Watergate Theatre

The Watergate Theatre stood on Buckingham Street in the City of Westminster from 1949 to 1956. It occupied a converted Chinese restaurant destroyed in the Blitz. Elizabeth Denby, Velona Pilcher, Elizabeth Sprigge and Jane Drew created the performing space. The theatre had two club rooms and a 70-seat auditorium. Plans in 1950 aimed to expand seating to 100 and add murals by Marc Chagall. The theatre hosted premieres and notable productions. In 1950 it premiered George Bernard Shaw’s last work, Farfetched Fables. That same year it staged the English premiere of August Strindberg’s The Great Highway in Sprigge’s translation. Picasso’s Desire Caught by the Tail, translated by Roland Penrose, also premiered there to great success. Several revues and plays marked its short life. Sandy Wilson’s See You Later featured Dulcie Gray and Donald Swann in 1951. John Cranko’s Cranks in 1955 included Anthony Newley and music by John Addison. Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors was directed by John Barton for the Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club in 1951. The New Watergate Theatre Club later moved to the Comedy Theatre in Panton Street.