The Lyric Theatre, also known as the Lyric Hammersmith, is a theatre on Lyric Square, off
King Street,
Hammersmith
Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London ...
, London.
["About the Lyric"]
''Lyric'' official website. Retrieved 9 May 2008.
Background
The Lyric Theatre was originally a music hall established in 1888 on Bradmore Grove, Hammersmith. Success as an entertainment venue led it to be rebuilt and enlarged on the same site twice, firstly in 1890 and then in 1895 by the English theatrical architect
Frank Matcham
Francis Matcham (22 November 1854 – 17 May 1920)Mackintosh, Iain"Matcham, Frank" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, accessed 7 July 2019 was an English architect who specialised in the design o ...
. The 1895 reopening, as The New Lyric Opera House, was accompanied by an opening address by the famous actress
Lillie Langtry
Emilie Charlotte, Lady de Bathe (née Le Breton, formerly Langtry; 13 October 1853 – 12 February 1929), known as Lillie (or Lily) Langtry and nicknamed "The Jersey Lily", was a British socialite, stage actress and producer.
Born on the isla ...
.
In 1966 the theatre was due to be closed and demolished. However, a successful campaign to save it led to the auditorium being dismantled and reinstalled piece by piece within a modern shell on its current site on King Street a short distance from the former Bradmore Grove location. The relocated theatre opened in 1979.
[John Earl]
"Presidential Address: The Crest of a Wave"
''Frank Matcham
Francis Matcham (22 November 1854 – 17 May 1920)Mackintosh, Iain"Matcham, Frank" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, accessed 7 July 2019 was an English architect who specialised in the design o ...
Society Magazine'', n.d.. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
It has two main performance areas: the ''Main House'', a 550-seat 19th-century auditorium maintaining the original design which hosts its main productions; and the 120-seat ''Studio'', which houses smaller productions by up-and-coming companies. The Lyric also presents frequent ''Lyric Children'' and ''Lyric Music'' performances as well as ''Sunday Night Comedy''.
[
Its current artistic director is Rachel O'Riordan, and its executive director is Sian Alexander.]["About the Lyric: Our Staff"]
''Lyric'' official website. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
The Lyric has recently gone through a major redevelopment project, with new facilities for young people and the local community completed in 2015, designed by Rick Mather Architects["Capital Development"]
''Lyric'' official website. Retrieved 20 January 2014. and was nominated in the 'community benefit' and 'tourism and leisure' categories at the RICS Awards 2016, London.
In 2011, the Lyric won the Olivier Award
The Laurence Olivier Awards, or simply the Olivier Awards, are presented annually by the Society of London Theatre to recognise excellence in professional theatre in London at an annual ceremony in the capital. The awards were originally known a ...
for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre for Sean Holmes' production of Sarah Kane
Sarah Kane (3 February 1971 – 20 February 1999) was an English playwright, screenwriter and theatre director. She is known for her plays that deal with themes of redemptive love, sexual desire, pain, torture—both physical and psychological ...
's '' Blasted''.
In September 2018, it was announced that Sean Holmes would be succeeded as artistic director in February 2019 by Rachel O'Riordan.
Five strands
The Lyric's programme is divided into five strands:
*Main House
*Studio
*Music & Comedy
*Lyric Children
*Lyric Young Company[
]
Production history
(Source: the ''Lyric'' official website["Lyric website"]
''Lyric'' official website. Retrieved 19 January 2011.)
* '' A Doll's House'' 2019
* '' Noises Off'' 2019
* '' Ghost Stories'' 2019
* ''City of Glass'', 2017
* ''The Seagull'', 2017
* ''Herons'', by Simon Stephens, 2016
* ''Cinderella'', 2015
* ''Tipping The Velvet'', 2015
* ''Bugsy Malone'', 2015
* ''Secret Theatre'', 2015
* ''Secret Theatre'', 2014
* ''Secret Theatre'', 2013
* ''Steptoe and Son'' produced by Kneehigh Theatre, 2013
* ''Metamorphosis
Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops including birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and differentiation. Some inse ...
'' by Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It typ ...
, adapted by Gísli Örn Garðarsson and David Farr, 2013
* ''Alice by Heart
''Alice by Heart'' is a musical with music by Duncan Sheik, lyrics by Steven Sater, and a book by Sater with Jessie Nelson. The musical is inspired by Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' and was originally presented by ...
'' by Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik, 2012
* ''Father Christmas
Father Christmas is the traditional English name for the personification of Christmas. Although now known as a Christmas gift-bringer, and typically considered to be synonymous with Santa Claus, he was originally part of a much older and unrela ...
'' by Raymond Briggs, adapted by Pins and Needles Productions, 2012
* ''Cinderella'' by Joel Horwood and Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, 2012
* '' Desire Under the Elms'' by Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earli ...
, 2012
* ''Morning'' by Simon Stephens, 2012
* ''Three Kingdoms'' by Simon Stephens, 2012
* ''A Midsummer Night's Dream
''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a comedy written by William Shakespeare 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict a ...
'' by William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
, 2012
* ''Lovesong'' by Abi Morgan
Abigail Louise Morgan (born 1968) is a Welsh playwright and screenwriter known for her works for television, such as ''Sex Traffic'' and '' The Hour'', and the films ''Brick Lane'', '' The Iron Lady'', '' Shame'' and '' Suffragette''.
Early l ...
, 2012
* ''Aladdin'' by Joel Horwood, Morgan Lloyd Malcolm and Steve Marmion, 2011
* '' Saved'' by Edward Bond
Edward Bond (born 18 July 1934) is an English playwright, theatre director, poet, theorist and screenwriter. He is the author of some fifty plays, among them ''Saved (play), Saved'' (1965), the production of which was instrumental in the abol ...
, 2011
* ''The Wild Bride'' created by Kneehigh Theatre, 2011
* ''Mogadishu
Mogadishu (, also ; so, Muqdisho or ; ar, مقديشو ; it, Mogadiscio ), locally known as Xamar or Hamar, is the capital and List of cities in Somalia by population, most populous city of Somalia. The city has served as an important port ...
'' by Vivienne Franzmann, 2011
* ''Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British novelist, short-story writer, poet, screenwriter, and wartime fighter ace of Norwegian descent. His books have sold more than 250 million copies worldwide. Dahl has be ...
's Twisted Tales'', 2011
* '' Dick Whittington and his Cat'', by Joel Horwood, Morgan Lloyd Malcolm and Steve Marmion, 2010
* '' Blasted'' by Sarah Kane
Sarah Kane (3 February 1971 – 20 February 1999) was an English playwright, screenwriter and theatre director. She is known for her plays that deal with themes of redemptive love, sexual desire, pain, torture—both physical and psychological ...
, 2010
* '' The Big Fella'' (21 September – 16 October 2010)
* '' Punk Rock'' by Simon Stephens, 2010
* '' Lifegame'' (7 – 17 July 2010)
* ''Tightrope
Tightrope walking, also called funambulism, is the skill of walking along a thin wire or rope. It has a long tradition in various countries and is commonly associated with the circus. Other skills similar to tightrope walking include slack rope ...
'' (17 – 19 June 2010)
* '' A Thousand Stars Explode in the Sky'' (7 May – 5 June 2010)
* Spymonkey's ''Moby Dick'' (20 April – 1 May 2010)
* ''Ghost Stories
A ghost story is any piece of fiction, or drama, that includes a ghost, or simply takes as a premise the possibility of ghosts or characters' belief in them."Ghost Stories" in Margaret Drabble (ed.), ''Oxford Companion to English Literature''. ...
'' (24 February – 3 April 2010)
* '' Three Sisters'' (6 January – 20 February 2010)
* Jack and the Beanstalk
"Jack and the Beanstalk" is an English fairy tale. It appeared as "The Story of Jack Spriggins and the Enchanted Bean" in 1734 4th edition On Commons and as Benjamin Tabart's moralized "The History of Jack and the Bean-Stalk" in 1807. Henry Co ...
(21 November 2009 – 9 January 2010
* Comedians
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolish (as in slapstick), or employing prop comedy. A comedian who addresses an audience dire ...
(7 October – 14 November 2009)
* '' Punk Rock 2009'' (3–26 September 2009)
* '' Spyski''/'' The Importance of Being Ernest'' (3 October – 1 November 2008)
* ''Christmas For the Under 7s'' (29 November 2007 – 5 January 2008)
* ''Beauty and the Beast
''Beauty and the Beast'' (french: La Belle et la Bête) is a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in ''La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins'' (''The Young American and Marine ...
'' (6 – 24 November 2007)
* ''Casanova
Giacomo Girolamo Casanova (, ; 2 April 1725 – 4 June 1798) was an Italian adventurer and author from the Republic of Venice. His autobiography, (''Story of My Life''), is regarded as one of the most authentic sources of information about the c ...
'' (16 October – 3 November 2007)
* ''Water
Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as ...
'' (25 September – 13 October 2007)
* '' Rough Crossings'' (5 – 22 September 2007)
* ''The Bacchae
''The Bacchae'' (; grc-gre, Βάκχαι, ''Bakchai''; also known as ''The Bacchantes'' ) is an ancient Greek tragedy, written by the Athenian playwright Euripides during his final years in Macedonia, at the court of Archelaus I of Macedon. ...
'' (2 – 4 August 2007)
* '' Accidental Heroes'' (21 June – 22 July 2007)
* ''Angels in America
''Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes'' is a two-part play by American playwright Tony Kushner. The work won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Tony Award for Best Play, and the Drama Desk Award f ...
: Part 2'' (20 June – 22 July 2007)
* ''Angels in America
''Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes'' is a two-part play by American playwright Tony Kushner. The work won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Tony Award for Best Play, and the Drama Desk Award f ...
: Part 1'' (7 – 9 June 2007)
* ''Elegy
An elegy is a poem of serious reflection, and in English literature usually a lament for the dead. However, according to ''The Oxford Handbook of the Elegy'', "for all of its pervasiveness ... the 'elegy' remains remarkably ill defined: sometime ...
'' (26 April – 26 May 2007)
* '' Absolute Beginners'' (3 – 14 April 2007)
* ''St George and the Dragon
In a legend, Saint Georgea soldier venerated in Christianitydefeats a dragon. The story goes that the dragon originally extorted tribute from villagers. When they ran out of livestock and trinkets for the dragon, they started giving up a human ...
'' (13 – 31 March 2007)
* ''Don't Look Now
''Don't Look Now'' ( it, A Venezia... un Dicembre rosso shocking, lit=In Venice... a shocking red December) is a 1973 English-language film in the thriller genre directed by Nicolas Roeg, adapted from the 1971 short story by Daphne du Mauri ...
'' (9 February – 10 March 2007)
* ''Ramayana
The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th to 4th centuries BCE, and later stages ...
'' (17 January – 3 February 2007)
* ''Cymbeline
''Cymbeline'' , also known as ''The Tragedie of Cymbeline'' or ''Cymbeline, King of Britain'', is a play by William Shakespeare set in Ancient Britain () and based on legends that formed part of the Matter of Britain concerning the early Celti ...
'' (23 November 2006 – 13 January 2007)
* ''Watership Down
''Watership Down'' is an adventure novel by English author Richard Adams, published by Rex Collings Ltd of London in 1972. Set in Berkshire in southern England, the story features a small group of rabbits. Although they live in their natural ...
'' (31 October – 18 November 2006)
* '' pool'' (29 September – 28 October 2006)
* ''Metamorphosis
Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops including birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and differentiation. Some inse ...
'' (16 May – 17 June 2006)
* Aurélia's ''Oratorio
An oratorio () is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists. Like most operas, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias. However, opera is ...
'' (12 – 29 April 2006)
* ''The Wolves in the Walls
''The Wolves in the Walls'' is a book by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, published in 2003, in the United States by HarperCollins, and in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury. The book was highly praised on release, winning three awards for that year ...
'' (24 February – 1 April 2006)
* ''The Odyssey
The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Iliad'', th ...
'' (20 January – 18 February 2006)
* ''Nights at the Circus Christmas
Night is the period in which the sun is below the horizon.
Night or Nights may also refer to:
People
*Candice Night (born 1971), American vocalist/lyricist
*Rebecca Night (born 1985), British actress
*M. Night Shyamalan (born 1970), Indian-born ...
'' (2 December 2005 – 14 January 2006)
* '' The Magic Carpet'' (1 – 26 November 2005)
* '' Brontë'' (1929 October 2005)
* '' Road to Nowhere'' (2 September – 15 October 2005)
* ''Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, an ...
'' (30 June – 23 July 2005)
* '' Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others'' (17 June 2005)
* ''Asterisk
The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star.
Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...
'' (1013 June 2005)
* '' Stars Are Out Tonight'' (19 April – 7 May 2005)
* ''Hymns
A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' ...
'' (30 March – 16 April 2005)
* Aurelia's ''Oratorio
An oratorio () is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists. Like most operas, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias. However, opera is ...
'' (5 – 26 March 2005)
* ''Rhinoceros
A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct specie ...
'' (18 February – 26 March 2005)
* ''A Raisin in the Sun
''A Raisin in the Sun'' is a play by Lorraine Hansberry that debuted on Broadway in 1959. The title comes from the poem "Harlem" (also known as "A Dream Deferred") by Langston Hughes. The story tells of a black family's experiences in south Chi ...
'' (27 January – 12 February 2005)
* '' Strictly Dandia Christmas'' for 7+s (26 November 2004 – 22 January 2005)
* ''The Firework-Maker's Daughter
''The Firework-Maker's Daughter'' is a children's novella by Philip Pullman. It was first published in the United Kingdom by Doubleday in 1995. The first UK edition was illustrated by Nick Harris; a subsequent edition published in the United ...
'' (2 – 20 November 2004)
* ''The Bacchae
''The Bacchae'' (; grc-gre, Βάκχαι, ''Bakchai''; also known as ''The Bacchantes'' ) is an ancient Greek tragedy, written by the Athenian playwright Euripides during his final years in Macedonia, at the court of Archelaus I of Macedon. ...
'' (30 September – 30 October 2004)
* '' Don Juan'' (14 – 25 September 2004)
* ''A Passage to India
''A Passage to India'' is a 1924 novel by English author E. M. Forster set against the backdrop of the British Raj and the Indian independence movement in the 1920s. It was selected as one of the 100 great works of 20th century English liter ...
''/National Youth Theatre
The National Youth Theatre of Great Britain (NYT) is a youth theatre and registered charity in London. Its aim is to develop and nurture young people through creative arts and theatrical productions. Founded in 1956 as the world's first youth the ...
Guest Season/'' The Master and Margarita'' (20 August – 11 September 2004)
* ''Aladdin
Aladdin ( ; ar, علاء الدين, ', , ATU 561, ‘Aladdin') is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with ''The Book of One Thousand and One Nights'' (''The Arabian Nights''), despite not being part o ...
'' by Sandy Wilson
Alexander Galbraith "Sandy" Wilson (19 May 1924 – 27 August 2014) was an English composer and lyricist, best known for his musical '' The Boy Friend'' (1953).
Biography
Wilson was born in Sale, Cheshire, England, and was educated at Harrow S ...
, 1979
Artistic directors of the Lyric Hammersmith
References
External links
*
Lyric
' – Official website of the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre.
Artistic Associates Named
*The collection o
Lyric Theatre Hammersmith box office returns
from 1964 to 1966 is held by the Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
Theatre and Performance Department.
History of the Lyric, Hammersmith
{{Authority control
Theatres in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham
Producing house theatres in London
Theatres completed in 1895
Rebuilt buildings and structures in the United Kingdom
Theatres completed in 1979
Hammersmith