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____________________________________________________________________________________________ The Cambridge Theatre, Earlham Street, Seven Dials, London, WC2.
Above - The Cambridge Theatre during the run of 'Chicago' in October 2006.
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The Cambridge was but one of many Theatres which opened in London's West End in 1930, and one of several opening in the same month. First there was the Prince Edward on April the 3rd, then the Cambridge on the 4th of September, then the Phoenix on the 24th of September, and the Whitehall on the 29th of September. Then came the rebuilt Adelphi Theatre on 3rd of December, and finally the Leicester Square Theatre which opened on December the 19th. Quite a flurry of Theatre building for one year in the 1930s.
Right - The Cambridge Theatre auditorium in the late 1980s showing one of the two boxes and the Stalls, Dress, and Upper Circles. - Photo M.L. The exterior is faced mostly with stone, the metal windows,
the entrance canopy, and the display signs are painted Cambridge blue.
Within, the shape is unusual where theatres are concerned, especially
as regards the roof, since both vertical and horizontal sections describe
elliptical curves. Across the ceiling is a series of transverse ribs,
which advance in increasing proximity one to another up to the springing
of the Dress Circle. Each contains Left - The Cambridge Theatre auditorium in the late 1980s showing the Dress and Upper Circles, and the ribbed ceiling from which hidden lighting steps from back to front in sequence. - Photo M.L. Other papers were not so favorable and in 1950, in an attempt to change the building's atmosphere, the auditorium was given a coat of garish red paint and re-lit with chandeliers and a large candelabra. I imagine that this was probably a lot worse than the original and when I worked there in the late 1980s it was back to a more sophisticated cream, and much of the original lighting had been reinstated, although sadly not all of it. The ribbed ceiling lighting does still work and computers now operate the stepping effect down towards the proscenium before a performance begins. |
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Above - The Cambridge Theatre during the run of 'Let Them Eat Cake' in the 1950s - Courtesy Gerry Atkins
Right - Programme for 'Elizabeth Of England' at the newly opened Cambridge Theatre in 1931. Left - Programme for 'The Greeks Had A Word For It' at the Cambridge Theatre in 1935. Another success was the Bernard Shaw Rep Season from 1935 for several years before the Theatre was given over to Film for a while. In the 1980s one of the projectors was still there in the followspot box, (See Below.) |
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Above - The unusually large Followspot Box at the Cambridge Theatre during the run of 'Return To The Forbidden Planet', this was also used as a projection booth when the Theatre was in Cinema use. Photo taken in 1989 - M. L.
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Left - Programme for 'Distinguished Gathering' at the Cambridge Theatre in 1936. Right - Programme for 'Night Must Fall' at the Cambridge Theatre in 1936. |
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Right - The Cambridge Theatre during the run of 'Return To The Forbidden Planet' in 1989 - Photo M. L. 'The Beautiful Game,' A new musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Ben Elton in 2000 was not the success they had hoped, but a production of 'Fame,' in 1995 and 2000, and which seems to be on tour around the West End for most of the time, did well as usual. In 2000 the Madness Musical 'Our House' ran for a year and then 'Jerry Springer The Opera' was a great success in 2003, despite the controversy surrounding it.
Above - The Cambridge Theatre during the run of 'Chicago' in October 2006. - Photo M.L. The Cambridge Theatre is currently owned and run by the Really Useful Group whose own website can be found here. |
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Adelphi Aldwych Apollo Apollo Victoria Arts Cambridge Comedy Criterion Dominion Drury Lane Duchess Duke Of Yorks Fortune Garrick Gielgud Haymarket Her Majesty's London Coliseum London Palladium Lyceum Lyric New Ambassadors New London Noel Coward / Albery Novello Old Vic Palace Peacock Phoenix Piccadilly Playhouse Prince Edward Prince of Wales Queen's Royal Opera House Savoy Shaftesbury St. Martin's Trafalgar Studios / Whitehall Vaudeville Victoria Palace Wyndham's
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The
Architects' Journal of the 8th of October 1930 and reprinted here from
The Theatres Of London' by Raymond Mander and Joe Mitchenson, said of
the new Cambridge Theatre: 'The site is a corner one and the new building
presents a symmetrical design when looking at the corner, yet the subsidiary
axis of the entrance hall is actually parallel to one of the boundary
walls, a fact of which most visitors remain unconscious. 
concealed
lighting playing upon the downward dropping dome that would in any case
lead the eye to the proscenium. The effect is intensified by the scheme
of decoration, carried out in bands of lacquered metal-leaf, diagonally
sloped and graduated from deep gold brown to pale honey yellow. The
two boxes give the impression of being lobes of the Dress circle and
each has a semi-circular arched opening, the tympanum of which is filled
in with an embossed design furnished in matt-silver.'
The
Cambridge Theatre has had a rather checkered history and success has
often eluded it. One success though was 'Elizabeth of England' which
had a reasonable run in 1931, (See Programme Right,) 
'A
Night in Venice' had a good run of 433 performances opening in 1944,
and from 1946 to 1948 a season of Opera and Ballet was staged at the
Theatre by Jay Pomeroy. 'Billy Liar' opened in 1960 and ran for two
years, and Tommy Steele found success at the Cambridge with 'Half a
Sixpense' which ran for 677 performances. Ingrid Bergman was at the
Cambridge Theatre in 1965 with 'A Month In The Country.'
The
Cambridge then fell out of favor and in 1967 it became a Cinema again
for a year. It was then home to a great many short but successful plays,
many of them revivals. 'Peter Pan' ran at the Theatre for the second
time in November 1987 and 'The Rink' in 1988 was a bit of a failure
but 'Budgie' in 1988 was a success, and 'Return To The Forbidden Planet'
ran for three years from 1989 and then returned again later for a short
run. 