The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre, located in Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster. It is named after the stage actor David Garrick. The theatre was built for and owned by the dramatist W. S. Gilbert and originally leased to the actor-manager John Hare. It opened in 1889 with Hare's production of The Profligate, a new play by Arthur Wing Pinero; another Pinero play, The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith, was an early success, scandalising some audience members.
After Hare retired from management in 1895 another actor-manager, Arthur Bourchier, ran and starred at the Garrick for fifteen years. Bourchier and his wife, Violet Vanbrugh, presented plays by a range of contemporary authors including J. M. Barrie, Anthony Hope, Rutland Barrington, Henry Arthur Jones and Alfred Sutro; they staged and starred in Gilbert's last full-length play The Fairy's Dilemma (1904) and also in The Merchant of Venice (1905) and a stage version of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (1911). After the First World War the theatre's fortunes ebbed. Some well-known performers appeared there including Edith Evans and Tallulah Bankhead, but by the 1930s there was an abortive plan to convert the building into a cinema. A long running success, Love on the Dole (1935–36), restored the profitability of the theatre.
During and after the Second World War the house became associated with another actor-manager, Jack Buchanan, who took over the management in 1944 and appeared in several productions. Farce played an important part in the theatre's life during these years, with pieces by Vernon Sylvaine starring Robertson Hare and Alfred Drayton. Revues in the period featured Beatrice Lillie and Dora Bryan and a particularly long-running show called La Plume de ma Tante ran for 750 performances in 1955–56.
In the 1960s, the farceur Brian Rix made the Garrick his London base and presented several long-running productions there. The theatre survived the threat of demolition to make way for a proposed development in Covent Garden, and in the 1970s stars appearing there included Alastair Sim and Patricia Routledge in a 1973 revival of Pinero's comedy Dandy Dick."Garrick Theatre: History", Nimax Theatres. Retrieved 10 March 2026 The comedy No Sex Please, We're British transferred from the Strand Theatre and played at the Garrick from 1982 until 1986. As well as new plays the theatre staged revivals of plays by Bernard Shaw, Noël Coward and J. B. Priestley. Its presentations have varied from comedies and musicals to gay dramas including Bent to stand-up comedy from Frankie Howerd, to drag queens impersonating nuns. The theatre continues to present plays and musicals in the 21st century.
History
1889 to 1900
The idea for a West End theatre at the end of Charing Cross Road, where it enters St Martin's Place, originated with the dramatist W.S.Gilbert. It was the second London theatre and the first in the West End named after the eighteenth-century actor David Garrick. Gilbert financed the building of the theatre for the actor-manager John Hare, on a plot of ground for which Gilbert obtained a long lease. The theatre was designed by Walter Emden and C. J. Phipps.Mander and Mitchenson, p. 87 When the building was under way it was feared that the work might have to be abandoned.Mander and Mitchenson, p. 88 As the theatre was to be built partially below ground (the back of the dress circle was at street level) deep excavations were required and water was discovered. This proved to be an old river known to the Romans which flowed underneath the site. Gilbert commented humorously that he was in grave doubt whether to keep on building or to let the fishing rights.Stedman, p. 251 Building costs far exceeded the original estimates and Gilbert had borrowed £15,000. This affected the rent to be charged to Hare as tenant, which was set at a little over £4,000 a year. Hare protested mildly, and Gilbert responded, "You must see that investing £44,000 in the Garrick Theatre is not quite the same thing as investing it in Consols". He said it was "a most risky & utterly inconvertible form of security" and he had made the investment to save Hare "from falling into the hands of City harpies who would have made you bleed to the tune of 10%". Hare replied that although he knew Gilbert acted out of friendship, it was only business-like to have protested.Stedman, pp. 265–266
Eventually the engineering problems were overcome and the new theatre opened on 24 April 1889, with Arthur Wing Pinero's The Profligate. As well as Hare the cast included Johnston Forbes-Robertson and Lewis Waller."The Profligate", The Era, 27 April 1889, p. 10 Gilbert was not present at the first night, being on a Mediterranean cruise for the good of his health. His collaborator in the Savoy Operas, Sir Arthur Sullivan, was there: he had composed an incidental song for the piece and played the piano accompaniment from the wings. "Very brilliant success", he recorded.Stedman, p. 261 The Era reported that the house was "filled from the front row of the stalls to the top-most seat in the gallery, the higher priced parts of the house being occupied by a distinguished assembly that included representatives of art, science, literature, and fashion"."The New Garrick Theatre", The Era, 27 April 1889, p. 11 The Stage for 26 April said:
The Era stated on 27 April:
The Profligate was a success and ran for 129 performances. According to the theatre historians Mander and Mitchenson, "This play was a landmark in theatrical history, as it threw emphasis on the playwright rather than on the actors and heralded a new tendency for the author to have more importance than the players".Mander and Mitchenson, p. 89 The Profligate was followed by La Tosca (1889), an English version of Victorien Sardou's play, later familiar in Puccini's operatic setting, and then Sydney Grundy's A Pair of Spectacles (1890), Pinero's Lady Bountiful (1891), and a revival of Grundy's A Fool's Paradise (1892). After a starrily cast revival of Diplomacy, Hare presented Pinero's The Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith in 1895, which shocked sections of the audience by featuring a heroine with what were then seen as loose morals.Mander and Mitchenson, p. 89 Hare retired from the management of the Garrick in 1895 and after seasons under E. S. Willard and the Kendals the house became a venue for comic opera and musical comedies under the management of H. T. Brickwell, and for visits from overseas companies.
1900 to 1939
The next important phase of the history of the Garrick came in 1900, when Arthur Bourchier and his wife Violet Vanbrugh took over. Their regime lasted for more than a decade and included productions of J. M. Barrie's The Wedding Guest (1900), Pinero's Iris (1901), Anthony Hope's Pilkerton's Peerage, The Bishop's Move (1902), Water Babies, an adaptation by Rutland Barrington of Charles Kingsley's novel, with music by Alfred Cellier and others (1902 and 1903),Gaye (1967), p. 1513 Henry Arthur Jones's Whitewashing Julia (1903) and Gilbert's The Fairy's Dilemma (1904). The last was Gilbert's only original work for the Garrick; he tried unsuccessfully to interest Bourchier in a revival of his 1887 opera with Sullivan, Ruddigore.Ainger, p. 433
Later productions under Bourchier included Jones's The Chevaleer, Alfred Sutro's The Walls of Jericho (both 1904), The Merchant of Venice (1905) and a stage version of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (1911). Gilbert died in 1911 and his widow inherited the lease of the Garrick's site. Oscar Asche and Lily Brayton had a season during which Edward Knoblock's Kismet ran for 328 performances.Gaye (1967), p. 1533 Mander and Mitchenson record that after Bourchier left in 1915, managements changed frequently and presented shows that failed to run very long (even under Charles B. Cochran, 1918–1924). The Ghost Train by Arnold Ridley successfully transferred to the theatre in 1926; in 1928 the Moscow Art Theatre company visited with a short season of plays by Chekhov and others; in 1929 Edith Evans starred in and as The Lady With the Lamp; in 1930 Tallulah Bankhead played Marguerite in The Lady of the Camellias.
Plans were announced for rebuilding the Garrick as a super-cinema: an architect was named and the work was said to be starting shortly, but the scheme never materialised.Mander and Mitchenson, pp. 88–90 Afterwards, the Garrick had a major success with Love on the Dole, an adaptation of a novel by Walter Greenwood about working-class poverty in 1930s Northern England. It made a star of Wendy Hiller and ran for 391 performances.Jennings, Alex. "Hiller, Dame Wendy Margaret (1912–2003), actress", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2011 Sarah Simple by A. A. Milne was produced in 1937 and in 1939 Maurice Schwartz and his Yiddish Art Theatre of New York gave a season.
Second World War to 1970
The Garrick was closed for two years after the outbreak of the Second World War after a plan to turn it into a Forces Theatre failed. The theatre reopened in September 1941 and housed many different productions including farces, comedies and drama.Mander and Mitchenson, p. 91 Jack Buchanan took over the direction of the theatre in 1944 – first jointly with Bernard Delfont and later as sole tenant – and retained it until his death in 1957.Marshall, pp. 86 and 149 In 1946 Beatrice Lillie starred in a revue, Better Late and in 1947 Laurence Olivier directed Born Yesterday, which introduced Yolande Donlan to London. Buchanan appeared with Coral Browne in a revival of Canaries Sometimes Sing later in the year. A farce by Vernon Sylvaine, One Wild Oat, starred Robertson Hare and Alfred Drayton. The next big success was To Dorothy, a Son, starring Donlan and Richard Attenborough, transferring from the Savoy Theatre and running at the two houses for a total of 514 performances in 1951–52Gaye (1967), p. 1539
Buchanan returned in As Long as They're Happy in 1953. Mander and Mitchenson list as the theatre's other successes of the 1950s, Serious Charge (1955), the revue La Plume de ma Tante, which ran for 750 performances from November 1955; followed by Living for Pleasure, a revue with Dora Bryan (1958), and Farewell, Farewell, Eugene (1959) with Margaret Rutherford and Peggy Mount. The Theatre Workshop's production of Fings Ain't Wot They Used T' Be transferred from the Theatre Royal, Stratford in February 1960 and ran at the Garrick for two years, a total of 897 performances.Gaye (1967), p. 1531 Charles Dyer's Rattle of a Simple Man ran for 377 performances from September 1962, starring Sheila Hancock and Edward Woodward.Gaye (1967), p. 1537 Two further successes were Difference of Opinion (489 performances from November 1963) and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? transferring from the Globe Theatre in January 1965 with a new cast led by Constance Cummings and Ray McAnally, for a total run of 428 performances.