Prince Edward Theatre

The Prince Edward Theatre stands on Old Compton Street, just north of Leicester Square in the City of Westminster. A 1930s building designed by Edward A. Stone, it replaced an earlier dance hall and was named after the future Edward VIII. The interior came from French designers Marc-Henri Levy and Gaston Laverdet, who created a bold Art Deco look. It opened with the musical Rio Rita and soon hosted Josephine Baker’s London debut. After financial trouble it became the London Casino, a supper-club with cabaret. Bomb damage in 1941 left the building roofless and windows gone, but wartime use as a servicemen’s club kept it alive. The theatre’s greatest claim is the UK debut of Cinerama in 1954. Three projectors threw a 65-foot-wide curved screen onto a deeply curved surface, with seven-track sound behind it. The first film, This Is Cinerama, ran for sixteen months and grossed nearly ten million dollars. Later Cinerama roadshows included How the West Was Won and Khartoum, attended by Princess Margaret. The curved screen was removed in the 1970s when the building returned to live shows. Major musicals such as Evita, Mamma Mia! and Aladdin have all premièred here. Inside, the auditorium seats 1,716 and retains its Art Deco plasterwork and tall columns. The stage has been enlarged twice, once for Crazy for You and again for modern productions. A recent run of Mary Poppins filled the house nightly, and MJ the Musical is set to open in 2024. The theatre sits among Soho’s restaurants and bars, so a visit can be combined with dinner or a late drink.