About the Sondheim Theatre

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Built as the Queen's Theatre, it opened on 8 October 1907 with The Sugar Bowl, a comedy by Madeleine Lucette Ryley. W. G. R. Sprague designed it as a matching pair with the theatre on the next corner, then the Hicks and now the Gielgud Theatre, which had opened ten months earlier. It's Grade II listed, and it's owned by Delfont Mackintosh Theatres. In 1913 the Stalls seats made way for tables for the Tango Teas: for two and six you had tea while professional dancers performed on stage.

On 24 September 1940 it was hit, and it became the first West End theatre to be put out of action by enemy bombing. The run of Rebecca stopped there. The theatre stayed shut for nearly nineteen years, and the rebuild cost £250,000. It came back on 8 July 1959, with John Gielgud on the stage in Ages of Man.

Queen's Theatre or Sondheim Theatre?

Both, depending on the year. It was the Queen's from 1907 until 2019, when it closed for a £13.8 million refurbishment and was renamed the Sondheim by Cameron Mackintosh, to mark Stephen Sondheim's 90th birthday. Les Misérables came back in a new production, with sets drawn from Victor Hugo's own paintings.

Notable past productions

  • Hamlet (1930), the Old Vic production, and John Gielgud's first Shaftesbury Avenue performances of the part
  • Richard II, The School for Scandal, Three Sisters and The Merchant of Venice (1937), Gielgud's season, with Michael Redgrave, Alec Guinness, Peggy Ashcroft and Anthony Quayle among the casts
  • Stop the World I Want to Get Off (1961), Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse's musical, which ran for 478 performances and went on to Broadway
  • A Suite in Three Keys (1966), Noël Coward's last West End appearance
  • Private Lives (1972), with Maggie Smith and Robert Stephens, the same year Marlene Dietrich returned for a cabaret season
  • Another Country (1982), which starred Rupert Everett and launched Kenneth Branagh's career; Daniel Day-Lewis and then Colin Firth later took over Everett's part
  • Wonderful Town (1986), a revival of Bernstein's musical that won an Olivier
  • Three Sisters (1990), with Vanessa and Lynn Redgrave on stage together for the first time
  • Passion (1996), Stephen Sondheim's own musical, which ran 232 performances and won Maria Friedman an Olivier
  • The Lady in the Van (1999), with Maggie Smith

Since 2004 the theatre has been home to Les Misérables, which moved here from the Palace Theatre.

How big is the Sondheim compared with other West End theatres?

1,109 seats over three levels. The Gielgud, at the other end of the block, is slightly smaller, and the Palace, where Les Misérables played before it came here, is bigger at 1,434.

Other venues of similar size

About FAQs

When was the Sondheim Theatre built?

It opened on 8 October 1907 as the Queen's Theatre, designed by W. G. R. Sprague. It was reconstructed after the 1940 bomb and reopened in 1959.

When did the Queen's Theatre change its name?

In 2019, during its refurbishment, to mark Stephen Sondheim's 90th birthday.

Who owns the Sondheim Theatre?

Delfont Mackintosh Theatres, which runs eight West End theatres, including the Gielgud along the street.

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