Arts Theatre,
6-7 Great Newport Street,
Leicester Square
Leicester Square

Built in 1927 to a design by P Morley Holder, the Arts started as a theatre club to avoid the censorship of the Lord Chamberlain. Over the next thirty years, the Arts gained an enviable reputation by producing over 20 shows a year with an ambitious mixture of classics and new writing . Actor Manager Alec Clune made a name for himself running the theatre in the 1940's and a young Peter Hall directed the UK premieres of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, Mourning Becomes Elektra by Eugene O'Neill and the Waltz of the Toreadors by Jean Anouilh in 1955/6. Other notable plays received their UK or world premieres over the next ten years, including Pinter's The Caretaker, Orton's Entertaining Mr Sloane, O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh and Tennesse Williams' Suddenly Last Summer.

The Arts was the first London home to the Royal Shakespeare Company but the venture was short-lived. From 1966 to 1988, the Unicorn Children's Theatre was in residence, producing children's theatre in the daytime and more ‘adult' fare in the evenings. During the following years, productions including The Reduced Shakespeare Company, A Slice of Saturday Night, Graham Norton's one man show. In 2000, following a period of darkness, a consortium of UK and Broadway producers transformed the theatre with a ¼ million pound refurbishment.

The Arts then became a member of the Society of London Theatre and a fully-fledged member of the West End, presenting highly successful runs of Another Country, the first West End revival of Entertaining Mr Sloane, the Pet Shop Boys musical Closer to Heaven, The Vagina Monologues, the Traverse/RNT's production of Gagarin Way, Labrynth Theatre Company's production of Jesus Hopped the A Train, Eugene O'Brien award-winning first play, Eden, from the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and Triple Espresso from the US. Then followed Justin Butcher's vicious satire on the gulf war The Madness of George Dubya which enjoyed an extended 20 week season, the Splinter Group's production of Shakespeare's R & J and Felicity Kendal in Sir Peter Hall's new production of Beckett's Happy Days. More recently at the Arts Theatre; Birmingham Stage's production of the Dice House inspired by Luke Rhinehart's classic The Dice Man. Richard Dormer's critically acclaimed one man show Hurricane based on the life of Alex Hurricane Higgins, David Lindsey-Albaire's black comedy Fuddy Meers and Caroline O'Connor staring in Bombshells Joanna Murray-Smith's hit one woman show direct from Edinburgh.