HOUSES
Section 2 of 6
A house that held one show for nineteen years
A theatre is a booking until it is a tenancy. When a production stays for nineteen years the building starts to change shape around it — rigging points, drainage, dressing-room allocation — and some of that change is still there when the show has gone.
In this section — 3 pieces
- One house, one show, three decadeslongHer Majesty’s held The Phantom of the Opera for decades and the building was adapted around it. A long run stops being a booking and becomes tenancy.
- The Winter Garden rebuilt its roof for a catmediumCats ran eighteen years in New York and the theatre was structurally altered to stage it. The alteration outlived the show.
- Moving a show across an ocean rebuilds itmediumA transfer is not a tour: the set is remade to a different stage, the orchestra is recontracted, and the cast is usually local.