Previously known as the Albery Theatre, The Noel Coward Theatre was opened in March 1903 under the name the New Theatre. It was built by Sir Charles Wyndham and the classical exterior and Rococo interior was designed by W.G.R. Sprague. It was rechristened the Albery Theatre in 1973 after its long serving manager, the late Sir Bronson Albery.
The theatre was bought by the Delfont-Mackintosh group in September 2005 and, after an extensive refurbishment in 2006, was renamed the Noel Coward Theatre in honour of the great British playwright who had performed in his own play, I’ll Leave it to You, at the then New Theatre in 1920. The theatre boasts 872 seats on four levels and in the past has played host to numerous productions presented by the Royal Shakespeare Company, such as Twelfth Night, Hamlet, King Lear and Macbeth.
Other successful productions include Peter Pan, Calendar Girls and Enron, as well as A Christmas Carol starring Patrick Stewart, Euripedes’ Hecuba with Vanessa Redgrave and Turgenev’s A Month in the Country starring Helen Mirren and John Hurt. The Noel Coward Theatre is in St Martin’s Lane, Covent Garden, London, WC2N 4AU, a short walk from Leicester Square tube station.
