The Apollo Theatre, 5 Star Hotels in London City near The Apollo Theatre, West End Theatres

The Apollo Theatre

31 Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1D 7ES

The Apollo Victoria Theatre can be found on Wilton Road near Victoria Station in London city. It is one of the largest theatres in London with a capacity of 2,208. The theatre was built and designed in 1930 by Ernest Walmsley Lewis for Provincial Cinematograph Theatres who were part of Gaumont British. The theatre opened as a state-of-the-art cinema due to the growing popularity of “talking pictures”. The design of the Victoria theatre is renowned worldwide for its Art Deco style with the auditorium decorated in an underwater theme with an extravaganza of scallops around a huge dome. Such design earned references such as “a fairy cavern under the sea, or a mermaid’s dream of heaven.”

Another renowned feature of this famous theatre is that unusually it is on a site that gives it two front entrances one on Wilton Street the other on Vauxhall Bridge Road. Known as the New Victoria Cinema in the early years it was becoming popularly known as a venue to watch film, Big Band concerts and smaller live acts. In 1958 the venue was renovated to accommodate the staging of Ballet and Live Shows as well as film.
1975 brought change to the theatre as it closed and reopened as the New Victoria Theatre and the emphasis was more directed towards musical concerts. From the late seventies and early eighties many famous musicals were staged such as “Fiddler on the Roof”, The Sound of Music and Camelot.

In 1984 the theatre was to strike gold when it became home to Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical hit show “Starlight Express”. The auditorium was completely revamped for this production and paid off as the show was to run for a staggering 18 years before finally closing in 2002 only to make way for another of Sir Andrew’s musicals namely the Bollywood-inspired “Bombay Dreams”. This show ran for two years until 2004 following 1500 successful performances. Other successful shows to follow were the classic “Saturday Night Fever” by the Bee Gees and the European premiere of Billy Joel’s musical “Movin’ Out”.
In 2006 the hit musical “Wicked” first showcased and to this present day is enjoying spectacular success.

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