Globe Theatre (Newcastle Street)

Infobox Theatre
name = Globe Theatre


caption = W. S. Penley in "Charley's Aunt", the theatre's longest-running production
address = Newcastle Street (Aldwych)
city = Westminster, London
country =
designation = "Demolished"
latitude = 51.513056
longitude = -0.118611
architect =
owner = Sefton Parry
capacity = 1,800
type = Theatre
opened = 1868
yearsactive =
rebuilt = 1870 Walter Emden
closed = 1902
othernames =
production =
currentuse = Site occupied by Bush House
website =

The Globe was a Victorian theatre built in 1868 and demolished in 1902. It was the third of five London theatres to bear the name. It was also known at various times as the Royal Globe Theatre or Globe Theatre Royal. Its repertoire consisted mainly of comedies and musical shows. [http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/lma_learning/theatrelands/text.asp?ID=335 Illegitimate Drama and Rickety Twins: The Theatres of the Strand] accessed 23 March 2007] The theatre's most famous production was "Charley's Aunt" by Brandon Thomas, which enjoyed a record-setting run at the theatre, having transferred to it from the Royalty Theatre.

Earlier theatres with the name "Globe Theatre" included Shakespeare’s Bankside house, which closed in 1642, and the former Rotunda Theatre in Blackfriars Road, which opened in 1833 for a few years and was renamed The Globe. [Mander] .

Design and history of the building

The new Globe was built to the commission of its proprietor, Sefton Parry, and stood on the corner of Wych Street and Newcastle Streets, [London Encyclopaedia, page 319] on the site of Lyon's Inn, lately demolished, an old Inn of Chancery, belonging in former days to the Inner Temple. [ 'This Inn, never of much importance, had fallen utterly into disrepute before the beginning of [the 19th] century, and become the resort of gamblers and swindlers... [and] was sold about the year 1863’: Thornbury] The Globe backed on to another theatre owned by Parry, the even more jerry-built Opera Comique, which opened two years before the Globe. The two theatres were known as 'the rickety twins': both were of such flimsy construction that performers could hear each other through the common wall. [Goodman, p.34] Parry built the theatre cheaply, hoping ‘to make handsome profits in compensation when the area was demolished, which was even then in contemplation’. [London Encyclopaedia, p.319. See also [http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/lma_learning/theatrelands/text.asp?ID=335 this information about theatres of The Strand] ] . It remained in contemplation for more than thirty years.

The Globe was taken over and partially rebuilt only two years after its opening. [Goodman, p.36] The architect was Walter Emden, whose surviving London theatres are The Duke of York’s, and (in collaboration) The Garrick Theatre and Royal Court Theatre. "Old and New London" described the theatre thus::The auditorium is effectively decorated in relief, and has a domed ceiling, with a sunlight in the centre. The site having been excavated very considerably for the proposed hotel [an abandoned project] , the floor of the pit has been made many feet below the line of the street, and is approached by a steep flight of steps from Wych Street. In Wych Street also are the entrances to the gallery stairs, and that to the "royal box." The ordinary boxes are entered from Newcastle Street, and are on a level with the street, so that stairs are avoided. Here, too, enter the occupants of the stalls. The seats are all fairly commodious, and conveniently placed, so that all that is passing on the stage can be distinctly seen and heard from any part of the house. [Thornbury] The ‘sunlight’ referred to above was a glass roof giving the auditorium natural light, day and night, and allowing ventilation at all times: in an age of gas lighting, the latter would have been a marked advantage. [Goodman, p. 36] By contrast, at the adjoining Opera Comique audiences ‘perspired and gasped.’ [Jessie Bond, quoted in Baily, p, 156] In a print of the 1890s, ‘A visit to the opera’, showing the royal coach on its way to Covent Garden, the dome of the Globe can be seen in the background with its name picked out in electric lights: not a grand enough venue to be favoured with a royal visit, but still an established landmark.

Authorities differ on the size of the house. According to "The London Encyclopaedia" the capacity was 1,800; "Old and New London" (1897) puts it at 1,500. In either case it was one of London’s larger theatres. Acknowledging the history of the title ‘Globe Theatre’, the new house featured an act-drop representing a view of Stratford-Upon-Avon. That act-drop was destroyed in a fire, and replaced by another with a view of Ann Hathaway's cottage. [Mander] The last managers of the theatre were Fred Terry and Julia Neilson.

The theatre closed in 1902 and was then demolished as part of the Strand Improvement Scheme, and construction of Aldwych. Bush House now stands on the site.

Productions at the theatre

The Globe opened with Henry J. Byron's comedy "Cyril's Success", which "Old and New London" described as a great success. [Thornbury] Later presentations included:
*"Committed for Trial", a farce by W. S. Gilbert (1874) [Goodman, p. 36] (translated from "Le Reveillon" by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy).
*"The Vicar of Bray", a comic opera by Sydney Grundy and Edward Solomon (1882). [Rollins & Witts p.13]
*"The Private Secretary", a farce by and starring Sir Charles Hawtrey (transferred from The Prince of Wales's Theatre in 1884. [Victorian Web]
*Sir Frank Benson’s production of "Hamlet" (1890). [Emory]
*"The Gay Lord Quex" by Arthur Wing Pinero (1899), then the most daring play of its time, with John Hare, Gilbert Howe and Irene Vanbrugh in the cast. In this production, which ran for 300 performances, ladies first smoked cigarettes on stage. [London Encyclopedia, p. 319]
*"Charley's Aunt" by Brandon Thomas (transferred from The Royalty in 1893), which ran for 1,466 performances in London, the longest run of any theatre piece in the world at that time. [London Encyclopedia, p. 319. Its record run was not surpassed by another (non-musical) play in London for another fifty years, when Noel Coward’s "Blithe Spirit" overtook it: see [http://www.world-theatres.com/longruns.html#longruns.london.html this description of longest London theatre runs] ] It also had a record-breaking four year run on Broadway and in Paris and toured extensively.

Notes

References

*Baily, Leslie: "The Gilbert and Sullivan Book", fourth edition, Cassell & Co, London, 1956
*Earl, John and Michael Sell, "Guide to British Theatres 1750-1950" pp. 248 (Theatres Trust, 2000) ISBN 0-7136-5688-3
* [http://shakespeare.emory.edu/playdisplay.cfm?playid=7 Emory University Shakespeare site] accessed 23 March 2007
*Goodman, Andrew: "Gilbert and Sullivan’s London", Spellmount Ltd, London, 1988, ISBN 0-946771-31-6
*Mander, Joe: Lost Theatres, [http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/Depts/HUA/TT/Globe/24.html quoted at WPI website] accessed 23 March 2007
*Rollins, Cyril and R. John Witts: "The D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, A Record of Productions", Michael Joseph, London, 1962.
*Thornbury, Walter: [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=45129 "Old and New London"] (1897), Volume 3, Chapter 4, pp. 32-35, accessed 23 March 2007
*Weinreb, Ben and Christopher Hibbert: "The London Encyclopedia", revised second edition, Papermac, London, 1993, ISBN 9780333576885
* [http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/Globe.htm History of the theatre and images of programmes] at the Arthur Lloyd website

External links

* [http://library.kent.ac.uk/library/special/icons/playbills/londonglobe.htm Globe Playbills: in the Templeman Collection] of the University of Kent