The Apollo Theatre is a Grade II listed West End theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster, in central London. Designed by the architect Lewin Sharp for owner Henry Lowenfeld, was 893, with a proscenium of wide and deep.

The capacity today is 757 seats, creating Nimax Theatres, which still owns the theatre.

2013 ceiling collapse

On 19 December 2013, at about 20:15 GMT, of the auditorium's ornate plasterwork ceiling collapsed around 40 minutes into a performance of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. It brought down a lighting rig and a section of balcony, thereby trapping two people and injuring around 88, including seven seriously. There were 720 people in the audience at the time. The incident was preceded by heavy rain. where the emergency services could triage. The London Ambulance Service later stated that they had treated 76 injured people, with 58 taken to four London hospitals, some on commandeered buses. That month Westminster City Council issued a notice to other historic theatres saying that the ceiling collapse appeared to have been caused by the gradual deterioration of Hessian wadding mixed into plaster of Paris to form the ties lashing timbers together, which had probably been in place since the theatre was built.

Production history

left|thumb|Souvenir of 300th performance of [[Véronique (operetta)|Véronique at the theatre in 1905]]

The opening caused a public uproar, with a selected audience for the first performance, on Thursday 21 February 1901, and the first public performance scheduled for 22 February. Between 1908 and 1912 the theatre hosted H. G. Pelissier's The Follies. After this it staged a variety of works, including seasons of plays by Charles Hawtrey in 1913, 1914 and 1924, and Harold Brighouse's Hobson's Choice in 1916.

  • The Glass Menagerie (2007) with Jessica Lange
  • Blithe Spirit (2011) with Alison Steadman
  • Yes Prime Minister (2011)
  • Jerusalem (2011–2012)
  • The Madness of George III (2012)
  • Long Day's Journey Into Night (2012) with David Suchet
  • Richard III and Twelfth Night (2012) with Mark Rylance and Stephen Fry
  • The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2013–2014)
  • My Night with Reg (2015)
  • The Audience (2015) with Kristin Scott Thomas
  • Dear Lupin (2015) with James Fox and Jack Fox
  • Peter Pan Goes Wrong (2015–2016)
  • Nell Gwynn (2016) with Gemma Arterton
  • The Go-Between (2016) with Michael Crawford
  • Travesties (2017) with Tom Hollander and Freddie Fox
  • Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (2017) with Sienna Miller and Jack O'Connell
  • Everybody's Talking About Jamie (2017–2021)
  • Magic Goes Wrong (2021–2022)
  • Jerusalem (2022)
  • Cruise (2022) with Jack Holden
  • The Upstart Crow (2022) with David Mitchell and Gemma Whelan
  • Derren Brown – Showman (2022–2023)
  • 2:22 A Ghost Story (2023)
  • The Time Traveller's Wife (2023–2024) with David Hunter and Joanna Woodward
  • Mind Mangler: Member of the Tragic Circle (2024)
  • Fawlty Towers: The Play (2024–2025)
  • Punch (2025)
  • A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong (2025–2026)
  • I'm Sorry, Prime Minister (2026) with Griff Rhys Jones and Clive Francis
  • The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals (2026) by StarKid Productions

Notes

References

  • Guide to British Theatres 1750–1950, John Earl and Michael Sell pp. 98–9 (Theatres Trust, 2000)
  • Who's Who in the Theatre, edited by John Parker, tenth edition, revised, London, 1947, pps: 477–478.

Apollo Theatre Website

Nimax Theatres Website

  • , with pictures of the interior, including the ceiling that collapsed in 2013
  • Apollo Theatre History, at site dedicated to Arthur Lloyd