The Apollo Victoria Theatre is a West End theatre best known for hosting long-running musicals such as Starlight Express, and since 2006, the hit musical Wicked.
Commonly known as the Apollo Victoria, the spectacular venue can hold over 2,300 people and is ideally located right near Victoria Station. It is a stunning Art Deco theatre with a heritage dating back to 1929, when it opened as a state-of-the-art cinema, commissioned by Provincial Cinematograph Theatres (PCT) to accommodate the growing popularity of ‘talking pictures’. Known as the New Victoria Cinema, the building was renowned as a place to watch film, big band and variety performances. It also showed some of the first broadcasts of a fledging BBC!
In 1975, the building was refurbished and shifted its focus on to more musical content. A concert celebrated the new opening, starring Dame Shirley Bassey as the headline act. In the late 1970’s and 80’s, the theatre hosted a series of well-loved musicals, including Fiddler on the Roof, The Sound of Music and Camelot, before becoming the venue for the premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Starlight Express. The interior of the auditorium was completely redesigned for the production, with race tracks running through the audience and modifications to incorporate a split-level roller-skating rink. Starlight Express played at the theatre for an incredible 18 years before finally closing in 2002.
Get your tickets to see Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre and you can experience this fantastic theatre for yourself.