ON THE TRAIL
palace theatre
This terracotta building— located between Charing Cross Road and Shaftesbury Avenue— features an ornate Victorian interior of gilded plasterwork and red velvet. With towers located on each corner, the imposing structure originally opened as the Royal English Opera House in 1891 with Arthur Sullivan’ s Ivanhoe. Its current production, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, opened here in 2016 and remains the most awarded play in Olivier Awards history. The venue has also hosted productions including Les Misérables, The Woman in White and Priscilla Queen of the Desert. With 1,400 seats across four levels, the Dress Circle and the Stalls offer the best views in the house.
apollo victoria theatre
Home to Wicked, the musical adaptation of Gregory Maguire’ s novel, the Apollo Victoria welcomes more than 800,000 visitors a year. It was designed by W. E. Trent and E. Wamsley Lewis, and the building originally opened as a cinema in 1930 before reopening as a theatre in 1981, staging productions such as The Sound of Music, Camelot and Saturday Night Fever. Inside, visitors are met with an underwater-inspired fantasy theme featuring sculpted fountains, decorative scallop shells, silvered organ pipes and illuminated stalactites. In the 2,300-seat auditorium, porthole-style doors evoke the feeling of being at sea. his majesty’ s theatre
Since 1705, four theatres have stood on the site of His Majesty’ s Theatre, whose name changes with the gender of the reigning British monarch. The current building, designed by C. J. Phipps and completed in 1897, has hosted productions such as West Side Story, Bye Bye Birdie and Fiddler on the Roof. Today, it’ s home to The Phantom of the Opera, the second longest-running musical in West End history, which opened here in 1986. Inside the 1,200-seat auditorium, a wide stage provides ample space for large-scale musical productions, with the grand circle offering panoramic views.
fall 2026 • 33