40 Fun Facts About West End Musicals

Which playhouse, built for Gilbert and Sullivan in 1881, was the first public building lit entirely by electricity?

The Savoy Theatre opened with Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience, lit by about 1,200 of Joseph Swan's incandescent lamps, and owner Richard D'Oyly Carte built the Savoy Hotel beside it in 1889.

Wicked's London home since 2006, the Apollo Victoria Theatre, opened in 1930 as what kind of building?

A cinema and variety house called the New Victoria when it opened in 1930, the Apollo Victoria turned to musicals with The Sound of Music in 1981 and then housed Starlight Express from 1984 to 2002.

Which vehicle famously lands on stage during the American embassy evacuation in Miss Saigon, Drury Lane's 1989 hit?

A helicopter lifts the last Americans from the embassy roof while a crowd of abandoned Vietnamese screams in despair, one of the most famous set pieces in musical theatre.

The Phantom of the Opera's Haymarket home switched from Her Majesty's to His Majesty's in 2023 on whose accession?

Charles III's accession the previous year triggered the change, under the custom of matching the theatre's name to the monarch's gender, and the Phantom has played there since 1986.

Billy Elliot, the Elton John musical, sets a boy's ballet lessons against which 1984–85 dispute in County Durham?

The miners' strike of 1984–85 tore through the Durham coalfield where the story is set, and Lee Hall based his screenplay partly on A. J. Cronin's 1935 novel about a mining community.

In Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, the Pharaoh is traditionally played as a parody of which singer?

Elvis Presley is the model in most productions, with the Pharaoh crooning his dream of seven fat cows in 'Song of the King', one of the pop pastiches in a piece first written as a 15-minute school cantata.

The Book of Mormon, written with Avenue Q composer Robert Lopez, came from the creators of which animated TV series?

South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone worked with Lopez in London in 2006 while he was staging the West End Avenue Q, and their show became a long-running West End replica of the Broadway hit.

Everybody's Talking About Jamie, Sheffield's 2017 West End transfer, follows a schoolboy who wants to become what?

A drag queen is Jamie New's ambition, and the musical grew out of the 2011 television documentary Jamie: Drag Queen at 16 about the real Sheffield schoolboy Jamie Campbell.

Which Pussycat Dolls singer won the 2024 Olivier for Best Actress in a Musical as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard?

Nicole Scherzinger led Jamie Lloyd's minimalist revival, which won seven of its eleven 2024 Olivier nominations, the most of any show that season, and she then took Norma to Broadway.

Blood Brothers, the musical about twins separated at birth, is set in the slums of which northern English port?

Liverpool is where single mother Mrs Johnstone hands one twin to her wealthy employer Mrs Lyons, and the piece began as a schools play before its 1983 Playhouse premiere.

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, the tale of Jacob's favoured son, comes from which book of the Bible?

Genesis supplies the coat, the jealous brothers and the dream-reading in Egypt, and Decca recorded an expanded version in 1969, a year after the piece's 15-minute debut as a school 'pop cantata'.

Six, the Tudor-wives pop concert, was first performed at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe by students from which university?

Cambridge University Musical Theatre Society picked Toby Marlow to write a new show for the Fringe in late 2016, and Marlow and Lucy Moss wrote it as students before a West End run and a Broadway transfer.

Which street from Piccadilly Circus has the Lyric, Apollo and Gielgud theatres clustered on one side of the road?

Shaftesbury Avenue runs from Piccadilly Circus to New Oxford Street, crossing Charing Cross Road on the way, and is regarded as the heart of the West End theatre district.

London's district of about 40 theatres, bounded by the Strand, Regent Street and Kingsway, goes by what nickname?

Theatreland is traditionally defined by the Strand to the south, Oxford Street to the north, Regent Street to the west and Kingsway to the east, and the term 'West End theatre' refers specifically to commercial productions there.

The Olivier Awards moved in 2017 to which venue, after five years at Covent Garden's opera house?

Royal Albert Hall took over in 2017 after the ceremony's 2012–2016 run at the Royal Opera House, and the awards, established in 1976, have been televised by ITV since 2013.

Disney's The Lion King opened in 1999 at which venue off the Strand, a Mecca ballroom from 1951 to the 1980s?

The Lyceum Theatre, once Henry Irving's house, was restored to theatrical use in 1996, and The Lion King has passed 10,000 performances there since opening on 19 October 1999.

Which play moved into the Palace Theatre in 2016, the house that Les Misérables filled for 19 years from 1985?

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child moved into a red-brick theatre that Richard D'Oyly Carte commissioned in the late 1880s as an opera house, and Les Misérables had left it in 2004 for the smaller Queen's Theatre.

Which film-based musical, premiered at Manchester Opera House in 2020, won the 2022 Olivier for Best New Musical?

Back to the Future: The Musical transferred to the West End in 2021, realising a plan that screenwriter Bob Gale had floated at a 2004 DeLorean convention.

Which playwright wrote the musical Blood Brothers as well as the plays Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine?

Willy Russell wrote the score as well as the book, and he even stepped into the role of the Narrator for part of the show's 1980s national tour.

Miss Saigon relocates which Puccini opera to the Vietnam War, with a US Marine in place of the American naval officer?

Madama Butterfly's geisha becomes Kim, a seventeen-year-old Saigon bar girl, and the Boublil and Schönberg show ran at Drury Lane for ten years, from September 1989 to October 1999.

Which Disney musical reopened Theatre Royal Drury Lane in 2021 after Lloyd Webber's two-year restoration?

Frozen made its West End debut at Drury Lane in September 2021 and closed there in September 2024, in a theatre where Miss Saigon remains the longest-running show.

The New London Theatre, the original home of Cats, was renamed in 2018 in honour of which choreographer?

Gillian Lynne choreographed Cats and The Phantom of the Opera, and the venue that took her name on 1 May 2018 went on to host the world premiere of Lloyd Webber's Cinderella in 2021.

We Will Rock You, Ben Elton's Queen jukebox musical, ran from 2002 to 2014 at which Tottenham Court Road venue?

The Dominion Theatre marked the show's tenth anniversary in 2012 by turning a Judy Garland memorabilia area into a Freddie Mercury Suite, and the musical ran for 12 years before closing on 31 May 2014.

The Strand Theatre was renamed in 2005 after which composer, once a tenant of the flat upstairs?

Ivor Novello lived in a flat above the theatre from 1913 to 1951, and owners Delfont Mackintosh Theatres made the change in 2005 after the building had carried the Strand name for 92 years.

Les Misérables' home from 2004, formerly the Queen's Theatre, was renamed in 2019 after which American composer?

Stephen Sondheim's name went up after a 20-week refurbishment and the theatre reopened on 18 December 2019; a German bomb had destroyed its facade and lobby in 1940 during a run of Rebecca.

Which Oscar-winning actor played the Emcee in the 2021 Kit Kat Club staging of Cabaret at the Playhouse Theatre?

Eddie Redmayne starred opposite Jessie Buckley's Sally Bowles in Rebecca Frecknall's in-the-round production, which cut the Playhouse to 550 seats with table seating to turn it into a nightclub.

& Juliet, where Anne Hathaway rewrites Shakespeare so Juliet survives, is scored with hits by which Swedish producer?

Max Martin's hits carry a book by David West Read, and the show premiered at Manchester Opera House in September 2019 before transferring to the West End that November, then earned nine Tony nominations on Broadway.

Which Second World War comedy about planting false papers on a corpse won the 2024 Olivier for Best New Musical?

Operation Mincemeat is the debut show of the comedy troupe SpitLip, who wrote and perform it, and Jak Malone took a second Olivier for his supporting role before the show crossed to Broadway.

Which award completed Lloyd Webber's Oscar-Grammy-Tony set in 2018, won by a live TV concert of his 1970 rock opera?

An Emmy for Outstanding Variety Special went to the 2018 broadcast, making Lloyd Webber the thirteenth person to win an Oscar, an Emmy, a Grammy and a Tony, a club Tim Rice joined the same night.

Julian Lloyd Webber, the composer Andrew's younger brother, became a world-renowned soloist on which instrument?

Cello is Julian Lloyd Webber's instrument; the brothers' father William Lloyd Webber was a composer and organist, and Andrew wrote his 1978 Variations on a Paganini caprice for Julian.

Les Misérables marked its 25th anniversary on 3 October 2010 with a concert at which London venue?

The O2 Arena concert played the same weekend as the original production at the Queen's Theatre and a 25th-anniversary touring staging at the Barbican, and the London run has since passed 16,000 performances.

Blood Brothers' 24-year West End run ended in 2012 at which venue, its home since 1991?

The Phoenix Theatre took the show in November 1991 after a spell at the Albery, and the revival passed 10,000 performances, at its closing the third-longest musical run in West End history.

Billy Elliot's 2006 Olivier for Best Actor in a Musical was shared by how many boys who alternated in the title role?

Three boys, James Lomas, George Maguire and Liam Mower, jointly took the prize, one of four Oliviers the show won that year including Best New Musical, and it ran at the Victoria Palace until April 2016.

Which Blackadder star played Fagin in the 2009 West End revival of Oliver!, with TV-show winner Jodie Prenger as Nancy?

Rowan Atkinson earned a 2010 Olivier nomination for his Fagin, and when he fell ill in April 2009 Russ Abbot, a Fagin from the 1990s Palladium run, stepped in.

Which Neighbours star led the 1991 London Palladium restaging of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat?

Jason Donovan's cast album topped the UK chart for two weeks in September 1991, and his single 'Any Dream Will Do' had already spent two weeks at number one that summer.

Which Oscar-winning film director staged Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at Theatre Royal Drury Lane in June 2013?

Sam Mendes's production broke London's record for weekly ticket sales in 2013 and ran until 7 January 2017, with a score by Marc Shaiman and lyrics by Shaiman and Scott Wittman.

Who directed The Lion King stage musical, becoming the first woman to win the Tony for Best Direction of a Musical?

Julie Taymor put actors in animal costumes alongside giant hollow puppets, and the show has been seen by more than 124 million people worldwide while collecting six Tony Awards.

Which rock opera ran at the Palace Theatre from 1972 to 1980, the West End's longest musical run until Cats passed it?

Jesus Christ Superstar opened at the Palace in 1972 with Paul Nicholas as Jesus, and its London record fell in 1989 to Cats, which was in turn overtaken by Les Misérables in 2006.

The Oliviers, first presented in 1976 and renamed for the actor in 1984, were originally handed out under what name?

Society of West End Theatre Awards was the name bestowed by the trade body now called the Society of London Theatre, which still presents the Oliviers each year.

Which Lloyd Webber and Rice musical had its world premiere on 21 June 1978, reopening Soho's Prince Edward Theatre?

Evita's world premiere relaunched the Old Compton Street house under its original name, with Elaine Paige as Eva Perón, and the same theatre later opened Mamma Mia! in 1999 and Mary Poppins in 2004.