18-541: Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre built 1889 commissioned by W. S. Gilbert. Garrick Theatre may also refer to: Garrick Theatre The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre , located in Charing Cross Road , in the City of Westminster , named after the stage actor David Garrick . It opened in 1889 with The Profligate , a play by Arthur Wing Pinero , and another Pinero play, The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith ,
36-712: A teenager, Toms first studied at the Mansfield College of Art in Mansfield where he met and befriended Alan Tagg , who would also become a notable stage designer. They were both greatly influenced by a young teacher from Yorkshire , Hazel Hemsworth . Toms left Mansfield in the early 1940s to serve in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps during World War II . After the war, he went to the Royal College of Art where he studied with Cecil Beaton among others. Toms left
54-739: The English Stage Company . In 1969, Toms was appointed consultant for the Investiture of the Prince of Wales , for which he received the Order of the British Empire . There followed commissions to redecorate several West End theatres including the Theatre Royal, Windsor , and, most notably, the Theatre Royal, Bath , which he restored to its former glory in 1982. In 1990 he took on the task of restoring
72-580: The GLC in 1968 saw the theatre under threat, together with the nearby Vaudeville , Adelphi , Lyceum , and Duchess Theatres. An active campaign by Equity , the Musicians' Union , and theatre owners under the auspices of the Save London Theatres Campaign led to the abandonment of the scheme. The gold-leaf auditorium was restored in 1986 by the stage designer Carl Toms , and in 1997 the front façade
90-806: The Old Vic and the National Theatre , where he designed sets and costumes for Shakespeare 's Love's Labour's Lost , Marlowe 's Edward II , Neil Simon 's Brighton Beach Memoirs , and The Provok'd Wife for which Toms won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Set Design . He also worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company , where he designed the 1989 production of the Kaufman-Hart comedy The Man Who Came to Dinner and John Osborne 's A Patriot for Me . Toms also worked frequently with
108-924: The Richmond Theatre in Richmond, London , which had been designed by Frank Matcham . In 1970, Toms began to work in the American theatre and won a Tony Award and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design in 1975 for his production design of Sherlock Holmes . During this time, Toms met and befriended Tom Stoppard with whom he would work frequently on plays in both New York and London productions. Toms worked with Stoppard on such plays as Travesties , Night and Day , The Real Thing , Jumpers , and Hapgood among others. Toms' more recent design works included productions of two Edward Albee plays, Three Tall Women (1994) and A Delicate Balance (1997), and
126-531: The seating capacity reduced to 656. The theatre's first manager was Gilbert's friend John Hare . The first play at the theatre, The Profligate , by Arthur Wing Pinero and starring Hare, opened on 24 April 1889. Sydney Grundy 's long-running French-style comedy A Pair of Spectacles opened here in February 1890. Mrs Patrick Campbell starred five years later in Pinero's The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith . Afterwards,
144-567: The Garrick Theatre, and it became one of five playhouses operating under their company name of Nimax Theatres Ltd, alongside the Lyric Theatre , Apollo Theatre , Vaudeville Theatre and Duchess Theatre . The interior retains many of its original features, and was Grade II* listed by English Heritage in September 1960. Carl Toms Carl Toms OBE (29 May 1927 – 4 August 1999)
162-592: The Royal College of Art to train under Margaret Harris , George Devine and Michel Saint-Denis at the Old Vic School in the late 1940s. It was Harris, however, who influenced the next major course of his life by introducing Toms to Oliver Messel with whom he would eventually apprentice with from 1952 to 1957. Toms' first job under Messel was to make models for a penthouse suite at the Dorchester Hotel . At
180-635: The Royal National Theatre's Lyttelton and Olivier theatres as well as the Aldwych Theatre and a season on Broadway . In 1986, the Garrick was acquired by the Stoll Moss Group , and in 2000 it became a Really Useful Theatre when Andrew Lloyd Webber 's Really Useful Group and Bridgepoint Capital purchased Stoll Moss Theatres Ltd. In October 2005, Nica Burns and Max Weitzenhoffer purchased
198-774: The masks and models Toms made during this period are now on display at the Theatre Museum in Covent Garden which display this influence. After leaving Messel in 1958, Toms worked on the opera Susanna's Secret for the Glyndebourne Festival and for various West End theatre productions. In 1960 he designed the world premiere of Benjamin Britten 's opera A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Aldeburgh Festival . He then worked with many English non-profit companies, including
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#1732851091860216-489: The same time Messel was working on a new ballet for the Royal Opera House commissioned to mark the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II , and three successive operas at Glyndebourne Festival , all of which Toms assisted on. Messel had a strong interest and passion for French culture which highly influenced his work. As a result, Toms' work became highly influenced by French designers, painters, and musicians as well. Many of
234-559: The theatre suffered a short period of decline until it was leased by Arthur Bourchier for six years, whose wife, Violet Vanbrugh , starred in a series of successful productions ranging from farce to Shakespeare . In 1900, the theatre hosted J. M. Barrie 's The Wedding Guest . Rutland Barrington presented several stage works at the Garrick, including his popular "fairy play" called Water Babies in 1902, based on Charles Kingsley 's book , with music by Alfred Cellier , among others. The only piece actually premiered by W. S. Gilbert here
252-795: Was Harlequin and the Fairy's Dilemma (retitled The Fairy's Dilemma after a few days), a "Domestic Pantomime" (1904). In 1921, Basil Rathbone played Dr. Lawson in The Edge o' Beyond at the Garrick, and the following year Sir Seymour Hicks appeared in his own play, The Man in Dress Clothes . In 1925, Henry Daniell played there as Jack Race in Cobra and appeared there again as Paul Cortot in Marriage by Purchase in March 1932. A proposed redevelopment of Covent Garden by
270-458: Was a British set and costume designer who was known for his work in theatre, opera, ballet, and film. Carl Toms was born in 1927 at Kirkby-in-Ashfield , Nottinghamshire, England. His parents were both tailors and neither of them entirely approved of Toms' choice to work in the theatre, preferring that he become an architect. Even after he had made his name in the theatre, his mother would still ask when he intended to get "proper" employment. As
288-599: Was an early success at the theatre. In its early years, the Garrick appears to have specialised in the performance of melodrama . The theatre later became associated with comedies, including No Sex Please, We're British , which played for four years from 1982 to 1986. There was previously another theatre that was sometimes called the Garrick in London, in Leman Street, opened in 1831 and demolished in 1881. The new Garrick Theatre
306-484: Was financed in 1889 by the playwright W. S. Gilbert , the author of over 75 plays, including the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas . It was designed by Walter Emden , with C. J. Phipps brought in as a consultant to help with the planning on the difficult site after an underground river was discovered in the excavation. Originally the theatre had 800 seats on four levels, but the gallery (top) level has since been closed and
324-565: Was renovated. The theatre has mostly been associated with comedies or comedy-dramas. More recent productions are listed below and include No Sex Please, We're British (1982), which played for four years at the theatre before transferring to the Duchess Theatre in 1986. In 1995, the Royal National Theatre 's multi-award-winning production of J. B. Priestley 's An Inspector Calls opened here, having played successful seasons at
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