Her Majestys Theatre

History of the Her Majestys Theatre

Her Majesty's Theatre is a theatre in London's West End.

A theatre has been on this site, in a street called the Haymarket in the St. James's district, since 1705. The first building was designed by Sir John Vanbrugh. It was initially known as The Queen's Theatre after Queen Anne, and was The King's Theatre after 1714, when a succession of male monarchs occupied the throne. At this time only a handful of theatres were permitted to operate in London. The theatre was associated with opera from the 1710s until it burnt down in 1789.

The second theatre opened in 1791. It saw the first London performances of Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito in 1806, Così fan tutte in 1811, and Don Giovanni in 1816. John Nash and George Renton made alterations to the facade and auditorium between 1816 and 1818, and also added a shopping arcade called the Royal Opera Arcade which runs along the rear of the theatre and still stands today. When Queen Victoria ascended the throne in 1837 the name of the theatre was changed to Her Majesty's Theatre, Italian Opera House. The "Italian Opera House" part of the name was dropped in 1847. Then, in December 1867, the theatre was once again destroyed by fire.

The third theatre was rebuilt in 1869 and demolished in 1892. It also presented mainly opera.

The fourth and current building, designed by CJ Phills, was opened in 1897. This building did not specialise in opera, although there were some operatic performances in its early years. The musical Chu Chin Chow, The Maid of the Mountains opened in 1916 and ran for a then record 2,235 performances. Noel Coward's play Bitter Sweet enjoyed a run of 697 performances starting in 1929. Musicals have predominated in the post World War II period, including Brigadoon (opened 1949), Paint Your Wagon (1953), West Side Story (1958) and Fiddler On The Roof which had a run of 2,030 performances starting in 1967. Since 1986 Her Majesty's has been the London home of The Phantom of the Opera.

The name of the theatre changes from Her Majesty's to His Majesty's Theatre if there is a male monarch (most recently from 1901 to 1952).

The venue was also the setting for the popular ITV1 variety series Live from Her Majesty's, which ran on television from 1982 to 1985. It was on this programme that Tommy Cooper collapsed and died on stage in 1984.

Its capacity is 1,216 seats.