|---|
1940 | Fig Leaves |
1938 | Happy Returns |
1938 | Bobby Get Your Gun |
1937 | The Laughing Cavalier |
1937 | Aladdin |
1936 | Blackbirds |
1936 | Transatlantic Rhythm |
1936 | Home and Beauty |
1936 | Balalaika |
1935 | Follow the Sun |
Dec 17, 1934 | The Winning Post |
Nov 12, 1934 | Journey's End |
1934 | Mr. Wittington |
1934 | Stop Press |
1933 | Nymph Errant |
1933 | She Loves Me Not |
1933 | Magnolia Street |
1932 | Words and Music |
1931 | Grand Hotel |
1931 | Helen! |
1930 | Ever Green |
As the Adelphi Theatre (1904-1929)
Date | Play |
---|---|
1929 | Brothers |
1929 | The House That Jack Built |
1928 | Mr. Cinders |
1927 | Clowns in Clover |
1927 | One-Act Plays |
1926 | Broadway |
1926 | Merely Molly |
1926 | Peter Pan |
1925 | The Green Hat |
1925 | Betty in Mayfair |
1924 | Iris |
1924 | Peter Pan |
1924 | Clo-Clo |
Jun 2, 1924 | The Ware Case |
1923 | Diplomacy |
1922 | The Island King |
1922 | Peter Pan |
1922 | Battling Butler |
1921 | The Way of the Eagle |
1921 | The Golden Moth |
1920 | The Naughty Princess |
1919 | Who's Hooper? |
1917 | The Boy |
1916 | High Jinks |
1915 | Tina |
1911 | The Quaker Girl |
1907 | Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch |
1907 | Aladdin |
1907 | The Dairymaids |
1906 | The Corsican Brothers |
1905 | Dr. Wake's Patient |
1905 | A Midsummer Night's Dream |
1904 | The Earl and The Girl |
1904 | The Comedy of Errors |
1904 | Hamlet |
1904 | Under Which King? |
1904 | The Taming of the Shrew |
As the Century Theatre (1901-1903)
Date | Play |
---|---|
1903 | The Earl and The Girl |
1902 | The Silver King |
1902 | Captain Kettle |
1902 | The Worst Woman in London |
As the New Adelphi Theatre (1858-1900)
Date | Play |
---|---|
1899 | Quo Vadis |
1899 | Bonnie Dundee |
Dec 26, 1898 | Dick Whittington |
Nov 1898 | A Kiss in the Dark |
Nov 1898 | The Man in the Iron Mask |
1898 | Cyrano de Bergerac |
1898 | Hamlet |
1897 | In the Days of the Duke |
1896 | Black-Eyed Susan |
1895 | The Swordsman's Daughter |
1894 | Fatal Card |
1892 | The Black Domino |
1891 | The Lights of Home |
1889 | The English Rose |
1888 | Harbour Lights |
1883 | In the Ranks |
1881 | It's Never Too Late To Mend |
1879 | The Hunchback |
1879 | Forbidden Fruit |
1879 | The Maid of Croissey |
1877 | Proof |
1876 | The Shaughraum |
1876 | True to the Core |
1876 | Arrah-Na-Pogue |
1875 | Peep O'Day |
1874 | The Geneva Cross |
1859 | It's An Ill Wind That Blows Nobody Good |
As the Adelphi Theatre (1806-1858)
Date | Play |
---|---|
1857 | Poll and My Partner Joe |
1855 | Charlotte Corday |
1854 | Helping Hands |
1854 | Janet Pride |
1853 | The Thirst of Gold |
1850 | The Couriers of Lyons |
1849 | Domestic Economy |
1848 | The Haunted Man and The Ghost's Bargain |
1844 | The Green Bushes |
1842 | Antony & Cleopatra |
Nov 1840 | The Old Curiosity Shop |
Nov 1838 | Nicholas Nichleby |
Apr 3, 1837 | The Pickwick Papers |
Oct 13, 1834 | The Christening |
1832 | The Divorce |
1829 | Bonnie Prince Charlie |
1828 | Don Juan |