Qualla: Vaudeville Theatre

Vaudeville Theatre: Introduction

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK, CC BY 2.0. Imagine being a London bus conductor in 1875, calling out stops on the route along the Strand. You reach the Vaudeville Theatre and you do not say "Vaudeville Theatre." You say "Our Boys!" - because the comedy by H. J. Byron that opened at the Vaudeville earlier that year was the first theatrical production in world history to pass 500 consecutive performances, then went on to break 1,000. Everyone knew where Our Boys was playing. Nobody needed reminding the building was called the Vaudeville. That kind of run-away success was so rare in the 1870s that the conductors made the building synonymous with the show. The Vaudeville is small - it seats 690 today - and has always punched above its weight. The current resident production, Six the Musical, sits in the same tradition: short, sharp, sold out, the kind of show that defines a building.

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Image: Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK | CC BY 2.0

Vaudeville Theatre: Robertson's Billiard Hall

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Colin Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0. The land at 404 Strand belonged to William Wybrow Robertson, who had tried to make money running a billiard hall on the site and failed. In 1869 he hired the prolific theatre architect C. J. Phipps - Phipps designed dozens of British theatres in his career - to build a playhouse ...

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Image: Colin Smith | CC BY-SA 2.0

Vaudeville Theatre: Henry Irving and Our Boys

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit PAUL FARMER, CC BY-SA 2.0. Henry Irving, who would become the most famous English actor of the Victorian era, had his first conspicuous success at the Vaudeville in 1870. He played Digby Grant in James Albery's Two Roses, and the production ran for 300 nights - an enormous run for the period. Five years la...

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Image: PAUL FARMER | CC BY-SA 2.0

Vaudeville Theatre: Quality Street and the Edwardian Hits

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit N Chadwick, CC BY-SA 2.0. From 1900 to 1925 the Vaudeville ran successive long-running hits. Quality Street, a comedy by J. M. Barrie (the same Barrie who wrote Peter Pan), opened in 1902 and ran 459 performances - notable because it had failed in New York the previous year, lasting only 64 performances, ...

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Image: N Chadwick | CC BY-SA 2.0

Vaudeville Theatre: The 1926 Reconstruction

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit PAUL FARMER, CC BY-SA 2.0. On 7 November 1925 the Vaudeville closed for a complete interior reconstruction designed by Robert Atkinson. The horseshoe auditorium was replaced with a rectangular one. The capacity dropped to just over 700. A new dressing-room block with an ornate boardroom extended the buildi...

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Image: PAUL FARMER | CC BY-SA 2.0

Vaudeville Theatre: Stomp, Six, and Survival

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Andy Roberts from East London, England, CC BY 2.0. A Greater London Council redevelopment plan in 1968 nearly demolished the Vaudeville along with several neighbouring theatres - the Adelphi, Garrick, Lyceum, and Duchess. The Save London Theatres Campaign, backed by the actors' union Equity and the Musicians' Union, stopped the d...

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Image: Andy Roberts from East London, England | CC BY 2.0