We look back on 160 years of Nottingham’s Theatre Royal and some of the famous productions and people it has brought to the city…
The Theatre Royal was originally commissioned in 1865 by Nottingham-born lace manufacturing brothers John and William Lambert. The Lambert brothers had inherited their family business and grown it by diversifying into fancy hosiery and lace. They both had a taste for the theatre and in planning documentation from the time, it was stated “Messrs. Lambert were actuated by a desire to elevate the popular taste, and erect a theatre worthy of their native town.”
The initial theatre build cost them £15,000 (about £2.5 million in today’s money) and designer and architect Charles J. Phipps was employed to make it happen. As you would expect the building has changed quite a lot over the last sixteen decades, but it was Phipps who designed the classic façade and Corinthian columns, which remain to this day as a major Nottingham landmark.
The opening night was Monday 25 September 1865 and the first show was The School for Scandal, a comedy of manners written by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. The show was directed by US-born Walter Montgomery - starring a cast of well-known actors poached from other provincial theatres of the time. That year also saw the theatre’s first ever pantomime: The House That Jack Built. According to the Nottingham Journal, an audience surpassing 2000 watched it on Boxing Day. The Lambert brothers received “a perfect furore of applause, which both men graciously responded to by bowing their acknowledgements from the box.”
The theatre became a success and continued through new generations. From 1888 to 1927, a statue of local MP and philanthropist Samuel Morley stood directly outside the venue. However, as cars started to become popular the statue was deemed as a traffic hazard and plans were made to move it to the Arboretum. Unfortunately, it was broken in transit and a new one had to be commissioned - now sitting on Waverley Street.
In 1897, the renowned architect Frank Matcham, now widely regarded as the greatest of all British theatre architects, was hired to refurbish the Theatre Royal. Over 16 weeks he installed electric lighting and increased the capacity to 3,000. He also removed Phipps’ original dressing rooms making way for a new theatre next door: the Empire, which stands in the space we now know as the Royal Concert Hall. Both theatres were part of the Moss Empires chain, who within a decade had around fifty different theatres around the country. The Empire opened in 1898 and early performers there included Houdini and WC Fields. A third venue, the Nottingham Hippodrome, also opened on the same block in 1908. With the presence of three major large venues all next door to each other, the area we now know as Theatre Square was born. In that era before cinema, radio and TV, live theatre was a great evening of entertainment for those who could afford it.
The Nottingham Hippodrome became a cinema in 1927, but The Empire and the Theatre Royal continued, surviving two World Wars. Performers at the Empire in the 1940s and 1950s included Arthur Askey, Tommy Trinder, Vera Lynn, Laurel & Hardy, Morecambe & Wise, Ken Dodd, and Des O'Connor. For two decades they brought in big names while the Theatre Royal concentrated on the more serious business of ballet, opera and drama. At one point in the Second World War, the Theatre Royal was used as an air raid shelter.
On Monday 6 October 1952, a production of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap premiered at the Theatre Royal starring Richard Attenborough. After its Nottingham-run, that play transferred to the West End, running until 16 March 2020, only stopping for the COVID-19 pandemic. The play resumed in May 2021, and has become by far the longest running play in the world, reaching its 30,000th performance in March 2025 - it all began in Notts.
In 1954, the Theatre Royal staged a production of South Pacific, which included Sean Connery in his first professional theatre role. In 1958, Moss Empires started to lose interest in live theatre due to the success of cinema and TV and the Empire Theatre was closed and left to stand empty for over a decade. In July 1964, the satirical revue show Beyond the Fringe, visited with its stars Peter Cooke, Dudley Moore, and Alan Bennett.
In March 1965, the Theatre Royal celebrated its centenary with performances from Albert Finney, Ian McKellen, Derek Jacobi, and Maggie Smith in Much Ado About Nothing and Peter O’Toole in Ride a Cock Horse. On 1 May 1967 a production of The Royal Hunt of the Sun was performed by a cast which included Anthony Hopkins and Derek Jacobi. Later that year on 3 December, a young American guitarist and singer called Jimi Hendrix played at the Theatre - his third and final gig in Nottingham.
In 1978, Princess Anne visited for its grand re-opening. Soon after this, plans began to build a new space next door where the Empire had been. This became the Royal Concert Hall, which opened in November 1982 with a gig from none other than Elton John
However, despite beating off its rivals the theatre had at this point earned the dubious reputation as one of the worst theatres for backstage conditions in the country. In 1969, the city council bought it and the derelict Empire building next door was also finally demolished. The future of the theatre looked unclear for several years, particularly as those whippersnappers at the Nottingham Playhouse theatre had launched in the old Nottingham Hippodrome building in 1948, before moving to their current site in 1963.
However, in 1977 the council finally took the plunge and green-lighted a major front and back of house renovation which is said to have cost £5.5 million and required the closure of the theatre for eleven months.
In 1978, Princess Anne visited for its grand re-opening. Soon after this, plans began to build a new space next door where the Empire had been. This became the Royal Concert Hall, which opened on 27 November 1982 with a gig from none other than Elton John. With its ground-breaking design and innovative acoustics, the Royal Concert Hall was believed to be the most high-tech UK music venue of its time. Performers who have played there since include U2 (1983), Tom Jones (1983), The Police (1983), The Smiths (1986), Duran Duran (1989), Kylie Minogue (1991), Victoria Wood (2001), Pet Shop Boys (2007), Billy Connolly (2007), and One Direction (2012).
Other major names who have performed in plays at the Theatre Royal over the years include Bela Lugosi (1951), Leslie Phillips (1971), Judi Dench (1982), Rowan Atkinson (1984), Les Dawson (1986), Mark Rylance (1988), Peter Ustinov (1994), Leslie Neilsen (2000), Penelope Keith (1997), Joan Collins (2004), Rosamund Pike (2010), and David Suchet (2015).
As mentioned the annual pantomime has been part of the fabric since it first opened. Well-known names who have been part of panto productions at the Theatre Royal include: Dick Emery (1947), Julie Andrews (1950), Tony Hancock (1950), Reg Varney (1964), John Inman (1978), Windsor Davies (1979), Barbara Windsor (1981), Su Pollard (1983), Bernard Bresslaw (1985), Frank Bruno (1990), Russ Abbot (1996), Lionel Blair (1999), Chuckle Brothers (2000), Cannon and Ball (2001), Leslie Grantham (2003), Christopher Biggins (2006), David Hasselhoff (2013), Les Dennis (2019), and Gok Wan (2024).
In 2015, as the theatre celebrated its 150th anniversary with a community production of The School For Scandal. A royal visit was also paid by HRH The Earl of Wessex Prince Edward. Now ten years on, it’s time for Notts-born writer and theatre royalty James Graham, who worked stage door for a year at the venue in 2003, to bring his epic production Dear England here for its 160th. Many happy returns to the Theatre Royal!
Much of the information in this article was gathered from the excellent Our Theatre Royal Archive website, which is available to view at ourtheatreroyal.org
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