The Aldwych Theatre - A Grand History

The Aldwych Theatre in London was opened on the 23^rd December 1905, with a production of Blue Bell. Well over a century later, The Aldwych has become home to some of the greatest, most acclaimed, and commercially successful shows to have ever visited the West End.

From 1905 to 1960, the site saw performances of The Beauty of Bath, The Unknown, Das Dreimäderlhaus (or Lilac Time), and A Streetcar Named Desire, as directed by the world-famous Laurence Olivier.

It was in the December of 1960 when the Royal Shakespeare Company based its London productions in the Aldwych Theatre for the next three years, but due to the success of the productions, it ended up being twenty years! Shakespeare productions became the regular as well as high-profile productions of The Wars of the Roses, The Greeks, and Nicholas Nickleby.

Some of the other notable performances to have taken place at the Aldwych include Private Lives, An Inspector Calls, Tolstoy, The Boys in the Band, Dirty Dancing, and Top Hat, and Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. In the last decade, the Aldwych Theatre also became a world first when they hosted the world premiere of Tina: The Tina Turner Musical in 2018.

With a vast history of breath-taking productions, there is little surprise that The Aldwych Theatre is one of the country’s all-time favourites!