Noël Coward Theatre

The Noël Coward Theatre, formerly known as the Albery Theatre, is a West End theatre in St. Martin's Lane in the City of Westminster, London. It opened on 12 March 1903 as the New Theatre and was built by Sir Charles Wyndham behind Wyndham's Theatre which was completed in 1899. The building was designed by the architect W. G. R. Sprague with an exterior in the classical style and an interior in the Rococo style.

In 1973, it was renamed the Albery Theatre in tribute to Sir Bronson Albery who had presided as its manager for many years. Since September 2005, the theatre has been owned by Delfont-Mackintosh Ltd. It underwent major refurbishment in 2006 and was renamed the Noël Coward Theatre when it re-opened on 1 June 2006. The building is a Grade II Listed structure.

The New was the second of the three theatres in St Martin's Lane. The Trafalgar Square (now the Duke of York's) opened in 1892 and the London Coliseum in 1904. The actor-manager Charles Wyndham, who had been based at the Criterion Theatre for more than twenty years, moved in 1899 to the larger Wyndham's Theatre which he commissioned in Charing Cross Road. To build Wyndham's, he had been obliged to buy a larger parcel of land than he required, and in 1901 he was in negotiations to sell the area he did not need. When negotiations fell through, he decided to build another theatre on the vacant site. This plot fronting on St Martin's Lane is bounded on one side by St Martin's Court, which also runs behind the theatre. While the theatre was in planning and then under construction it was referred to simply as "the new theatre", and the name stuck. The street adjacent to it is called New Row.

The theatre, like Wyndham's, was designed by the architect W.G.R. Sprague, and was the thirtieth theatre he designed. A contemporary report described the front elevation as "of the free classic order … at once dignified and effective". As at Wyndhams, the auditorium is constructed on the cantilever principle, rendering columns unnecessary and ensuring unimpeded views. The internal decoration was based on French designs from the 18th century. Over the Proscenium there is a gilt trophy emblematic of peace and music.

The New Theatre opened on 12 March 1903 with a brief season consisting of a revival of Rosemary – a play by Louis N. Parker and Murray Carson, starring Wyndham and his partner (later wife) Mary Moore – and a special matinée of Wyndham's best-known production, David Garrick. The following month Johnston Forbes-Robertson transferred his production of The Light that Failed from the Lyric, after which there were seasons featuring Mrs Patrick Campbell and then Cyril Maude. Fred Terry and Julia Neilson played an annual season of about six months at the New from 1905 to 1913, including many revivals of their great success, The Scarlet Pimpernel. Between these seasons, productions at the New Theatre included Amasis, a comic opera by Frederick Fenn and Philip Michael Faraday (1906), with Ruth Vincent, and Count Hannibal (1910). In 1911, Terry presented As You Like It and Romeo and Juliet to introduce his daughter Phyllis to the stage. Between then and the First World War, the theatre featured comedies and musical comedies.

Dion Boucicault Jr., became manager in December 1915 and opened with a revival of Peter Pan, revived each Christmas season until 1919. He produced a series of successes including new plays by Somerset Maugham, J. M. Barrie, Arthur Wing Pinero and A.A. Milne. Leon M. Lion presented a season in 1918–19 in which Katharine Cornell made her only appearance on the London stage, playing Jo in a dramatisation of Little Women.

I'll Leave It to You, in 1920, was Noël Coward's first staged play, and ran at the New for 37 performances. Matheson Lang was associated with the New for several years, presenting and playing in Shakespeare and modern dramas. The London premiere of Bernard Shaw's St. Joan starring Sybil Thorndike followed in 1924.

In July 1925, Robert Atkins took over management of the New, presenting Israel Zangwill's We Moderns. The following year and for most of 1927 the New was home to a dramatisation of Margaret Kennedy's The Constant Nymph, which ran for 587 performances, starring first Coward and then the young John Gielgud as Lewis Dodd. Towards the end of the decade, two comedies by P. G. Wodehouse and Ian Hay – A Damsel in Distress (1928), and Baa Baa Black Sheep (1929) ran for 234 and 115 performances respectively.