English Stage Company
| 1870: New Chelsea Theatre 1871: Belgravia Theatre |
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The Royal Court Theatre at dusk in 2007
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| Address |
Sloane Square London, SW1 United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 51°29′33″N 0°09′24″W / 51.492583°N 0.156583°W |
| Public transit |
 Sloane Square
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| Owner | English Stage Company |
| Designation | Grade II listed |
| Type | Non-commercial theatre |
| Capacity | Theatre Downstairs: 380 Theatre Upstairs: 85 |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 1870 |
| Rebuilt | 1888 (Walter Emden & Bertie Crewe) 2000 (Haworth Tompkins) |
| Website | |
| royalcourttheatre.com | |
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre. In 1956 it was acquired by and is home to a resident company, the English Stage Company.
The first theatre on Lower George Street, off Sloane Square, was the converted Nonconformist Ranelagh Chapel, opened as a theatre in 1870 under the name The New Chelsea Theatre. Marie Litton became its manager in 1871, hiring Walter Emden to remodel the interior, and it was renamed the Court Theatre.
Several of W. S. Gilbert's early plays were staged here, including Randall's Thumb, Creatures of Impulse (with music by Alberto Randegger), Great Expectations (adapted from the Dickens novel), and On Guard (all in 1871); The Happy Land (1873, with Gilbert Abbott à Beckett; Gilbert's most controversial play); The Wedding March, translated from Un Chapeau de Paille d'Italie by Eugène Marin Labiche (1873); The Blue-Legged Lady, translated from La Dame aux Jambes d'Azur by Labiche and Marc-Michel (1874); and Broken Hearts (1875). By 1878, management of the theatre was shared by John Hare and W. H. Kendal.
Further alterations were made in 1882 by Alexander Peebles, after which its capacity was 728 (including stalls and boxes, dress circle and balcony, amphitheatre, and gallery). After that, Arthur Cecil (who had joined the theatre's company in 1881) was co-manager of the theatre with John Clayton. Among other works, they produced a series of Arthur Wing Pinero's farces, including The Rector, The Magistrate (1885), The Schoolmistress (1886), and Dandy Dick (1887), among others. The theatre closed on 22 July 1887 and was demolished.
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