14 WhitehallTrafalgar Theatre is a new West End theatre in Whitehall, near Trafalgar Square, in the City of Westminster, London. It is set to open in spring 2021 following a major multi-million-pound restoration project aiming to reinstate it back to its original heritage design. The musical Jersey Boys was opened the new Trafalgar Theatre on 10 August 2021. It is a jukebox musical, presented in a documentary-style format that dramatizes the formation, success and eventual break-up of the 1960s rock 'n' roll group The Four Seasons.
The Grade II listed building was built in 1930 with interiors in the Art Deco style as the Whitehall Theatre; it regularly staged comedies and revues. It was converted into a television and radio studio in the 1990s, before returning to theatrical use in 2004 as Trafalgar Studios, the name it bore until 2020.
“A new venue that’s changing the shape of the West End.” The Times
Trafalgar Studios opened on 26th May 2004 and, with two auditoria under a single roof, was the first theatre of its kind in the heart of London’s West End.
Offering audiences a chance to see theatre that would not otherwise have found a place in the West End, Trafalgar Studio 1 opened with the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Othello, starring Antony Sher as Iago. This was followed by John Doyle’s acclaimed Watermill production of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, the jazz and blues musical Simply Heavenly from the Young Vic, Losing Louis starring Alison Steadman and Shoot The Crow starring James Nesbitt. The following year, the RSC returned with their Gunpowder Season before Alan Cumming made his return to the London stage in the first major revival of Bent. Over the following years highlights have included Rik Mayall in the title role of The New Statesman: Alan B’stard’s Extremely Secret Weapon; Lee Evans and Jason Isaacs in the 50th Anniversary production of Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter; the dramatization of the abolition of the slave trade, African Snow; the hit comedy Elling, starring John Simm and Adrian Bower; A Night in November starring Warren Mitchell; Riflemind directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman; Entertaining Mr Sloane, starring Imelda Staunton and Mathew Horne; The Mountaintop and Othello starring Lenny Henry.
With a reputation for fresh and challenging new work, Trafalgar Studios started to build a loyal following. In 2013 James McAvoy took to the Studio 1 stage in Jamie Lloyd’s ground breaking production of Macbeth, which launched the much anticipated first season of Trafalgar Transformed. The season also featured Simon Russell Beale and John Simm in The Hothouse, and The Pride starring Hayley Atwell. Sir Richard Eyre’s award-winning production of Ibsen’s Ghosts, with Lesley Manville, followed, before the second season of Trafalgar Transformed with Martin Freeman in the title role of Jamie Lloyd’s production of Richard III. This was followed by East is East, with Jane Horrocks, before James McAvoy returned in The Ruling Class. The critically acclaimed Golem and Robert Icke’s stunning production of Oresteia then graced the Studio 1 stage in 2015 with Jamie Lloyd making his directorial return to the venue that year with The Homecoming and his contemporary adaptation of Jean Genet’s masterpiece The Maids, starring Uzo Aduba. Studio 1 was also home to the hugely successful razor-sharp comedy The Spoils, written by and starring Jesse Eisenberg together with Sam Shepard’s American classic Buried Child, starring Ed Harris. 2017 welcomed Stockard Channing to the stage in Apologia, directed by Jamie Lloyd. The greatly acclaimed new British musical The Grinning Man brought us in to 2018 and was followed by Orlando Bloom starring in Tracy Lett’s Killer Joe as well as the transfers of sell out new British productions, the Bush Theatre’s Misty and National Theatre’s Nine Night.