The 'Savoy Theatre' is a
West End theatre located on the
Strand in the
City of Westminster. The theatre opened on
10 October 1881, and was built by
Richard D'Oyly Carte (
1844–
1901) on the site of the old
Savoy Palace in
London as a showcase for the works of
Gilbert and Sullivan, which became known as the
Savoy Operas as a result. It was the first theatre and the first public building in the world to be lit entirely by
electricity.
[1] Later, the
Savoy Hotel was built next to it. For many years it was the home of the
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.
History of the site
The
House of Savoy was the ruling family of
Savoy descended from
Humbert I, Count of Sabaudia (or "Maurienne", who became count in 1032). Piedmont was later joined with Sabaudia, and the name evolved into "Savoy" (or "Savoie").
Count Peter (or ''Piers'' or ''Piero'') of Savoy (d. 1268), was the maternal uncle of
Eleanor of Provence, queen-consort of
Henry III of England, and came with her to London. King Henry made Peter
Earl of Richmond and gave him (in 1246) the land between
The Strand and the
Thames where Peter built the Savoy Palace in 1263.
The Savoy Palace became the London residence of
John of Gaunt, 2nd Duke of Lancaster, until it was burned down by
Wat Tyler's followers in the
Peasants' Revolt of 1381. King
Richard II was still a child, and his uncle John of Gaunt was the power behind the throne and so a main target of the rebels.
In about 1505,
Henry VII had a hospital built in the palace ruins, and part of the old palace was used for a military prison in the 18th century. In 1864 a fire burned everything except the stone walls, and the property sat empty until D'Oyly Carte bought it in 1880 to build the Savoy Theatre there. The D'Oyly Carte company noted the speed of construction of the new theatre, and that it ''"was situated on a site which, though rich in historical associations, was also rich in the olfactory sense. Mr Rimmeil's scent factory was close by as was Burgess's Noted Fish-Sauce Shop''."
[D'Oyly Carte Website, on Patience accessed 01 Mar 2007]
c.1881 Savoy Theatre
Richard D'Oyly Carte's theatre
The theatre was designed by
C. J. Phipps, built by the firm of Patman and Fotheringham, and decorated by Collinson and Locke. There were three tiers with four levels: stalls and pit, balcony, gallery, and amphitheater at the top with a total seating capacity of over 1,250. The stage was a gigantic 60 feet wide by 52 feet deep. The theatre originally had its main entrance on the
Embankment. The parcel on which it was built was steep, stretching from
the Strand down to the Embankment along Beaufort Street. In 1903, when Carte built the
Savoy Hotel, the entrance to the theatre was moved to the hotel's courtyard off the Strand, where it still is today.
Gilbert and Sullivan's
comic opera ''
Patience'', which had opened at the
Opera Comique, moved to the Savoy on
October 10 1881 and was the first production at the new theatre. Carte hired
George Edwardes as the theatre's first managing director. The Savoy was a state-of-the-art theatre and the first public building in the world to be lit entirely by electricity.
[ At a performance shortly after the theatre opened, Carte stepped on stage and broke a glowing lightbulb to demonstrate the safety of the new technology. Gaslights had also been installed as a backup, but they rarely had to be used. ]
The last eight of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operas were premiered at the theatre,[2] and the term Savoy Opera has come to be associated with all their joint works. After the end of their partnership Carte, and later his widow, Helen, and her manager William Greet, staged other comic operas, notably by Ivan Caryll, Sydney Grundy, Basil Hood and Edward German. In 1903, the theatre closed and was reopened under the management of Edward Laurillard in February 1904. The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company returned to the Savoy for repertory seasons between 1906 and 1909, in which year C. H. Workman took over the management of the theatre, producing, among other works, Gilbert's final opera, with music by German, ''Fallen Fairies'', which ran for only 51 performances.
Eventually, Richard's son and heir, Rupert D'Oyly Carte, took over management of the theatre. The opera company did not play in the theatre again until 1919, instead touring throughout Britain, and other works held the stage. In 1914, Basil Rathbone made his London stage debut here, appearing as Finch in ''The Sin of David''. In 1920, he returned to the theatre playing the title-role in ''Peter Ibbetson''.
Rupert D'Oyly Carte's theatre
After serving in the navy in World War I, Rupert D'Oyly Carte decided to bring the company back to the Savoy in first-rate style and began to update and refresh the Gilbert and Sullivan productions with new designs, including Charles Ricketts's new designs for ''The Mikado'' (first seen at the Prince's Theatre) in 1926. Carte also hired first Geoffrey Toye and then Malcolm Sargent as guest conductors, and Harry Norris and then Isidore Godfrey as musical directors.
In June 1929, Carte closed the theatre, and the interior was completely rebuilt to designs by Frank A. Tugwell with elaborate décor by Basil Ionides. The ceiling was painted to resemble an April sky; the walls, translucent gold on silver; the rows of stalls were all richly upholstered in different colours, and the curtain repeated the tones of the seating. Ionides said that he took the colour scheme from a bed of zinnias in Hyde Park.[3]. The new auditorium has two tiers leaving three levels: stalls, dress, and upper circle, with a capacity of 1,138, and the new stage was much smaller at 29 feet, 4 inches wide, by 29 feet, 6 inches deep. It reopened on 21 October 1929 with a new production of ''The Gondoliers'' designed by Charles Ricketts and conducted by Malcolm Sargent. In the only box sat Lady Gilbert, the librettist's widow.[3]
There were further Gilbert and Sullivan seasons in 1929–30, 1932–33, 1951, 1954, 1961–62, 1975, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003. Other works presented at the Savoy included the premiere of Noel Coward's ''Blithe Spirit'' (1941, with a record-setting run of 1,997 consecutive performances unbroken in London until the 1970s), Robert Morley in ''The Man Who Came to Dinner'', and several comedies by William Douglas-Home starring, among others, Ralph Richardson, Peggy Ashcroft, and John Mills.
After Rupert D'Oyly Carte's death in 1948, his daughter, Bridget D'Oyly Carte, succeeded to the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and became a director and later president of the Savoy Hotel group, which controlled the theatre. The opera company closed in 1982, and Dame Bridget died in 1985, bringing the family line to an end.
1990 fire and restored theatre
While the theatre was being renovated in February 1990, a fire gutted the building, except for the stage and backstage areas. Tugwell's and Ionides's designs had been preserved, however, allowing the accurate restoration of the theatre under the direction of the architect Sir William Whitfield. It reopened on 19 July 1993. The present theatre has a capacity of 1,158. During the renovation an extra storey was added above the theatre that includes a health club for the hotel and a swimming pool above the stage. The reopened theatre was the venue for the World Chess Championship in 1993, won by Garry Kasparov.
In 1993, Noel Coward's ''Relative Values'', played at the theatre, having premiered there in 1951. Tom Stoppard's ''Travesties'', with Anthony Sher was next, and in 1994 the musical ''She Loves Me'' played, with Ruthie Henshall and John Gordon Sinclair. These were followed by Terry Johnson's ''Dead Funny''; Alan Ayckbourn's ''Communicating Doors'', with Angela Thorne; J B Priestley's ''When We Are Married'', with Dawn French, Alison Steadman, and Leo McKern; and Ben Travers' ''Plunder'', with Griff Rhys Jones and Kevin McNally. In 1997, a group led by Sir Stephen Waley-Cohen was given management of the theatre by The Savoy Group. Productions that followed included Simon Callow in ''The Importance of Being Oscar''; Pet Shop Boys in concert, Ian Richardson in Pinero's ''The Magistrate''; Edward Fox in ''A Letter of Resignation''; the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of ''Richard III'', with Robert Lindsay; and Coward's ''Hay Fever'', with Geraldine McEwan. In 2000, the briefly reconstituted D'Oyly Carte Opera Company produced ''H.M.S. Pinafore''; Donald Sutherland starred in ''Enigmatic Variations'', followed by a second D'Oyly Carte season, playing ''The Pirates of Penzance''; and ''Antarctica'' by David Young played at the theatre.[5]
In 2002, a season of ''Return to the Forbidden Planet'' was followed by the D'Oyly Carte productions of ''Iolanthe'', ''The Yeomen of the Guard'', and ''The Mikado'', and then a revival of Yasmina Reza's ''Life x 3''. In 2003, the D'Oyly Carte revived ''Pinafore'', followed by ''Bea Arthur at The Savoy'', John Steinbeck's ''Of Mice and Men'', ''Peter Pan'', and ''Pirates''. These were followed by ''The Marriage of Figaro'' and ''The Barber of Seville'' performed by The Savoy Opera Company in 2004. Next were seasons of Lorna Luft starring in ''Songs My Mother Taught Me'' and the new salsa musical ''Murderous Instincts''. Coward's ''Blithe Sprit'' was revived in 2004-05.[5]
According to the Irish Post, the Savoy Hotel group and the theatre were sold around 2004 to a group of Irish investors who in turn sold the theatre in 2005. The hotel was purchased by the Ambassador Theatre Group, who produced ''The Rat Pack'', which closed in October 2006, and a new musical version of Gershwin's ''Porgy and Bess'', directed by Trevor Nunn, which premiered November 9 2006. The theatre was sold in 2007 to Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, who bought the Savoy Hotel in 2005.
''Fiddler On The Roof'', starring Henry Goodman as Tevye, opened at the theatre in May 2007.[7]
Nearby Tube Stations
★ Charing Cross
★ Embankment
★ Covent Garden
See also
★ Savoy Opera
★ Savoy Hotel
Notes
1. See this article on the Savoy Theatrefrom arthurlloyd.co.uk, retrieved on 2007-07-20. See also this article from the Ambassador Theatre Group Limited
2. Those were: ''Iolanthe'', ''Princess Ida'', ''The Mikado'', ''Ruddigore'', ''The Yeomen of the Guard'', ''The Gondoliers'', ''Utopia, Limited'', and ''The Grand Duke''
3. Bettany
4. Bettany
5. Information from the theatre's website
6. Information from the theatre's website
7. Information about the 2007 London production of ''Fiddler on the Roof''
References
★ The D'Oyly Carte Company, A Record of Productions, , Cyril, Rollins, Michael Joseph, 1962,
★ Savoy Theatre Programmes, 26 March 1975 and March 2002.
★ Bettany, Clemence: D'Oyly Carte Centenary booklet, 1975.
★ Savoy Theatre History With Images, and Archive material.
★ Savoy Theatre on thisistheatre.com
★ ''Who's Who in the Theatre'', edited by John Parker, 10th ed., revised, London, 1947, p. 1184.
External links
★ Savoy Theatre
★ Ambassador Theatre Group
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