Palace Theatre, West End theatre in Cambridge Circus, City of Westminster, United Kingdom.
The Palace Theatre is a Victorian theatre building with a red-brick facade at Cambridge Circus in the City of Westminster. The auditorium holds 1,400 seats distributed across multiple tiers in a traditional horseshoe arrangement.
Richard D'Oyly Carte commissioned the building in the late 1880s, and it opened in January 1891 with Arthur Sullivan's opera Ivanhoe. After the opera season failed, the venue quickly shifted to variety and musicals that have defined its stage ever since.
The building took its current name in 1911 after beginning life as the Royal English Opera House and later serving as a variety venue. Today the stage hosts long-running musical productions that define the West End and draw visitors from around the world.
The entrance sits directly at Cambridge Circus, where Shaftesbury Avenue meets Charing Cross Road, with several Underground stations within walking distance. The lobbies and auditorium span multiple levels, requiring stairs to reach all areas.
The building hosted the first Royal Variety Performance in Britain in 1912, a charity event that continues nationwide to this day. Since 2016, the production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child transforms the entire venue into a magical environment with décor throughout lobbies and staircases.
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