About the Lyric Theatre
Now playing: Hadestown From £30 Book tickets
The Lyric opened on 17 December 1888. C. J. Phipps designed it for the producer Henry Leslie, whose comic opera Dorothy helped to finance the building, and he transferred Dorothy in to open it.
The original Shaftesbury Theatre opened on the street first but was bombed in 1941, so the Lyric, the second theatre built on Shaftesbury Avenue, is now the oldest surviving one.
It's Grade II listed. The outside is red brick and Portland stone, restored in 1994. Inside there's an alabaster proscenium and walnut and sycamore panelling around the Stalls. The 1932 redecoration reopened the theatre with Laurence Olivier on the stage.
Notable past productions
It opened as a home for comic opera and has taken on most things since:
- The Winslow Boy, Terence Rattigan, 1946
- Irma la Douce, from 1958, 1,512 performances
- Blood Brothers, its original London run, 1983
- Five Guys Named Moe, 1990 to 1995
- By Jeeves, then Patrick Marber's Closer
- Cabaret, from 2006
- Thriller Live, eleven years, to 2020
- Six the Musical, winter 2020
- Get Up, Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical, 2021 to 2023
Hadestown opened here in February 2024.
Who runs it
Nimax Theatres has run the Lyric since 2005, after the Really Useful Group owned it from 2000. Nimax also runs the Apollo next door and the Palace Theatre at the far end of Shaftesbury Avenue.
Other venues of similar size
- Apollo Theatre, 844 seats over four levels, next door on Shaftesbury Avenue
- Gielgud Theatre, 991 seats, further along Shaftesbury Avenue
- Novello Theatre, 1,085 seats, and like the Lyric it has four levels
About FAQs
When was the Lyric Theatre built?
It opened on 17 December 1888, designed by C. J. Phipps, and it's the oldest surviving theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue.
Who owns the Lyric Theatre?
Nimax Theatres, which has owned it since 2005.