About the Shaftesbury Theatre

Opened on Boxing Day 1911 with The Three Musketeers, designed by Bertie Crewe for the brothers Walter and Frederick Melville, and the last theatre built on Shaftesbury Avenue. Grade II listed. The Theatre of Comedy Company owns it outright, which makes it the West End's largest independent theatre.

Two things about its construction set it apart: it had the first steel frame in the West End, and its dome opens, which no other London theatre's does.

The names and the Judi Dench Theatre in 2027

It opened in 1911 as the New Prince's Theatre, became the Prince's within a couple of years, took the Shaftesbury name in 1962, and becomes the Judi Dench Theatre in February 2027.

The 1962 change carried a name across from an earlier Shaftesbury Theatre further down the avenue, which had been destroyed by bombing in the Second World War. The 2027 change is the fourth name this building has held.

The company that has owned this building since the 1980s counted Dame Judi among its founders. Our Judi Dench Theatre page has the full story.

What the building work covers

The theatre has stayed open throughout the works, and running on two levels instead of three is the price of that. A lift, remodelled staircases, doubled toilets and two new bars are already in. Still to come: the auditorium itself, reseated and recarpeted, then the foyer and the outside of the building.

Each bar is named for a piece of the building's origin story: the opening year, the architect, and the Melville brothers who put it up.

Notable productions

Before the Theatre of Comedy: Funny Face, Wonderful Town and Hair.

The Theatre of Comedy years: Run for Your Wife, Follies, M Butterfly and Kiss of the Spider Woman.

More recently: Hairspray, Memphis, Motown the Musical, & Juliet (2019, which won three Olivier Awards), Mrs Doubtfire and Just for One Day.