London Palladium

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The London Palladium is one of the most famous of London's West End theatres, and one of the largest, with 2,286 seats. Since 1914 it has hosted the annual Royal Variety Performance, the most prestigious British variety event.

1 Building
2 History
3 Trivia
4 External links

[edit] Building

The grade II listed building dates from 1910, although the facade (originally that of Argyll House) dates back to the 18th century. The theatre was designed by Frank Matcham, a famous theatrical architect who also designed the London Coliseum, for a site that previously housed Hengler’s Circus. The building now carries Heritage Foundation commemorative plaques honouring Lew Grade and Frankie Vaughan.

[edit] History

[edit] Pre-war

The theatre started out as The Palladium, a premier venue for variety performances. From 1928 it was managed by George Black, and during the 1930s became the regular home for The Crazy Gang. The ‘London’ part of the name was added in 1934. Black controlled the large Moss Empires group of theatres. Responsible for bookings at the London Palladium was Val Parnell.

[edit] The Val Parnell era

Val Parnell took over as Managing Director in 1945. He adopted a controversial, but very successful, policy of presenting high-priced big-name acts, including Petula Clark, Judy Garland, Sophie Tucker, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., Frankie Laine, Johnnie Ray, and Norman Vaughan.

From 1955-1967 the theatre was the setting for the top-rated ITV variety show Sunday Night at the London Palladium hosted first by Tommy Trinder, then by Bruce Forsyth. The programme was broadcast live every week by ATV, which was owned by the famous theatrical impresario Lew Grade. Production was by Val Parnell.

Val Parnell became associated with a property development company and began to sell Moss Empires' theatres for redevelopment. When it became known in 1966 that this fate awaited the London Palladium, The Victoria Palace and even the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, Prince Littler organised a take-over to save the theatres and Val Parnell retired to live in France.

[edit] Post-Parnell

In January 1973, glam rock band Slade played a gig in the theatre which resulted in the venue's balcony nearly collapsing. In 1977, Marvin Gaye recorded his live concert on a Double LP Entitled Marvin Gaye Live at the London Palladium in which is considered Gaye at his finest while recording a live album, it also included his number one hit "Got to Give It Up".

In the late 1980s the venue was once again the setting for the popular ITV1 variety show, Live from the Palladium, compered by Jimmy Tarbuck.

During this time, the theatre was under the ownership of the Stall Moss Theatres Group.

[edit] The Really Useful era

In 2000, ownership of the theatre changed once again when it was acquired by Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group. This was followed by a revival of Rodgers & Hammerstein's The King and I starring Elaine Paige.

In 2002, the famous (but outdated) revolving stage was removed to make way for more modern technology.

From 2002 to 4 September 2005, the Palladium played host to a theatrical version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with songscore by the Sherman Brothers. Throughout its three and a half year run at the venue, the production starred many celebrities including Michael Ball, Richard O'Brien, Russ Abbott, Brian Blessed, Brian Conley, Gary Wilmot, Paul O'Grady, Derek Griffiths, Stephen Gately, Wayne Sleep, Lionel Blair and the final cast on Jason Donovan, Jo Gibb, Christopher Biggins, Louise Gold, Tony Adams and Alvin Stardust as the Childcatcher. This show proved to be the most successful show to date, in the theatre's long history.

For Christmas 2005-6, the venue played host to Bill Kenwright's production of Scrooge - The Musical which closed on 14 January 2006. The show starred Tommy Steele who returned once again to the Palladium. Since February 2006, the theatre has played host to a new musical production entitled Sinatra At The London Palladium, which features a live band, large screen projections and dancers performing Frank Sinatra's greatest hits. In January 2007 Scrooge - The Musical will also be following Chitty to the Liverpool Empire.

Andrew Lloyd Webber and David Ian's new production of The Sound of Music will open at the theatre in November 2006.

[edit] Trivia

Appearing on Heavy Weather, along with Joe Zawinul's Birdland, is Wayne Shorter's composition "Palladium" (which is, of course, a tribute to the London Palladium), the lesser known of the two Weather Report songs about music venues. ^{[citation needed]}