Savoy Theatre
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| Savoy Theatre | |
 |
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| The Savoy Theatre, 1881 | |
|---|---|
| Address |
Savoy Street
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| City | |
| Architect | C. J. Phipps |
| Owned by | Ambassador Theatre Group |
| Capacity | c. 1,150 on 3 levels |
| Type | West End theatre |
| Opened | 10 October 1881 |
| Rebuilt | 1929 Frank Tugwell 1990 William Whitfield |
| Production | Never Forget |
| www.theambassadors.com/savoy | |
| Coordinates: | |
The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre located in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre opened on 10 October 1881 and was built by Richard D'Oyly Carte on the site of the old Savoy Palace as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, which became known as the Savoy Operas as a result.
The theatre was the first theatre, and the first public building in the world, to be lit entirely by electricity.[1] In 1889, Richard D'Oyly Carte built the Savoy Hotel next to the theatre. For many years, the Savoy was the home of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, and it was run by the Carte family for over a century. Richard's son Rupert D'Oyly Carte rebuilt and modernised the theatre in 1929, and it was rebuilt again in 1993 following a fire.
Apart from The Mikado and other famous Gilbert and Sullivan premières, the theatre has hosted such notable premières as Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit in 1941. In recent years it has presented opera, Shakespeare and other non-musical plays and musicals. Today, the theatre is owned by the Ambassador Theatre Group.
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[edit] History of the site
The House of Savoy was the ruling family of Savoy descended from Humbert I, Count of Sabaudia (or "Maurienne"), who became count in 1032. The name Sabaudia evolved into "Savoy" (or "Savoie"). Count Peter (or Piers or Piero) of Savoy (d. 1268) was the maternal uncle of Eleanor of Provence, queen-consort of Henry III of England, and came with her to London. King Henry made Peter Earl of Richmond and, in 1246, gave him the land between The Strand and the Thames where Peter built the Savoy Palace in 1263. On Peter's death, the Savoy was given to Edmund, 1st Earl of Lancaster, by his mother, Queen Eleanor. Edmund's great-granddaughter, Blanche, inherited the site. Her husband, John of Gaunt, 2nd Duke of Lancaster, built a magnificent palace that was burned down by Wat Tyler's followers in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. King Richard II was still a child, and his uncle John of Gaunt was the power behind the throne and so a main target of the rebels.
In about 1505, Henry VII planned a great hospital for "pouer, nedie people", leaving money and instructions for it in his will. The hospital was built in the palace ruins and licensed in 1512. Drawings show that it was a magnificent building, with a dormitory, dining hall and three chapels. Henry VII's hospital lasted for two centuries but suffered from poor management. The sixteenth-century historian Stow noted that the hospital was being misused by "loiterers, vagabonds and strumpets". In 1702 the hospital was dissolved, and the hospital buildings were used for other purposes. Part of the old palace was used for a military prison in the eighteenth century. In the nineteenth century the old hospital buildings were demolished and new buildings erected.[2]
In 1864 a fire burned everything except the stone walls and the Savoy Chapel, and the property sat empty until D'Oyly Carte bought it in 1880 to build the Savoy Theatre there. The new theatre was built speedily, and accounts noted that it "was situated on a site which, though rich in historical associations, was also rich in the olfactory sense. Mr Rimmeil's scent factory was close by as was Burgess's Noted Fish-Sauce Shop."[3][2]
[edit] Richard D'Oyly Carte's theatre
The theatre was designed by C. J. Phipps and built by the firm of Patman and Fotheringham. The Times commented, "A perfect view of the stage can be had from every seat in the house."[1] The decoration by Collinson and Locke was "in the manner of the Italian Renaissance", with white, pale yellow, red and gold predominating, including a gold satin curtain. Exits on all four sides of the theatre were provided, and fireproof materials were used to ensure maximum safety.[1] There were three tiers with four levels: stalls and pit, balcony, circle, and amphitheatre and gallery at the top. The total seating capacity was 1,292.[4] The proscenium arch was 30 feet (9.1 m) high by 30 feet (9.1 m) wide, and the stage was 27 feet (8.2 m) deep from the proscenium to the back wall.[5] The theatre originally had its main entrance on the Embankment. The parcel on which it was built was steep, stretching from the Strand down to the Embankment along Beaufort Street. After Carte built the Savoy Hotel in 1889, the entrance to the theatre was moved to the hotel's courtyard off the Strand, where it is today.
Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera Patience, which had opened at the smaller Opera Comique, moved to the Savoy on 10 October 1881 and was the first production at the new theatre. Carte hired George Edwardes, later the famous manager of the Gaiety Theatre, London, as the Savoy Theatre's first managing director. The Savoy was a state-of-the-art theatre and the first public building in the world to be lit entirely by electricity.[3] About 1,200 incandescent lamps were used, powered by a 120 horse-power generator on open land near the theatre.[1] The Times concluded that the theatre "is admirably adapted for its purpose, its acoustic qualities are excellent, and all reasonable demands of comfort and taste are complied with."[6] At a performance shortly after the theatre opened, Carte stepped on stage and broke a glowing lightbulb before the audience to demonstrate the safety of the new technology. Gaslights had also been installed as a backup, but they rarely had to be used.
The last eight of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operas were premièred at the theatre (including such popular favourites as Iolanthe, The Mikado, The Yeomen of the Guard and The Gondoliers),[7] and the term Savoy Opera has come to be associated with all their joint works. After the end of their partnership Carte, and later his widow, Helen, and her manager William Greet, staged other comic operas, notably by Ivan Caryll, Sullivan, Sydney Grundy, Basil Hood and Edward German. In 1903, the theatre closed and was reopened under the management of Edward Laurillard in February 1904. The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company returned to the Savoy for repertory seasons between 1906 and 1909, in which year C. H. Workman took over the management of the theatre, producing, among other works, Gilbert's final opera, with music by German, Fallen Fairies, which ran for only 51 performances.
Eventually, Richard's son and heir, Rupert D'Oyly Carte, took over management of the theatre. The opera company did not play in the theatre again until 1919, instead touring throughout Britain, and other works held the stage. In 1914, Basil Rathbone made his London stage debut here, appearing as Finch in The Sin of David. In 1920, he returned to the theatre playing the title-role in Peter Ibbetson.
The Strand, including the Savoy, and a depiction of Richard D'Oyly Carte, were featured in Nicholas Meyer's 1976 novel The West End Horror.
[edit] Rupert D'Oyly Carte's theatre
After serving in the navy in World War I, Rupert D'Oyly Carte decided to bring the company back to the Savoy in first-rate style and began to update and refresh the Gilbert and Sullivan productions with new designs, including Charles Ricketts's new designs for The Mikado (first seen at the Prince's Theatre) in 1926. Carte also hired first Geoffrey Toye and then Malcolm Sargent as guest conductors, and Harry Norris and then Isidore Godfrey as musical directors.
On 3 June 1929, Carte closed the theatre, and the interior was completely rebuilt to designs by Frank A. Tugwell with elaborate décor by Basil Ionides. The ceiling was painted to resemble an April sky; the walls, translucent gold on silver; the rows of stalls were all richly upholstered in different colours, and the curtain repeated the tones of the seating. Ionides said that he took the colour scheme from a bed of zinnias in Hyde Park.[8]. The entire floor space had been replanned: the old cloakrooms and bar at the back of the theatre were relocated to the the side, and instead of 18 boxes there was now only one. The new auditorium had two tiers leaving three levels: stalls, dress, and upper circle. The capacity of the old house, originally 1,292, had been reduced to 986 by 1912,[9] and the new theatre restored the capacity almost completely, with 1,200 seats.[10] The new stage was 29 feet, 4 inches wide, by 29 feet, 6 inches deep. The theatre reopened on 21 October 1929 with a new production of The Gondoliers designed by Charles Ricketts and conducted by Malcolm Sargent.[11] In the only box sat Lady Gilbert, the librettist's widow.[8]
There were further Gilbert and Sullivan seasons in 1929–30, 1932–33, 1951, 1954, 1961–62, 1975, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003. Other works presented at the Savoy included the première of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit (1941, which ran 1,997 consecutive performances – the longest run since Chu Chin Chow, and the longest in London for many years), Robert Morley in The Man Who Came to Dinner, and several comedies by William Douglas-Home starring, among others, Ralph Richardson, Peggy Ashcroft, and John Mills.
After Rupert D'Oyly Carte's death in 1948, his daughter, Bridget D'Oyly Carte, succeeded to the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and became a director and later president of the Savoy Hotel group, which controlled the theatre. The opera company closed in 1982, and Dame Bridget died childless in 1985, bringing the family line to an end.
[edit] 1990 fire and restored theatre
While the theatre was being renovated in February 1990, a fire gutted the building, except for the stage and backstage areas. Tugwell's and Ionides's designs had been preserved, however, allowing the accurate restoration of the theatre under the direction of the architect Sir William Whitfield, Sir Hugh Wontner and the theatre's manager, Kevin Chapple.[12] It reopened on 19 July 1993. The present theatre has a capacity of 1,158. During the renovation an extra storey was added above the theatre that includes a health club for the hotel and a swimming pool above the stage. The reopened theatre was the venue for the World Chess Championship in 1993, won by Garry Kasparov.
In 1993, Noel Coward's Relative Values, played at the theatre, having premièred there in 1951. Tom Stoppard's Travesties, with Anthony Sher was next, and in 1994 the musical She Loves Me played, with Ruthie Henshall and John Gordon Sinclair. These were followed by Terry Johnson's Dead Funny; Alan Ayckbourn's Communicating Doors, with Angela Thorne; J B Priestley's When We Are Married, with Dawn French, Alison Steadman, and Leo McKern; and Ben Travers' Plunder, with Griff Rhys Jones and Kevin McNally. In 1997, a group led by Sir Stephen Waley-Cohen was given management of the theatre by The Savoy Group. Productions that followed included Simon Callow in The Importance of Being Oscar; Pet Shop Boys in concert, Ian Richardson in Pinero's The Magistrate; Edward Fox in A Letter of Resignation; the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Richard III, with Robert Lindsay; and Coward's Hay Fever, with Geraldine McEwan.
In 2000, the briefly reconstituted D'Oyly Carte Opera Company produced H.M.S. Pinafore; Donald Sutherland starred in Enigmatic Variations, followed by a second D'Oyly Carte season, playing The Pirates of Penzance; and Antarctica by David Young played at the theatre.[13] In 2002, a season of Return to the Forbidden Planet was followed by the D'Oyly Carte productions of Iolanthe, The Yeomen of the Guard, and The Mikado, and then a revival of Yasmina Reza's Life x 3. In 2003, the D'Oyly Carte revived Pinafore, followed by Bea Arthur at The Savoy, John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, Peter Pan, and Pirates. These were followed by The Marriage of Figaro and The Barber of Seville performed by The Savoy Opera Company in 2004. Next were seasons of Lorna Luft starring in Songs My Mother Taught Me and the new salsa musical Murderous Instincts. Coward's Blithe Sprit was revived in 2004-05.[13]
According to the Irish Post, the Savoy Hotel group and the theatre were sold around 2004 to a group of Irish investors who in turn sold the theatre in 2005 to Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal. The hotel was purchased by the Ambassador Theatre Group, who produced The Rat Pack, which closed in October 2006, and a new musical version of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, directed by Trevor Nunn, which premièred November 9, 2006. The theatre was sold in 2007 to Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal. Fiddler On The Roof, starring Henry Goodman as Tevye, played at the theatre from May 2007 to February 2008.[14]
[edit] Recent and present productions
- Fiddler on the Roof (19 May 2007 - 16 February 2008) by Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick and Joe Stein, starring Henry Goodman, Alexandra Silber, Damian Humbley, Victor McGuire, Julie Legrand and Beverly Klein
- Legal Fictions by John Mortimer (21 February 2008 - 19 April 2008), starring Edward Fox
- Never Forget (7 May 2008 - ), a new musical with a book by Daniel Brocklehurst, Guy Jones and Ed Curtis based on the 1990s songs of Take That and the music and lyrics of Gary Barlow.
[edit] Nearby Tube Stations
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c d "The Savoy Theatre", The Times, 3 October 1881
- ^ a b Somerville, Robert. The Savoy: Manor, Hospital, Chapel (1960) London: Duchy of Lancaster
- ^ a b D'Oyly Carte Opera Company website, on Patience accessed 01 Mar 2007
- ^ 18 private boxes (72 seats); 150 stalls, 250 pit, 160 balcony, 160 circle, and 500 (maximum) amphitheatre and gallery. ("The Savoy Theatre", The Times, 3 October 1881)
- ^ Who's Who in the Theatre, 1912, p. 297. Kevin Chapple and Jane Thorne (Eds.) in Reflected Light: The Story of the Savoy Theatre, p. 11 (1993) Dewynters plc, give the dimensions as 60 feet wide by 52 feet deep, but those measurements included the wing space and the scene dock at the rear.
- ^ "The Savoy Theatre", The Times, 11 October 1881
- ^ The other four Gilbert and Sullivan premières at the theatre were: Princess Ida, Ruddigore, Utopia, Limited, and The Grand Duke
- ^ a b Bettany, Clemence: D'Oyly Carte Centenary booklet, 1975
- ^ Who's Who in the Theatre, 1912, p. 297. The seating plan in that edition shows only 8 boxes instead of the original 18, and reduced numbers of seats in the Dress (156) and Upper Circle (127) (as they were by then named).
- ^ "Reopening of the Savoy", The Times, 21 October 1929.
- ^ Rupert D'Oyly Carte's 1929–30 Season at the G&S Archive
- ^ Kevin Chapple obituary
- ^ a b Information from the Ambassador Theatre Group's website
- ^ Fiddler on the Roof 2007 production at ThisIsTheatre.com
[edit] References
- Earl, John and Sell, Michael Guide to British Theatres 1750-1950,pp. 139-40 (Theatres Trust, 2000) ISBN 0-7136-5688-3
- Rollins, Cyril; R. John Witts (1962). The D'Oyly Carte Company, A Record of Productions. London: Michael Joseph.
- Savoy Theatre Programmes, 26 March 1975 and March 2002.
- Savoy Theatre History With Images, and Archive material.
- Savoy Theatre on thisistheatre.com
- Who's Who in the Theatre, edited by John Parker, 1st edition, Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, London, 1912
- Who's Who in the Theatre, edited by John Parker, 10th ed., revised, London, 1947, p. 1184.
