Background and construction In 1878
Old and New London commented that the St James's Theatre owed its existence "to one of those unaccountable infatuations which stake the earnings of a lifetime upon a hazardous speculation".
John Braham, a veteran operatic star, planned a theatre in the fashionable
St James's area, on a site in
King Street, bounded by Crown Passage to the west, Angel Court to the east and buildings in
Pall Mall to the south. A hotel called Nerot's had stood there since the 17th century but was by now abandoned and decaying. To generate income, the façade would incorporate one or two shops. Building and opening the theatre were not straightforward. The
Theatres Trust comments that Braham quarrelled regularly with his architect,
Samuel Beazley, and other professional advisers and contractors. He also faced difficulties in obtaining the necessary licence to open a theatre; the management of the nearby
Theatre Royal, Haymarket opposed it, as did other interested parties. The licence was issued by the
Lord Chamberlain on the instructions of
William IV, but Braham continued to encounter opposition from rivals.
Early years: 1835–1857 The theatre opened on 14 December 1835 with a triple bill consisting of two farces by
Gilbert à Beckett and an opera,
Agnes Sorel, with music by his wife,
Mary Anne à Beckett. In April 1836 the first of many visiting French companies played at the theatre, a tradition that endured intermittently throughout the 122-year existence of the St James's. His programmes included the presentation of performing lions, monkeys, dogs and goats. In November 1839
Alfred Bunn, whom the theatre critic and historian
J. C. Trewin called a former "autocrat of Drury Lane and Covent Garden", took over the house, and changed its name to "The Prince's Theatre" in honour of the
Prince Consort. Among Bunn's early offerings was a season of German opera, beginning with
Der Freischütz.
Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort came to two performances during the season, but otherwise Bunn's tenure was undistinguished and unprofitable. In between French offerings, Mitchell occasionally sub-let the theatre. In 1846, an amateur performance of
Ben Jonson's
Every Man in his Humour included Dickens playing Captain Bobadil. Mitchell had a fondness for international entertainments, and presented German conjurors, Tyrolean singers, dramatic readings by
Fanny Kemble,
P. T. Barnum's infant prodigies –
Kate and Ellen Bateman, aged eight and six – in scenes from Shakespeare, and, most popular of all, the
Ethiopian Serenaders who enthused London about the American-style
minstrel shows, a form of entertainment that remained popular for decades. After Mitchell left, the actress Laura Seymour (1820–1879) ran the theatre for a season in association with
Charles Reade, from October 1854 to March 1855. Under Seymour's management the interior was remodelled, replacing the first tier of boxes with the now more fashionable dress circle. Among the few notable aspects of her tenure was the London debut of the comic actor
J. L. Toole. The house was once again dark for most of 1856, but in 1857 the theatre returned to royal and public favour when
Jacques Offenbach brought his
opéra bouffe company from Paris, with a repertoire of nine of his works. This was followed by the
Christy Minstrels who played to good houses for two weeks in August 1857 before moving to other venues.
Five managements: 1858–1869 , lessee 1864–1868 Following this the theatre had a succession of managements.
F. B. Chatterton became the lessee for two years from 1858. He presented a season, mainly of Shakespeare, by the popular actor
Barry Sullivan, and staged
F. C. Burnand's first major play, a burlesque called
Dido, which ran for 80 performances.
Alfred Wigan, who had been a member of Braham's original company, briefly took over the house in 1860, and was succeeded, equally briefly, by
George Vining. Under Frank Matthews, who took over in December 1862, the theatre had its longest-running production thus far: ''Lady Audley's Secret'', which ran for 104 nights. Matthews ended his tenancy in July 1863 and was followed by
Benjamin Webster, who mounted a series of revivals and a few new
burlesques and extravaganzas, which were financially unsuccessful. A member of Webster's company,
Ruth Herbert, took over in 1864 and ran the theatre until 1868. She attracted much praise for presenting
Henry Irving in his first important appearance on a London stage. The following month the theatre presented
W. S. Gilbert's first burlesque,
Dulcamara! or, The Little Duck and the Great Quack, a parody of
Donizetti's ''
L'elisir d'amore'', which ran until Easter the following year. The season after her departure was notable for two Offenbach productions in which
Hortense Schneider starred, bringing the
Prince of Wales and London society to the theatre in June 1868.
Mrs John Wood; Marie Litton and others: 1869–1878 In 1869 the theatre was taken by
Mrs John Wood, whose first production was
She Stoops to Conquer, which ran for 160 performances – a long run for the time. It was beaten by
La Belle Sauvage which opened in November 1869 and ran for 197 nights. There were successful productions of
John Poole's Paul Pry,
Fernande (in which
Fanny Brough made her London debut),
Anne Bracegirdle, and
Jenny Lind at Last. The theatre was well patronised and appeared to be finally prospering. But expenses outran receipts, and Wood gave up the management of the theatre in 1871, and went to the US to replenish her funds. In 1875 another actress,
Marie Litton, took the theatre. She had made her name in management, founding and running the
Court Theatre, with which Gilbert's works had become closely, and profitably, associated. Another of Litton's productions was a double bill of revivals of
Frank Marshall's farce
Brighton and
William Brough's burlesque
Conrad and Medora, in which she co-starred with
Henrietta Hodson. When Litton left for another theatre in 1876, first Horace Wigan, and then Mrs John Wood made brief returns to management at the St James's, the latter with some success in
The Danischeffs, which ran to good houses for more than 300 performances. She was succeeded by Samuel Hayes, who produced three failures in quick succession and then withdrew.
John Hare and the Kendals: 1879–1888 ;
Madge Kendal and
W. H. Kendal The owner of the freehold of the theatre,
Lord Newry, began to take an active interest in its affairs. He invited the actor
John Hare to take over, which he did, in 1879, in partnership with two fellow-actors,
Madge Kendal and her husband
William. The theatre was again extensively renovated, with new decor by
Walter Crane.
The Era commented that the new management was in possession of "a house which, for taste and elegance, and comfort, is far in advance of anything the Metropolis has yet been able to boast." A historian of the St James's, Barry Duncan, heads his chapter on this phase of the theatre's history, "John Hare and the Kendals: Nine Years of Steady Success". For the first time, the theatre's reputation as "unlucky" was steadily defied. The new lessees aimed both to amuse and to improve public taste, and in the view of the theatre historian
J. P. Wearing, they achieved their aim, with a successful mixture of French adaptations and original English plays. Under their management the St James's staged twenty-one plays: seven were new British pieces, eight French adaptations, and the rest were revivals. Wearing regards
The Money Spinner (1881) as of particular importance to this period of the theatre's history, being the first of several of
A. W. Pinero's plays staged there by Hare and the Kendals. It was regarded as daringly unconventional and a risky venture, but it caught on with the public, partly for Hare's character, the "disreputable but delightful old reprobate and card-shark" Baron Croodle. among their male colleagues were
George Alexander,
Allan Aynesworth,
Albert Chevalier,
Henry Kemble,
William Terris,
Brandon Thomas and
Lewis Waller. Barrington lost £4,500, went bankrupt, and surrendered the lease in January 1889. The theatre stayed dark for the rest of the year.
Lillie Langtry took a year's lease from January 1890. She reopened the house on 24 February, playing Rosalind in a production of
As You Like It attended by the Prince and
Princess of Wales. She followed this with a melodramatic new play,
Esther Sandraz, adapted from the French by Grundy, which played with a curtain-raiser, a musical farce by Burnand and
Edward Solomon,
The Tiger. Langtry fell ill with
pleurisy and had to abandon the season in June.
Arthur Bourchier, who had been playing in her company, took on the remainder of the lease, presenting
Your Wife, an English version of a French farce, but poor box-office takings forced him to close the piece within a month. The lease was taken up by a French company who presented a season of plays in the latter months of the year. Poor attendance again forced the premature closure of the run.
George Alexander: 1890–1918 and
George Alexander in
The Second Mrs Tanqueray, 1893 In 1891 the actor
George Alexander, who had begun a managerial career a year earlier, took a lease of the St James's. He remained in charge there until his death in 1918. He redecorated it and had electric lighting installed. He opened with a double bill of comedies,
Sunlight and Shadow and
The Gay Lothario. He followed this with
The Idler, by
Haddon Chambers, a serious drama. It had already been a success in America and ran at the St James's through most of the remainder of the season, which concluded with a costume drama,
Moliere, by
Walter Frith. He sought to engage the best actors for his company: unlike some star actor-managers he did not wish to be supported by actors whose inferior talent would make the star look better. Among the actresses he engaged for his companies were
Lilian Braithwaite,
Constance Collier,
Kate Cutler, Julia Neilson,
Juliette Nesville,
Marion Terry and
Irene and
Violet Vanbrugh. Their male colleagues included Arthur Bourchier,
H. V. Esmond,
Cyril Maude,
Godfrey Tearle and
Fred Terry. Within a year of taking over the St James's, Alexander began a mutually beneficial professional association with
Oscar Wilde, whose ''
Lady Windermere's Fan'' he presented in February 1892. The following year he produced Pinero's,
The Second Mrs Tanqueray, presented in May 1893. Like ''Lady Windermere's Fan'' it featured "a woman with a past", but unlike Wilde's play it ended in tragedy. It was thought daring at the time, but Alexander knew his audiences and kept to what Pearson called his "safe path of correct riskiness". '' in 1895, with
Allan Aynesworth as Algernon (left) and
George Alexander as Jack Between Pinero's play and the work with which Alexander's name has become most closely associated –
The Importance of Being Earnest – came Alexander's most conspicuous failure. The celebrated novelist
Henry James had written a play,
Guy Domville, about a hero who renounces the priesthood to save his family by marrying to produce an heir, but finally reverts to his religious calling. The play had been turned down by one London management, but Alexander took it on and opened it at the St James's on 5 January 1895. It was received politely by those in the more expensive parts of the house and impolitely by those in the cheaper seats. The reviews were unenthusiastic; Alexander kept the play on the bill for a month before turning to Wilde as a more theatrically adept writer. In February 1895 Alexander presented Wilde's
The Importance of Being Earnest. The success of the play with audiences and critics was immediate and considerable, but it was short-lived. Within weeks of the premiere Wilde was arrested on a charge of committing homosexual acts and was tried, convicted and imprisoned. The public turned against him, and although Alexander tried to keep the production of the play going by removing the author's name from the playbills, he had to withdraw it after 83 performances. Under Alexander, the St James's did not solely concentrate on drawing-room comedy and society drama. There were costume dramas, including the
Ruritanian swashbuckler,
The Prisoner of Zenda, At the end of 1899 Alexander closed the theatre to have it largely reconstructed, producing what
The Era called "one of the handsomest temples of the drama in London", while retaining its charm and cosiness. The rebuilding provided increased seating capacity, which enhanced the financial viability of the theatre. It reopened on 2 February 1900 with a performance of
Rupert of Hentzau by
Anthony Hope attended by
the Prince of Wales. The
Manchester Guardian agreed that the redeveloped theatre was "now one of the handsomest in London". Alexander's management continued into the new century, continuing to vary the repertory with, in 1902, a verse drama,
Paolo and Francesca, based on an episode in
Dante's
The Divine Comedy, as well as the theatre's more usual fare such as Pinero's drama
His House in Order, an artistic and box-office success, running for 427 performances.
1918–1939 , upstage, centre, as Mark Antony in
Julius Caesar, 1920 After Alexander died in 1918, the lease was taken over by
Gilbert Miller, an American impresario, who presented his own productions from time to time, but more often sub-let the theatre to other managers. The first was
Gertrude Elliott who presented and starred in an American
fantasy play,
The Eyes of Youth, which ran for 383 performances. After this, Miller went into partnership with the actor
Henry Ainley, and in 1920 they presented
Julius Caesar, with Ainley as Mark Antony and a cast including
Basil Gill,
Claude Rains,
Milton Rosmer and Lilian Braithwaite, which ran for 83 performances. There followed a succession of society dramas and light comedies including
Polly With a Past (1921) in which many future stars appeared, including
Helen Haye,
Edith Evans and
Noël Coward. In 1923
The Green Goddess, a melodrama by
William Archer, started a run of 417 performances. During the 1920s, the St James's staged Christmas seasons of
Peter Pan with Peter played by Edna Best (1920 and 1922) and
Jean Forbes-Robertson (1929), and Captain Hook by Ainley (1920),
Ernest Thesiger (1921),
Lyn Harding (1922), and
Gerald du Maurier (1929). In September 1925 du Maurier and
Gladys Cooper took a sub-lease of the theatre to present
The Last of Mrs Cheyney by
Frederick Lonsdale (1925), which ran for 514 performances, until the end of 1926.
Interference (1927), a thriller by
Roland Pertwee and
Harold Dearden, was another big success and ran for 412 performances. It was followed by a flop,
S.O.S (1928), notable only for starring
Gracie Fields in her first straight part. In the early 1930s there was a succession of failures or minimal successes until 1933, when
Emlyn Williams's
The Late Christopher Bean ran from May until September of the following year, with Edith Evans,
Louise Hampton and
Cedric Hardwicke. In 1936 the centenary of the theatre was marked by a lavishly staged adaptation of
Pride and Prejudice, designed by
Rex Whistler, which ran for nearly a year. It was presented by Miller in association with
Max Gordon and starred
Celia Johnson and
Hugh Williams. Of the later productions during the 1930s only
Golden Boy (1938) and
Ladies in Retirement (1939) ran for more than 100 performances.
1940–1957 At the outbreak of the
Second World War theatres were temporarily closed by government decree. When they were permitted to reopen, a few weeks later,
Ladies in Retirement resumed its run until the theatre was hit by a bomb in 1940. It did not reopen until March 1941. A brief season of ballet was followed by a Shakespeare and Ben Jonson season by
Donald Wolfit and his company. In mid-1942 Coward's
Blithe Spirit transferred from the
Piccadilly Theatre; Coward took over the role of Charles Condomine from
Cecil Parker prior to taking the play on tour. Wolfit and his company returned at the end of 1942 and played into the following year. Williams's adaptation of
A Month in the Country starring
Michael Redgrave ran for 313 performances for most of 1943. It was followed by
Agatha Christie's
Ten Little Niggers, which ran for 260 performances, interrupted when a bomb severely damaged the theatre in February 1944: the production moved temporarily to the
Cambridge Theatre, returning in May to complete its run. and
Laurence Olivier (1948) The critic
Ivor Brown thought that Scofield's performance as Alexander, though excellent, owed something to the example of
Laurence Olivier. In January 1950 Olivier and his wife
Vivien Leigh took over the management of the theatre. They opened with
Christopher Fry's new play,
Venus Observed, in which Leigh did not appear. In 1951, for the
Festival of Britain season, they starred in Shaw's
Caesar and Cleopatra and Shakespeare's
Antony and Cleopatra. Duncan observes, "The company was as brilliant as it was enormous." Later that year, at Olivier's invitation, the French actors
Jean-Louis Barrault and
Madeleine Renaud presented a three-week season at the theatre with their own company. This was followed by
Orson Welles in the title role of
Othello, with
Peter Finch as Iago and
Gudrun Ure as Desdemona. In 1953 Olivier presented an Italian company headed by
Ruggero Ruggeri in plays by
Pirandello, and a short French season by the
Comédie-Française. During the run of
Separate Tables it became known that a property developer had acquired the freehold of the theatre and had obtained the requisite permission from the
London County Council (LCC) to demolish the building and replace it with an office block. Leigh and Olivier led a nationwide campaign to try to save the theatre. There were street marches and a protest in the
House of Lords. A motion was carried against the Government in that house, but to no avail. The LCC ordered that no further theatres would be demolished in central London without a planned replacement, but neither the national nor the local government would intervene to prevent the destruction of the St James's. After the run of
Separate Tables there were five short-lived productions at the theatre, and the final performance there was given on 27 July 1957. An office building, St James's House, was built on the site. It incorporated sculptured balcony fronts on each floor above the entrance. Four bas-relief panels by
Edward Bainbridge Copnall depicted the heads of Gilbert Miller, George Alexander, Oscar Wilde and the Oliviers. The office building was demolished and a new one built on the site in the 1980s. The panels were moved from the King Street façade to the Angel Court side of the building. ==Notes, references and sources==