About His Majesty's Theatre

There has been a theatre on this spot since 1705, which makes it one of the oldest continuously used theatre sites in London. Only Drury Lane has been at it longer.

The building you walk into is the fourth. It opened on 28 April 1897, designed by Charles J. Phipps for the actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who built it as a home for his own company. Tree started RADA in this building in 1904, and made his home in the dome above the auditorium.

The exterior is French Renaissance; the interiors are neoclassical, by Romaine Walker. It has been Grade II* listed since 1970 and is owned by LW Theatres, on a Crown Estate lease.

Her Majesty's or His Majesty's?

Both, depending on the year. The name follows the monarch, so it was Her Majesty's for the whole of Elizabeth II's reign, and it became His Majesty's Theatre on 6 May 2023, for the coronation of King Charles III. The building, the address and the seats didn't change. It has swapped between Queen's, King's, Her Majesty's and His Majesty's since 1705, every time the throne changed hands between a king and a queen.

Notable past productions

Spectacle has been the speciality ever since Tree's day.

  • Chu Chin Chow (1916 to 1921), a musical that ran straight through the First World War and beyond it, for more than 2,000 performances
  • Bitter Sweet (1929), Noël Coward's operetta
  • Brigadoon (1949)
  • West Side Story (1958), its first London production
  • Fiddler on the Roof (1967), its first London production, with Topol as Tevye
  • The Phantom of the Opera arrived in 1986 and stayed

How big is His Majesty's compared with other West End theatres?

1,216 seats over four levels. That is almost exactly the size of the Piccadilly or the Aldwych, and a good deal smaller than the Theatre Royal Drury Lane or the Palladium.

Other venues of similar size

FAQs

When was His Majesty's Theatre built?

The current building opened on 28 April 1897, designed by Charles J. Phipps for Herbert Beerbohm Tree. There has been a theatre on the site since 1705.

When did Her Majesty's Theatre change its name?

On 6 May 2023, the day of King Charles III's coronation. It had been Her Majesty's since 1952.

Who owns His Majesty's Theatre?

LW Theatres, Andrew Lloyd Webber's theatre group, which holds it on a lease from the Crown Estate.