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A life in footlights

  • A new circus comes to town

    Having demolished the White Bear, a 17th century inn, Thomas Verity (Victorian entrepreneur) builds a new development called Regent’s Circus – complete with a music hall.

    1874 Our very first ‘First Night’

    March 21st to be exact, with a programme including H J Byron’s An American Lady and Topseyturveydom, a piece by W S Gilbert – one half of the famous light-operatic duo Gilbert & Sullivan.

    1875

    Actor-Manager (and trained surgeon) Charles Wyndham arrives and swiftly establishes the Cri as one of London’s leading comedy venues before leaving to establish the nearby Wyndham's Theatre in 1899.

  • The ‘electric’ eighteen-eighties

    As electricity replaces gas in London’s street lamps, TRH The Prince and Princess of Wales (later King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra) enjoy a performance of Fourteen Days in March 1882. A year later, the Metropolitan Board of Works closes the gas-lit Cri as a fire risk, prompting the proprietors to carry out extensive alterations.

    1884

    The Cri reopens with all risk of fire removed, electric lights and air-conditioning, including a skylight originally installed in the Criterion Dining Room.

    1888

    Charles Wyndham delights audiences with 152 performances as famous thespian David Garrick in the play of the same name.

  • Life in the naughty nineties

    Oscar Wilde sports a decadent green carnation at the nearby Café Royal, Sir Alfred Gilbert RA creates the bronze sculpture Anteros – better know to the world as ‘Eros’ and still proudly plucking his bow atop the Shaftesbury Memorial fountain in Piccadilly Circus.

    1896

    Charles Wyndham celebrates 20 glorious years at the Cri.

  • Enter the Edwardians

    As the 19th century closes and Queen Victoria approaches the end of a long and glorious reign, it’s all change at the Cri as the Edwardian era gathers pace.

    1902

    Theatregoers mourn as the Cri declares itself ‘Closed for renovations’.

    1906

    Piccadilly tube station opens, heralding the distant rumble of subterranean trains - a sound still familiar to Cri theatregoers.

  • Doing our bit for the boys

    In a decade dominated by the Great War, playwright Walter W Ellis does his bit to raise the spirits by bringing A Little Bit of Fluff to the Cri for a three-year, 1,241 performance run.

  • Racing through the Roaring Twenties

    As the Bright Young Things declare Piccadilly a permanent ‘party zone’ bright lights arrive in the form of electric billboards on the London Pavilion, first turned on in 1926 – and still a dazzling sight for audiences attending the Cri by night in the 21st century.

  • Depression? What depression?

    In a decade overshadowed by economic crises and the shadow of war, the Cri refuses to surrender to depression.

    1932

    John Gielgud (not yet a ‘Sir’) opens in Musical Chairs.

    1936-1939

    Rattigan takes the stage Playwright Terence Rattigan launches a glittering career with French Without Tears – a West End smash for three years.
  • 1940

    We interrupt this performance to bring you the Blitz

    The Cri remains ‘dark’ for the duration of World War II, requisitioned by the BBC as a subterranean radio studio.
  • 1950

    Waiting for who?

    As a bruised but unbroken London dusts itself off after the war, 1955 sees the Criterion at the heart of the postwar theatre movement with a production of Samuel Beckett’s iconic, absurdist play Waiting For Godot.
  • 1960

    London swings in the age of Kitchen sinks

    The swinging sixties bring a series of classic productions to the Cri, including kitchen sink dramas and a controversially camp Joe Orton Classic.

    1961

    John Mortimer’s Lunch Hour, NF Simpson’s The Form and A Slight Ache by Harold Pinter light up the boards – stars include Emlyn Williams, Richard Briers and Wendy Craig.

    1963

    An adaption of A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch runs for over 1000 performances.

    1966

    Michael Bates and Kenneth Cranham camp things up in Joe Orton’s Loot – the Evening Standard’s Play of the Year.
  • 1970

    1972

    A brush with bureaucrats The great and the good of the British Theatre – including John Gielgud, Diana Rigg, Warren Mitchell (pictured) and many others save the Cri from threatened ‘redevelopment’ by the Greater London Council.
  • 1980

    1981 – 1983 Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay!

    Alfred Molina, Maggie Steed and Sylvester McCoy bring Dario Fo’s chaotic farce Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay! to hilarious life.

    1983 – 1989

    What a Farce! And was there ever a better or longer-running farce than Ray Cooney’s Run For Your Wife – stars included Bernard Cribbins, Patrick Mower, Ernie Wise, Aimi Macdonald and Una Stubbs.
  • 1990

    1992

    Sally Greene sets up the Criterion Theatre Trust to safeguard the Cri’s future. The Trust oversees a complete restoration, commissioning Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen to refurbish the auditorium and front of house.

    1995

    1995 Taking Sides by Ronald Harwood transfers from The Chichester Festival Theatre. Directed by Harold Pinter.

  • 2000

    1996-2005 The Bard and the Bible

    The Reduced Shakespeare Company delights audiences for almost a decade with their wonderfully concise versions of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) and History of America and the Bible (abridged).

    2006 A six year theatrical Hitch

    Alfred Hitchcock provides the inspiration and Maria Aitkin the direction for Patrick Barlow’s stage adaptation of The 39 Steps – a marvelously inventive evening of comically-tinged suspense.
  • 2010

    2011

    To be continued… Like every long running production, the Cri introduces a cast of new characters as Stephen Fry arrives as Chairman of the Trustees and today the theatre continues its life in the footlights as a popular venue in the heart of London’s West End, as they say – watch this space!

    “I couldn’t be more proud and pleased to take over the chair vacated by the inimitable Lord Attenborough. Between them he and Sally Greene have ensured that one of the absolute jewels of the West End is in a marvellous position to grow and flourish into the 21st Century. I am insanely excited and honoured to take up this new position.”

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