musical.today Wimbledon, United Kingdom
New Wimbledon Theatre
1,670 seats
The only theatre in Britain ever built with a Turkish bath in the basement, and the house where Oliver! was played for the first time anywhere, in 1960, before anyone in the West End had seen it. The gilded figure on the dome is Laetitia; she spent the Second World War in storage, in case German bombers were using her to find their way.
The building
J. B. Mulholland built it on the grounds of a large house and opened it two days after Christmas 1910 with a pantomime, Jack and Jill. The Edwardian interior survived two refurbishments, in 1991 and 1998, and the baroque plasterwork is still the thing people notice on the way to their seats.
Between the wars Gracie Fields, Sybil Thorndike, Ivor Novello and Noël Coward all played here. It has a habit of getting musicals first: Oliver! opened here in 1960 and Half a Sixpence in 1963, both on their way to the West End.
Opening dates, capacities and architects on this page come from the theatre's own history pages and from Wikipedia.
Getting there
Wimbledon station, on the District line, South Western Railway and the tram, is a few minutes' walk; South Wimbledon on the Northern line is a little further.