Prince Edward Theatre

The Prince Edward Theatre is a West End theatre situated on Old Compton Street, just north of Leicester Square, in the City of Westminster, LondonHistoryThe theatre was designed in 1930 by Edward A. Stone, with an interior designed by Marc-Henri Levy and Gaston Laverdet. Named after Prince Edward (then the Prince of Wales, briefly Edward VIII and later Duke of Windsor), it opened on 3 April 1930 with a performance of the musical Rio Rita. Other notable events in its opening years included the London debut of famed cabaret artiste Josephine Baker, who performed her famous 'Bananas Dance'.In 1935, Stone converted the theatre to a dance and cabaret hall, being renamed the "London Casino".As the London Casino, it was badly damaged and all its windows lost in London's worst air raid of WWII on 10 May 1941. All neighbouring buildings directly across Greek Street were destroyed.In 1942, stage alterations were undertaken by Thomas Braddock, re-opening as the "Queensberry All Services Club" in 1942 – a club for servicemen where the shows were broadcast on the BBC. After the war, the architects T. and E. Braddock restored the building to theatrical use, becoming the "London Casino" once again — when the King of Yiddish Music Leo Fuld was a major attraction.CineramaThe three projector, very wide screen Cinerama process had made its debut in New York in September 1952 with This Is Cinerama, a spectacular travelogue designed to make the most of the process and an enormous box office success. For the UK debut of the system, the Cinerama Corporation chose the Casino Theatre and in 1954 architects Frank Baessler and T. and E. Braddock drew up plans for the conversion, which required the installation of three separate projection boxes at stalls level and a 65ft wide by 26ft high deeply curved screen in front of the proscenium. Five speakers behind the screen and others around the auditorium supported the system's seven track stereophonic sound. Many front stalls seats were removed and others were lost by the installation of the projection boxes. The sightlines from the upper circle would have been too poor and it was taken out of use. Seating capacity was reduced to 1,337.