Qualla: Prince of Wales Theatre https://qualla.com/prince-of-wales-theatre en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:15 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/prince-of-wales-theatre-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Prince of Wales Theatre https://qualla.com/prince-of-wales-theatre Prince of Wales Theatre: Introduction https://qualla.com/prince-of-wales-theatre/ Photo credit Rod Allday, CC BY-SA 2.0. On the night of 4 November 1963, John Lennon stood on the Prince of Wales stage during the Royal Variety Show and asked the audience for help. "For our last number, I'd like to ask your help. The people in the cheaper seats - clap your hands. And the rest of you - if you'll just rattle your jewellery." The Queen Mother was in the box. Her younger daughter Princess Margaret sat with her. The Beatles played From Me to You, She Loves You, Till There Was You, and Twist and Shout. The theatre had been on Coventry Street since 1884 and had hosted Lillie Langtry, Mae West, and Barbra Streisand, but it had never before held a moment like that one.

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Image: Rod Allday | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/prince-of-wales-theatre-wp/gcpv-prince-of-wales-theatre-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Prince of Wales Theatre: The First Theatre, 1884 https://qualla.com/prince-of-wales-theatre/ Photo credit APK, CC BY 4.0. The architect Charles J. Phipps built the original on the site for actor-manager Edgar Bruce in January 1884. It was called the Prince's Theatre at first, a three-tier hall with just over a thousand seats. Two years later it was renamed for the future Edward VII, then still the P...

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Image: APK | CC BY 4.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/prince-of-wales-theatre-wp/gcpv-prince-of-wales-theatre-the-first-theatre-1884.mp3 0:06 2 full Prince of Wales Theatre: Gracie Fields and the Foundation Stone https://qualla.com/prince-of-wales-theatre/ Photo credit APK, CC BY 4.0. By the 1930s the eight-hundred-seat theatre was felt to be too small. On 17 June 1937, the singer Gracie Fields stood on the foundations and sang to the workmen as she laid the foundation stone of a new Art Deco building designed by Robert Cromie. It opened on 27 October that yea...

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Image: APK | CC BY 4.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/prince-of-wales-theatre-wp/gcpv-prince-of-wales-theatre-gracie-fields-and-the-foundation-stone.mp3 0:06 3 full Prince of Wales Theatre: Variety, Comedy, and the Sid Field Era https://qualla.com/prince-of-wales-theatre/ Photo credit Aethonatic, CC0. Strike a New Note, opening in 1943, gave the comedian Sid Field his London debut, and Field returned for Strike It Again the next year and Piccadilly Hayride in 1946, the last of these running 778 performances. In 1948, Mae West brought her show Diamond Lil to the Prince of Wales...

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]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/prince-of-wales-theatre-wp/gcpv-prince-of-wales-theatre-variety-comedy-and-the-sid-field-era.mp3 0:06 4 full Prince of Wales Theatre: Broadway Comes to Coventry Street https://qualla.com/prince-of-wales-theatre/ Photo credit James F., CC BY 1.0. The 1960s and 1970s brought the Broadway musicals: Funny Girl in 1966 with Barbra Streisand, Sweet Charity in 1967, Promises Promises in 1969. Then in 1989 Andrew Lloyd Webber's Aspects of Love opened and ran 1,325 performances, smashing every previous box-office record at the th...

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Image: James F. | CC BY 1.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/prince-of-wales-theatre-wp/gcpv-prince-of-wales-theatre-broadway-comes-to-coventry-street.mp3 0:06 5 full Prince of Wales Theatre: A Stage at the Crossroads https://qualla.com/prince-of-wales-theatre/ Photo credit APK, CC BY 4.0. Located between Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square, the Prince of Wales sits at one of the busiest theatrical addresses in the world. The 1937 building was Grade II listed by English Heritage in April 1999. It has been a comic opera house and a Broadway transfer destination a...

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Image: APK | CC BY 4.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/prince-of-wales-theatre-wp/gcpv-prince-of-wales-theatre-a-stage-at-the-crossroads.mp3 0:06 6 full