About the Old Vic

The Old Vic opened in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, named after its patrons, Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg and Princess Charlotte. In 1833 it became the Royal Victoria Theatre, and the same year a 14-year-old Princess Victoria visited and wrote in her diary that it was "a very clean and pretty little theatre". It was rebuilt inside the old walls in 1871, and that Christmas the name "The Old Vic" appeared in print for the first time.

From 1880 Emma Cons ran it as the Royal Victoria Hall, a temperance music hall. Lilian Baylis took it on after her and secured a theatre licence in 1912, and from 1914 it became a home for Shakespeare. The Baylis Circle, the top level, is named after her.

The theatre was badly damaged in the Blitz in 1941, and while it was closed the Old Vic company played at the New Theatre, now the Noël Coward Theatre. It reopened in 1950. From 1963 to 1976 it was the first home of the National Theatre company, under Laurence Olivier, until the company moved into its own building on the South Bank, the National Theatre.

Ed Mirvish bought and restored the building in 1982. Today it's owned by a charity, The Old Vic Theatre Trust 2000, and it's a Grade II* listed building. Matthew Warchus has been artistic director since 2015, and Rupert Goold succeeds him.

Notable productions

• Groundhog Day, the Tim Minchin musical, under Matthew Warchus
• A Christmas Carol, every Christmas since 2017, which also went to Broadway
• Girl from the North Country, with the songs of Bob Dylan
• Mary Page Marlowe (2025), the first production In The Round
• Arcadia (2026), Tom Stoppard's play
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (2026)
• Glengarry Glen Ross (2026)
• How the Other Half Loves (2026)