Founded in 1806 as the Sans Pareil, the Strand playhouse that became the Adelphi was the work of John Scott, a colour merchant who built it to showcase the talents of his daughter Jane, a prolific playwright and performer. By 1809 it held a licence for musical entertainments, pantomime and burletta, and in 1819 it took the name Adelphi from the riverside development designed by the Adam brothers nearby. Across the nineteenth century the theatre was rebuilt and enlarged more than once. The New Adelphi of 1858 seated around 1,500 with standing room for several hundred more, and the venue earned a reputation for sensation and spectacle, staging popular dramatisations of Charles Dickens novels and installing the first sinking stage in England in 1834. The building seen today dates from a complete reconstruction in 1930 by the architect Ernest Schaufelberg, who conceived it almost entirely in straight lines and angles. Opening with the musical Ever Green, its bold Art Deco character set it apart from the Victorian and Edwardian houses that surround it in the eastern part of Theatreland. In the modern era the Adelphi has been a home for long-running musicals, among them Me and My Girl, which played from 1985 to 1993, and a celebrated production of Chicago that arrived in 1998. Andrew Lloyd Webber became part-owner in 1993, after which the front of house was restored to its 1930s style; the theatre is now operated by LW Theatres. With a seating capacity of about 1,500 across stalls, circle and balcony, the Grade II listed Adelphi remains one of the oldest and largest theatres in the West End. Its position where the Strand meets Covent Garden keeps it at the heart of an area with an unbroken theatrical history stretching back more than two centuries. The auditorium is arranged over three tiers above the stalls, and the theatre's Strand frontage, with its sweeping Art Deco lines, remains one of the most recognisable in the area. Successive long-running musicals have made it one of the most commercially significant houses in West End history.

Type: Theater / Concert Hall

Address: 410 Strand, London, United Kingdom, WC2E 7NA

Website: https://lwtheatres.co.uk/theatres/adelphi-theatre/

Capacity: 1500

Opening Date: 01/01/1806