1910 to 1920 The theatre was in a block, part of the original
Adam Brothers'
Adelphi development, between
the Strand and the
River Thames bounded by Adam Street, John Street (now John Adam Street) and Durham Street (now Durham House Street). The theatre was constructed in 1910 from a banking hall previously used by
Coutts. The initial seating capacity was 250. The first lessee of the Little Theatre was the
actor-manager Gertrude Kingston, who had it equipped largely to her specification, the first British theatre to adopt lighting techniques, including "dimmer" lights, invented in the US. The theatrical newspaper
The Era reported on the interior of the theatre: The prospectus for the new theatre announced: Kingston had intended to open with
Pains and Penalties, a new play by
Laurence Housman, but the official censor declined to license its production because the theme – the divorce of
George IV and
Caroline of Brunswick – was uncomplimentary to the royal family. Instead, the theatre opened with Housman's translation in rhyming verse of
Aristophanes'
Lysistrata. The following month Kingston closed the theatre "owing to indisposition".
Lillah McCarthy temporarily took over the management of the house in March 1911 and
Bernard Shaw had his first commercial success there, with ''
Fanny's First Play in April. Kingston returned to the theatre in April 1912 to play Arkadina in the first London production of The Seagull''. During 1912, "the lessees having found that accommodation for cheaper seats is desirable", the theatre closed in mid-year while the original boxes were demolished. The roof was raised and four new boxes and a balcony were added, the latter offering unreserved seats at half-a-crown (12½p). The theatre reopened under Kingston's management with a revival of Shaw's ''Captain Brassbound's Conversion'' on 15 October, with Kingston in the role – originally played by
Ellen Terry – of Lady Cicely Waynefleet. On 4 September 1917 a German bombing raid during the
First World War so damaged the theatre that it remained empty until the end the war. The theatre was rebuilt in 1919–1920; the original plans were followed except that the boxes were dispensed with. New systems of stage lighting, heating and ventilation were installed. The theatre now had a seating capacity of 377.
1920 to 1949 and
Lewis Casson in
Progress, part of their
Grand Guignol series in 1922|alt=Standing woman in drawing room with bearded man kneeling amid debris The house reopened in February 1920, under the management of
J. E. Vedrenne and Frank Vernon. The opening production was
Edward Knoblock's war play
Mumsie. Later in the year
Sybil Thorndike, her brother,
Russell and her husband
Lewis Casson presented a two-year run of
Grand Guignol melodramas at the Little Theatre. The theatre historians
Mander and Mitchenson record: The Little Theatre began presenting intimate revue in October 1922 when
The Nine O’Clock Revue starring
Beatrice Lillie and
Morris Harvey was produced. It ran for 385 performances and was followed in October 1923 by
The Little Revue Starts at Nine. It starred
Jack Hulbert and
Cicely Courtneidge and ran for 196 performances. Her other great success was a dramatisation by
Mazo de la Roche of her own novel
Whiteoaks, produced in April 1936, which ran for 827 performances. Price left the Little Theatre in 1937, and
The Ascent of F6, described as "a tragedy in two acts", by
W. H. Auden and
Christopher Isherwood transferred from the
Mercury Theatre, Notting Hill Gate. In April 1940 Farjeon opened what was intended to be a season of
Restoration drama, with
Alec Clunes,
Hermione Baddeley,
Max Adrian and
Ursula Jeans in
Miles Malleson's production of
William Wycherley's
The Country Wife. On the night of 16 April 1941 the theatre was again wrecked by a German bomb, and remained derelict until 1949, when it was demolished, replaced by an office block. ==Notes, references and sources==