His Majesty's Theatre, London

His Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre situated in the Haymarket in the City of Westminster, London. The building, designed by Charles J. Phipps, was constructed in 1897 for the actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) at the theatre. In the early decades of the 20th century Tree produced spectacular productions of Shakespeare and other classical works, and the theatre hosted premieres by such playwrights as Bernard Shaw, J. M. Synge and, later, Noël Coward and J. B. Priestley. Since the First World War the wide stage has made the theatre suitable for large-scale musical productions, and His Majesty's has accordingly specialised in hosting musicals. It has been home to record-setting musical theatre runs such as the First World War hit Chu Chin Chow and Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, which has run at His Majesty's since 1986, except during the COVID-19 pandemic theatre closures.

The first theatre on the site was established in 1705 by the architect and playwright John Vanbrugh as the Queen's Theatre. Legitimate drama unaccompanied by music was prohibited by law in all but the two London patent theatres, and the theatre quickly became an opera house. Between 1711 and 1739 more than 25 operas by George Frideric Handel premiered here. The theatre burnt down in 1789, and a new theatre was completed in 1791. Some of Joseph Haydn's series of concerts in London took place at the theatre in the 1790s. In the early 19th century the theatre was home to an opera company (which moved to the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, in 1847) presenting the first London performances of Mozart's La clemenza di Tito, Così fan tutte and Don Giovanni. It also hosted the ballet of Her Majesty's Theatre in the mid-19th century, before returning to opera with the London premieres of such works as Bizet's Carmen and Wagner's Ring cycle. A third building was constructed in 1868.

The theatre's capacity is 1,216 seats, and the building was Grade II* listed by English Heritage in 1970. LW Theatres has owned the building since 2000. The land beneath it is on a long-term lease from the Crown Estate. The name of the theatre changes with the gender of the monarch. Throughout the reign of Queen Victoria it was called Her Majesty's Theatre, changing to His Majesty's on the accession of Edward VII in 1901. In 1952 the theatre again became Her Majesty's on the accession of Elizabeth II.

Background

thumb|upright|alt=oil painting of clean-shaven white man in long brown wig|[[John Vanbrugh painted by Godfrey Kneller, ]]

There have been four theatres on the site, at the junction of the Haymarket and Charles II Street in the West End of London. The first opened as the Queen's Theatre on 9 April 1705. In the late 17th century there were two patent theatre companies, who were the only performers permitted by law to stage plays without music. They had been brought together as the United Company at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, built in 1663, but there were continual disagreements between the actors and their manager, Christopher Rich. In 1695 some of the actors broke away and set up a rival company at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, managed by Thomas Betterton. The company did not prosper at that theatre, and in 1703 the dramatist and architect John Vanbrugh acquired a former stable yard, at a cost of £2,000, for the construction of a new theatre in the Haymarket. He was joined in the enterprise by his principal associate and manager William Congreve and Betterton's company. To build the theatre, Vanbrugh raised the money by subscription, possibly among members of the Kit-Cat Club. According to Colley Cibber:

Vanbrugh's theatre: 1705–1789

The land for the theatre was held on a lease renewable in 1740; the freeholder was, and remains, the Crown Estate. Building was delayed by the necessity of acquiring the street frontage, and a three-bay entrance led to a brick shell long and wide. Cibber described the audience fittings as lavish but the facilities for playing poor.|group=n The Confederacy, in which Thomas Doggett, later known for Doggett's Coat and Badge, scored one of his greatest successes,

Congreve departed and Vanbrugh bought out his other partners. As he became progressively more involved in the construction of Blenheim Palace, his management of the theatre became increasingly chaotic, showing "numerous signs of confusion, inefficiency, missed opportunities, and bad judgement". In May 1707, experiencing mounting losses and running costs, he sold a fourteen-year lease on the theatre to Owen Swiny and gave up active management of the theatre. The theatre was not licensed to present non-musical plays, and in 1708 the authorities enforced that provision. The actors moved to the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and Queen's Theatre concentrated on opera.

Some performances of plays at Queen's were licensed in 1709 by the Lord Chamberlain, and the theatre's acoustics were altered to better support drama. After 1709, however, the theatre was devoted to Italian opera and was sometimes referred to as the Haymarket Opera House. The young George Frideric Handel made his English début with his opera Rinaldo, on 24 February 1711 at the theatre, featuring the two leading castrato singers of the era, Nicolo Grimaldi and Valentino Urbani. This was the first Italian opera composed specifically for the London stage. The work was well received, achieving a run, substantial for the time, of fifteen performances. Losses at the Queen's Theatre continued, and Swiny fled abroad to escape his creditors. John James Heidegger took over the management of the theatre and, from 1719, began to extend the stage through arches into the houses to the south of the theatre. Under this sponsorship Handel conducted a series of more than twenty-five of his original operas, continuing until 1739. Handel was a partner in the management with Heidegger from 1729 to 1734, and he contributed incidental music for the theatre, including that for a revival of Ben Jonson's The Alchemist, opening on 14 January 1710.

On the accession of George I in 1714 the theatre was renamed the King's Theatre (and remained so named during the succession of male monarchs who occupied the throne until 1837). The two patent theatres remained the only ones permitted to perform dramas unaccompanied by music in London, and lacking letters patent, the theatre remained associated with opera. In 1762 Johann Christian Bach travelled to London to premiere three operas at the theatre, including Orione on 19 February 1763. This established his reputation in England, and he became music master to Queen Charlotte.

Sheridan

thumb|alt=Portrait of clean-shaven white man in 18th-century costume and short white wig|[[Richard Brinsley Sheridan, painted by Joshua Reynolds]]

In 1778 the lease for the theatre was transferred from James Brook to Thomas Harris, stage manager of the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, and to the playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan for £22,000. They paid for the remodelling of the interior by Robert Adam in the same year. In November 1778, The Morning Chronicle reported that Harris and Sheridan had:

With the departure of the Drury Lane company in 1794 the theatre returned to opera, hosting the first London performances of Mozart's La clemenza di Tito in 1806, Così fan tutte and The Magic Flute in 1811, and Don Giovanni in 1816. Between 1816 and 1818, John Nash and George Repton made alterations to the façade and increased the capacity of the auditorium to 2,500. They also added a shopping arcade, called the Royal Opera Arcade, which has survived fires and renovations and still exists. It runs along the rear of the theatre.

right|thumb|upright|alt=Ceramic tokens functioning as season tickets for admission to the theatre|Season tickets for 1824 season at King's Theatre

In 1797 Taylor was elected as member of Parliament for Leominster, a position that gave him immunity from his creditors. When that parliament dissolved in 1802 he fled to France.

John Ebers

John Ebers, a bookseller, took over the management of the theatre in 1821, and seven more London premieres of Rossini operas (La gazza ladra, Il turco in Italia, Mosè in Egitto, Otello, La donna del lago, Matilde di Shabran and Ricciardo e Zoraide) took place there in the following three years. Ebers sublet the theatre to Giambattista Benelli in 1824, and Rossini was invited to conduct, remaining for a five-month season, with his wife Isabella Colbran performing. Two more of his operas, Zelmira and Semiramide, received their British premieres during the season, but there was public complaint about Rossini's failure to provide a new opera, as promised. Benelli had defaulted on his contract and absconded without paying either the composer or the artists, but this was not known to the London press and public, who blamed Rossini.

Ebers engaged Giuditta Pasta for the 1825 season, but he became involved in lawsuits which, combined with a large increase in the rent of the theatre, forced him into bankruptcy, after which he returned to his bookselling business.

Pierre François Laporte

thumb|right|upright=1.4|alt=Exterior of neo-classical urban building|Drawing of the theatre by [[Thomas Hosmer Shepherd, 1827–1828]]

In 1828 Ebers was succeeded as theatre manager by Pierre François Laporte, who held the position (with a brief gap in 1831–1833) until his death in 1841. Two of Rossini's Paris operas (Le comte Ory and Le siège de Corinthe) had their British premieres at the theatre during this period, and Laporte was also the first to introduce the operas of Vincenzo Bellini (La sonnambula, Norma and I puritani) and Gaetano Donizetti (Anna Bolena, Lucia di Lammermoor and Lucrezia Borgia) to the British public. Under Laporte singers such as Giulia Grisi, Pauline Viardot, Giovanni Battista Rubini, Luigi Lablache and Mario made their London stage débuts at the theatre. Among the musical directors of this period was Nicolas Bochsa, the celebrated and eccentric French harpist. He was appointed in 1827 and remained for six years at this position.

When Queen Victoria ascended the throne in 1837 the name of the theatre was changed to Her Majesty's Italian Opera House. In the same year Samuel Phelps made his London début as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice at the theatre, also playing in other Shakespearean plays there. In 1863 Robert Browning's Colombe's Birthday played at the theatre. The Morning Post described it as "a delicate wreath of poetic flowers", too subtle for theatregoers accustomed to coarser offerings, and it was not a success.

In 1841 disputes arose over Laporte's decision to replace the baritone Antonio Tamburini with a new singer, Colletti. The audience stormed the stage, and the performers formed "a revolutionary conspiracy". A London newspaper described the incident as "one of the most disgraceful scenes that ever occurred within the walls of any theatre".

Benjamin Lumley

thumb|upright=1.4|Premiere of [[I masnadieri, Her Majesty's, 1847, with Jenny Lind and Luigi Lablache|alt=stage scene featuring young woman standing and old man in a chair, apparently insensible]]

Laporte died suddenly, and Benjamin Lumley took over the management in 1842, introducing London audiences to Donizetti's late operas, Don Pasquale and La fille du régiment. Initially, relations were good between Lumley and Michael Costa, the principal conductor at Her Majesty's, but they later deteriorated. Verdi's Ernani, and Nabucco, and I Lombardi received their British premieres in 1845–46, and Lumley commissioned I masnadieri from the composer. It received its world premiere on 22 July 1847, with the Swedish diva Jenny Lind in the star role of Amalia. The British premieres of two more Verdi operas, I due Foscari and Attila, followed in 1847–48. Lind's success was so great that it became known as "Lind mania", but other performers felt neglected, and disputes continued. In 1847 Costa finally transferred his opera company to the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden; the law allowing only the patent companies to perform straight plays had been repealed in 1843, and although opera continued to be an important part of the repertoire at Her Majesty's, a wider range of productions was now possible.

Lind's retirement from opera in 1849 was a blow to Lumley, but the appearance of the Cuban singer Donna Maria Martinez at the theatre in July 1850 was the subject of much attention from the press. She was dubbed "the Black Malibran" and was "vehemently applauded and encouraged", but she did not prove a sustained draw, and the highlight of the 1850 season was the premiere of Halévy's Shakespearean opera La Tempesta.

Mander and Mitchenson describe 1851 as "the last season of operatic prosperity for Her Majesty's".

Ballet

Ballet played an important part at Her Majesty's in the mid-19th century. From the early 1830s until the late 1840s the theatre was known for staging romantic ballet. The celebrated ballet master Jules Perrot began staging ballet at Her Majesty's in 1830. Lumley appointed him Premier Maître de Ballet (chief choreographer) to the theatre in 1842. The ballet historian Ivor Guest writes, "probably never before or since has there been a more brilliant period in the history of the ballet than those years when [Perrot] was ballet-master at Her Majesty's Theatre". Among the ballets he staged were Ondine, ou La Naïade (1843), La Esmeralda (1844), and Catarina, ou La Fille du Bandit (1846), as well as the celebrated divertissement Pas de Quatre (1845). Other ballet masters created works for the ballet of Her Majesty's throughout the period of the romantic ballet, most notably Paul Taglioni (son of Filippo Taglioni), who staged ballets including Coralia, ou Le Chevalier inconstant (1847) and Electra (1849, the first production of a ballet to make use of electric lighting).

The Italian composer Cesare Pugni was appointed "Composer of the Ballet Music" to the theatre in 1843, a position created for him by Lumley. Between 1843 and 1850 he wrote the music for most of the new ballets presented at the theatre. Throughout the era of the romantic ballet the theatre presented performances by celebrated ballerinas, including Fanny Cerrito, Fanny Elssler, Lucile Grahn, Carlotta Grisi, Lola Montez and Marie Taglioni.

J. H. Mapleson

thumb|upright=1.2|1867 fire destroying the theatre|alt=drawing from the street showing huge flames coming from the front and top of the theatre

From 1862 to 1867 the theatre was managed by J. H. Mapleson. He presented Italian, French and German opera, including the British premieres of La forza del destino, Médée, Faust, Orpheus in the Underworld and The Merry Wives of Windsor, and promoted such singers as Mario, Giulia Grisi, De Murska, Thérèse Tietjens, Antonio Giuglini, Charles Santley and Christine Nilsson.

On the night of 6 December 1867 the theatre was destroyed by fire, thought to have been caused by an overheated stove. Only the bare walls of the theatre remained, and most of the adjacent shops in Pall Mall, and the Clergy Club hotel in Charles Street (now called Charles II Street), suffered damage of varying severity. The designers had taken over John Nash's practice on his retirement. The new theatre was designed to be less susceptible to fire, with brick firewalls, iron roof trusses and Dennett's patent gypsum-cement floors. and a decline in the popularity of ballet, the theatre remained dark until 1874, when it was sold to a Revivalist Christian movement. The London premiere of Bizet's Carmen was given at the theatre on 22 June 1878, and the house hosted the Carl Rosa Opera Company in seasons from 1879 to 1882.

Sarah Bernhardt appeared at the theatre in La dame aux camelias in 1886. Mapleson returned in 1887 and 1889, but The Times observed that his repertoire comprised "works that had long ceased to attract a large public, the singers were exclusively of second-rate quality, and the standard of performance was extremely low". Mander and Mitchenson comment that in 1889 the house was even the scene of a boxing tournament. – the theatre closed in 1890.

With the rapid advances in theatre technology made since the 1860s, the third theatre quickly became outmoded, and the sub-lease of the theatre, still held by the Dudley family, was due to expire in 1891. The Commissioners of Woods, Forests and Land Revenues (forerunners of the Crown Estate) desired the entire block on which the theatre stood to be rebuilt, except for the Royal Arcade, where the lease did not expire until 1912. Problems were encountered in obtaining all the buildings and in financing the scheme, but the theatre and surrounding buildings were demolished in 1892. When the demolition of the building was about to begin The Times commented: