Page 37 - MISER

THEATRE HIGHLIGHTS
The present Vaudeville Theatre is the third
on the site. The first opened in 1870 with a capacity of just over a 1,000 seats. It was built behind two houses on the Strand which left little room for a foyer or even dressing rooms and, to make matters worse, the entrance was through a warren of corridors. By 1889 the houses had been demolished, allowing expansion onto the Strand, and the ‘second’ theatre opened in 1891 – the most noticeable
alteration being a complete new frontage which remains to this day. At the end of
1925 the theatre closed to enable the interior to be totally rebuilt and it reopened in February 1926 with seating for 690. The theatre was nearly the victim of a proposed redevelopment plan for Covent Garden in 1968 but was saved along with several other theatres by the Save London Theatres Campaign and is now
Grade II listed.