The Lyric Theatre is the oldest surviving theatre on the famous Shaftesbury Avenue and was designed by the architect C. J. Phipps in an ornate Renaissance design. The theatre opened in 1888, a decade which saw a London theatre building boom with 12 new theatres being built. The first production at the Lyric was a transfer of the light comic opera Dorothy , which was already a hit at the nearby Prince of Wales Theatre and helped to finance the building of the Lyric.
Over the years many successful musicals and plays have been staged at the Lyric Theatre, including Alan Ayckbourn’s How the Other Half Loves in 1970, the London premiere of the musical Blood Brothers in 1983, and a 2007 revival of Cabaret starring James Dreyfuss and Julian Clary.
The theatre was the home of the hugely successful Michael Jackson tribute show Thriller Live , which despite being panned by critics played at the Lyric for over 10 years before closing in early 2020. The show became one of the longest-running productions in West End history, playing over 4,500 performances.
The Lyric Theatre is one of two major venues in London with this name; the other, Lyric Hammersmith , is located in Hammersmith in West London and produces a wide range of shows – many of which transfer to the West End or on tour.
