Tube

Temple/Covent Garden/Holborn are the closest to The Aldwych Theatre.

Train

The nearest Overground station is Charing Cross, although Blackfriars is not much further away.

Bus

Bus Routes: 1, 4, 11, 13, 15, 68, 98.

Parking

NCP Parker Street/Drury Lane. Parking meters outside the Aldwych Theatre.

When the area between Wellington Street, Strand and Fleet Street was reconstructed in the last years of the nineteenth century, much of London's old theatre land was wiped out. The new streets of Aldwych and Kingsway were constructed, with plans being drawn up for the building of two theatres with identical facades along the Aldwych. There was to be one on the corner of Catherine Street, and the other on the corner of Drury Lane. Between the two theatres there was to be a magnificent hotel, The Waldorf.

The Aldwych Theatre was designed by W G R Sprague and built by Walter Wallis of Balham for Seymour Hicks. The Aldwych theatre launched with a production of Blue Bell, a brand new version of Hicks' well-liked pantomime Bluebell in Fairyland. In 1906, Hicks' The Beauty of Bath, then followed in 1907 by The Gay Gordons played at the theatre. In February 1913 the theatre was utilized by Serge Diaghilev and Vaslav Nijinsky for the initial rehearsals of Le Sacre du Printemps before its controversial première in Paris later that year.

In 1920, Basil Rathbone portrayed Major Wharton in The Unknown. From 1925-1933, it turned into the home of Ben Travers's farces, additionally referred to as The Aldwych Farces. Members of Travers's company included Ralph Lynn, Tom Walls, Yvonne Arnaud, Norma Varden, Mary Brough, Winifred Shotter and Robertson Hare. In 1933, Richard Tauber presented and starred in a new adaptation of Das Dreimäderlhaus at the Aldwych under the title Lilac Time. From the mid-1930s until about 1960, the theatre was owned by the Abrahams family.

During the post-war years the Royal Shakespeare Company starring Vivien Leigh, who had won an Academy Award for the film version of the same name, appeared in a 1949 London production of A Streetcar Named Desire, which was directed by her husband, Laurence Olivier. Bonar Colleano co-starred as Stanley.

On 15th December 1960, after strong conjecture, it was announced that the Royal Shakespeare Company of Stratford-upon-Avon was to base its London productions in the Aldwych Theatre for the next three years. They subsequently stayed for over 20 years, finally moving to the Barbican Arts Centre in 1982. Among many noteworthy productions were The Wars of the Roses, The Greeks, and Nicholas Nickleby, as well as many Shakespeare productions.

During absences of the RSC, the theatre hosted the annual World Theatre Seasons, international plays in their original productions, invited to London by the theatre impresario Peter Daubeny, annually from 1964 to 1973 and finally in 1975. For his involvement with these Aldwych seasons, performed without Arts Council or other official financial support, Daubeny won the Evening Standard Special Award in 1972. The theatre was listed as a Grade II listed building on 20th July 1971.

In 1990-91, Joan Collins starred in Private Lives at the Aldwych. Since 2000, the theatre has hosted an assortment of plays, comedies and musical theatre productions. Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Whistle Down the Wind played until 2001, and Fame enjoyed an extended run from 2002 to 2006. Since then, the venue has hosted Dancing in the Streets, which subsequently moved to the Playhouse Theatre and since September 2006 has been the home to the British musical version of Dirty Dancing by Eleanor Bergstein.

The Dress Circle bar opens 1 hour before each performance, the Stalls bars & Upper Circle bar open 30 minutes before each performance. Coffee and confectionery available in the Rear Stalls & Dress Circle Bars. A Champagne & Wine Bar is situated to the right of the Front Stalls.