RSSLondon Gielgud Theatre Lend Me A Tenor
Apr 28
Lend Me a Tenor: The Musical playing at the Gielgud Theatre London West End from 2nd June, 2011. Don’t miss this summer’s new musical comedy hit!
This uproarious new musical comedy by Peter Sham and Brad Carroll is actually a riotous, unpredictable explosion of mistaken identities and unexpected romance – based on the award-winning West End and Broadway hit comedy by Ken Ludwig.
It’s 1934, along with the world’s greatest tenor Tito Merelli has come to Cleveland, Ohio, to save its Grand Opera Company by singing Otello. When he is unexpectedly incapacitated, Max, the Opera Director’s meek assistant, is given the daunting job of obtaining a last-minute replacement. Chaos ensues – which includes a scheming soprano, a tenor-struck ingenue, a jealous wife and also the Cleveland Police department.
This brand-new production is directed by Olivier award-winning director Ian Talbot (High Society, Anything Goes) and choreographed by Tony-nominated choreographer Randy Skinner (42nd Street, White Christmas). The cast consists of the Olivier award-winning Matthew Kelly. The Gielgud Theatre opened on December 27th, 1906 as the Hicks Theatre in honour of actor, manager and playwright Seymour Hicks, for whom it was built. Developed by W.G.R. Sprague in Louis XVI style, the theatre originally had 970 seats. The theatre was constructed as a pair using the Queen’s Theatre, which opened in 1907 on the adjacent street corner.
The very first production at the theatre was a musical called The Beauty of Bath by Hicks and Cosmo Hamilton. My Darling, one more Hicks musical, followed in 1907, with the Straus operetta A Waltz Dream in 1908. An amazing event occurred midway by way of the run of the theatre’s next key work, The Dashing Small Duke (1909), which was produced by Hicks. Hicks’ wife, Ellaline Terriss, played the title role (a woman playing a man). When she missed a number of performances as a result of illness, Hicks stepped into the role.
In 1909, the American impresario Charles Frohman became sole manager of the theatre and renamed it The Globe Theatre and reopened with His Borrowed Plumes written by Winston Churchill’s mother, Lady Randolph Churchill. Yet another “Globe Theatre”, situated on Newcastle Street, had been demolished in 1902 to create way for the Aldwych, and so the name became useable. A number of celebrated productions followed which included Call It A day by Dodie Smith which opened in 1935 and ran for 509 performances, and was considered quite productive for this period.
Terence Frisby’s There is a Girl in My Soup, opening in 1966, running for 1,064 performances at the theatre, a record that was not surpassed until Andrew Lloyd Webber’s production of the Olivier Award-winning comedy Daisy Pulls It Off by Densie Deegan opened in April 1983 to run for 1,180 performances, the theatre’s longest run. In 1987 Peter Shaffer’s play Lettice and Lovage was a hit with Maggie Smith and Margaret Tyzack, running for two years. The Globe was the house of a resident theatre cat named Beerbohm. The tabby’s portrait still hangs inside the corridor near the stalls. Beerbohm appeared on stage at least as soon as in every production, impelling the actors to improvise. He often decided to occupy specific actors’ dressing rooms whilst they had been at the theatre, which includes Peter Bowles, Michael Gambon and Penelope Keith. Beerbohm was mentioned several times on Desert Island Discs, and he was the only cat to have received a front page obituary inside the theatrical publication, The Stage. He died in March 1995 at the age of 20.
Refurbished in 1987, with extensive function on the gold leaf within the auditorium, the theatre is particularly renowned for its lovely circular Regency staircase, oval gallery and tower. The theatre has presented many Alan Ayckbourn premieres, including 1990′s Man of the Moment. Far more lately, Oscar Wilde’s classic comedy, An Ideal Husband (1992) and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (2004) saw notable revivals.
In 1994, in anticipation of the 1997 opening of a reconstruction of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre on the South Bank by Sam Wanamaker, the theatre was renamed in honour of British actor John Gielgud. In 2003, Sir Cameron Mackintosh announced plans to refurbish the Gielgud, which includes a joint entrance foyer, with the adjacent Queen’s Theatre, facing on to Shaftesbury Avenue. Mackintosh’s Delfont Mackintosh Theatres took over operational control of the Gielgud from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Actually Helpful Theatres in 2006. The Delfont Mackintosh group also consists of the Noel Coward Theatre, Novello Theatre, Prince Edward Theatre, Prince of Wales Theatre, Queen’s Theatre, and Wyndham’s Theatre.
Function on the frontage of the theatre started in March 2007 and also the interior restoration, including reinstating the boxes at the back of the dress circle, was completed in January 2008.
Looking to find the best deal on London Musicals, then visit www.lastminutetheatretickets.com to find great value Find Me A Tenor Tickets for a brilliant musical.
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