Musical Today London, United Kingdom
Savoy Theatre
1,150 seats
Built for Gilbert and Sullivan in 1881, and the first public building in the world lit entirely by electricity. Paddington The Musical has played here since November 2025.
Inside the Savoy Theatre
Richard D'Oyly Carte built it to stage the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, on ground once occupied by the medieval Savoy Palace, and the works written for it are still called the Savoy operas. It was the first public building in the world to be lit entirely by electricity.
The room you sit in is not the one of 1881. Rupert D'Oyly Carte rebuilt the theatre in 1929, and it was rebuilt again after a fire, reopening in 1993. The building is Grade II* listed.
You go down to the stalls, not up: there are 75 steps from the foyer and no lift. Step-free seats are in the dress circle, which has its own street-level entrance on Carting Lane, and there is no cloakroom. ATG Entertainment owns the theatre and sells its tickets.
Opening dates, capacities and architects on this page come from the theatre's own history pages and from Wikipedia.
Getting there
Charing Cross, about seven minutes' walk along the Strand; buses 6, 9, 11, 15, 23, 87, 93, 139 and 176 stop on the Strand outside.
