109-721: The Peacock Theatre (previously the Royalty Theatre ) is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster , located in Portugal Street, near Aldwych . The 999-seat house is owned by, and comprises part of the London School of Economics and Political Science campus, who use the theatre for lectures, public talks, conferences, political speeches and open days. The university has a long lease with London's principal centre for contemporary dance , Sadler's Wells , with whom it has negotiated
218-877: A Harkins theater, then closed in 1989 to make way for the Scottsdale Galleria. Venues outside the United States included the Regent Plaza cinema in Melbourne, Australia, which was adapted for Cinerama in 1960 to show This Is Cinerama and Seven Wonders of the World . The Imperial Theatre in Montreal and the Glendale in Toronto were the Canadian homes for Cinerama. A Cinerama temporary venue
327-402: A bit of improvisation on the part of the film producers. It was not possible to film any scene where any part of the scene was close to the camera, as the fields of view no longer met exactly. Further, any close-up material had a noticeable bend in it at the joins. It was also difficult to film actors talking to each other where both were in shot, because when they looked at each other when filmed,
436-415: A black slug exactly equal to the missing footage. Otherwise, the corresponding frames would have had to be cut from the other three films (the other two picture films plus the soundtrack film) in order to preserve synchronization. The use of zoom lenses was impossible since the three images would no longer match. Perhaps the greatest limitation of the process is that the picture looks natural only from within
545-606: A ceiling which routed air and heating through small vent slots to inhibit noise from the building's ventilation equipment. It was demolished in 1994 to make way for a Barnes & Noble . The second, also called the Cooper Theater, was built in St. Louis Park at 5755 Wayzata Boulevard. The last film presented there was Dances with Wolves in January 1991. At that time the Cooper was considered
654-520: A deal to bring in dance companies under the banner 'Sadler's Wells in the West End'. The venue often plays host to dance performances, conferences, ballet, pop concerts and award ceremonies. The stage is approximately 36 feet (11 m) by 33 feet (10 m). A theatre has stood on the site since the 17th century. Known as Gibbon's Tennis Court , or the Vere Street Theatre. Mrs Hughes became
763-454: A few days after the system premiered, film critic Bosley Crowther wrote: Somewhat the same sensations that the audience in Koster and Bial's Music Hall must have felt on that night, years ago, when motion pictures were first publicly flashed on a large screen were probably felt by the people who witnessed the first public showing of Cinerama the other night...the shrill screams of the ladies and
872-659: A few weeks of revivals ( Quo Vadis and Gigi ) MGM closed the theatre on 3 August. The lease was taken over by the Cinerama Corporation and the theatre was then equipped for screening three-strip Cinerama films becoming London's third Cinerama theatre (the others being the Casino Cinerama and the Coliseum Cinerama ). The first presentation was The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm which transferred from
981-522: A high proportion of straight drama, Shakespeare , other classic plays and premieres of new plays by leading playwrights—for example David Hare 's play Pravda starring Anthony Hopkins which was described by The Telegraph as "one of the biggest hits in the history of the National Theatre." Successful productions from the non-commercial theatres sometimes transfer to one of the commercial West End houses for an extended run. The Royal Opera House
1090-486: A huge, deeply curved screen, subtending 146-degrees of arc. The trademarked process was marketed by the Cinerama corporation. It was the first of several novel processes introduced during the 1950s when the movie industry was reacting to competition from television. Cinerama was presented to the public as a theatrical event, with reserved seating and printed programs, and audience members often dressed in their best attire for
1199-578: A leading light comedian. During the 1950s and 1960s, many plays were produced in theatre clubs, to evade the censorship then exercised by the Lord Chamberlain's Office . The Theatres Act 1968 finally abolished censorship of the stage in the United Kingdom. "Theatreland", London's main theatre district, contains approximately 40 venues and is located in and near the heart of the West End of London . It
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#17328549819971308-566: A play adapted from the novella A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens —who came to several stage rehearsals during which he made suggestions—with his book published weeks earlier in December 1843. The Criterion Theatre opened on Piccadilly Circus on 21 March 1874, and in 1881, two more houses appeared: the Savoy Theatre in The Strand, built by Richard D'Oyly Carte specifically to showcase
1417-506: A rather limited "sweet spot." Viewed from outside the sweet spot, the picture can look distorted. Furthermore, while the screen was a continuous curve, the projected image itself was a polygonal triptych , which often resulted in the combined image appearing bent or creased. Finally, any mis-alignment of the two intersections of the three films was quite noticeable which prompted the use of a vertical element at these intersections (tree, lamp pole, etc) to hide this flaw. The system also required
1526-621: A record-breaking nine Olivier Awards in 2017. "Theatre is such an important part of British history and British culture" —Dame Helen Mirren after receiving the Evening Standard Award in 2013 for her performance as the Queen in The Audience . The following shows are confirmed as future West End productions. The theatre in which they will run is either not yet known or currently occupied by another show. The term "West End theatre"
1635-422: A showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan —was entirely lit by electricity in 1881. The Society of London Theatre (SOLT) announced that 2018 was a record year for the capital's theatre industry with attendances topping 15.5 million for the first time since the organisation began collecting audience data in 1986. Box office revenues exceeded £765 million. While attendance in 2019
1744-482: A tank at the theatre for three months for a show called 'The Royalty Folies', which was later renamed 'The Great International Nude Show'. However, neither of these animals died while at the theatre and at the close of the show the animals were moved to a dolphinarium in the East Asia. The remnants of the tank and its lifting equipment still remain below the stage and numerous visitors to the theatre claim to have heard in
1853-401: A vertical Venetian blind , to prevent light projected to each end of the screen from reflecting to the opposite end and washing out the image. This was a big-ticket, reserved-seats spectacle, and the Cinerama projectors were adjusted carefully and operated skillfully. To prevent adjacent images from creating an over-illuminated vertical band where they overlapped on the screen, vibrating combs in
1962-605: Is Les Misérables , produced by Cameron Mackintosh , which has been running in London since October 1985. It overtook Andrew Lloyd Webber 's Cats , which closed in 2002 after running for 8,949 performances and 21 years, as the longest-running West End musical of all time on 9 October 2006. Other long-runners include Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera , Willy Russell 's Blood Brothers , and Abba jukebox musical Mamma Mia! which have also subsequently overtaken Cats . However,
2071-457: Is frankly and exclusively "sensational," in the literal sense of that word. While observing that the system "may be hailed as providing a new and valid entertainment thrill," Crowther expressed some skeptical reserve, saying "the very size and sweep of the Cinerama screen would seem to render it impractical for the story-telling techniques now employed in film...It is hard to see how Cinerama can be employed for intimacy. But artists found ways to use
2180-754: Is generally used to refer specifically to commercial productions in Theatreland. However, the leading non-commercial theatres in London enjoy great artistic prestige. These include the National Theatre , the Barbican Centre , Shakespeare's Globe (including the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse ), the Old Vic , Royal Court Theatre , Sadler's Wells Theatre , and the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre . These theatres stage
2289-405: Is most noted as the home of one of the West End's most unusual ghosts, a dolphin commonly known as 'Flipper'. An urban myth has grown up that, during one of Paul Raymond 's revues at the theatre in the 1970s, a dolphin was kept in a tank beneath the stage, where it lived permanently and later died from neglect. In fact, this is not true. Two dolphins called 'Pennie' and 'Pixie' were indeed kept in
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#17328549819972398-435: Is nothing new about these stereophonic sound effects. The Bell Telephone Laboratories and Professor Harold Burris-Meyer of Stevens Institute of Technology demonstrated the underlying principles years ago." Kaempffert also noted: There is no question that Waller has made a notable advance in cinematography. But it must be said that at the sides of his gigantic screen there is some distortion more noticeable in some parts of
2507-627: Is traditionally defined by the Strand to the south, Oxford Street to the north, Regent Street to the west, and Kingsway to the east. However, a few other nearby theatres are also considered "West End" despite being outside the area proper; an example is The Apollo Victoria Theatre , in Westminster . Prominent theatre streets include Drury Lane , Shaftesbury Avenue and the Strand. The works staged are predominantly musicals, classic and modern straight plays , and comedy performances. Many theatres in
2616-680: Is widely regarded as one of the greatest opera houses in the world, comparable with the Palais Garnier and La Scala . Commonly known simply as Covent Garden due to its location, it is home to the Royal Opera , Royal Ballet and a resident symphony orchestra, and hosts guest performances from other leading opera, ballet and performance companies from around the world. In 1735 its first season of operas, by George Frideric Handel , began and many of his English oratorios were specifically written for Covent Garden and had their premieres here. Likewise,
2725-550: The Alice books ) debuted at the Prince of Wales Theatre . Its author Lewis Carroll was involved in the stage adaptation, and he attended a performance seven days later. The Palace Theatre opened in 1891. Opened in 1892, the Duke of York's Theatre debuted J. M. Barrie 's play, Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up , on 27 December 1904. One of the most popular playwrights in London in
2834-548: The Duke's Company and the King's Company . Performances were held in converted buildings, such as Lisle's Tennis Court . The first West End theatre, known as Theatre Royal in Bridges Street, was designed by Thomas Killigrew and built on the site of the present Theatre Royal, Drury Lane . It opened on 7 May 1663 and was destroyed by a fire nine years later. It was replaced by a new structure designed by Christopher Wren and renamed
2943-705: The First World War . In 1930, Laurence Olivier had his first important West End success in Noël Coward's Private Lives . A number of other actors made their West End debut prior to the Second World War, including John Gielgud , Alec Guinness , Vivien Leigh and Rex Harrison ; the latter's performance in Terence Rattigan 's 1936 comedy French Without Tears at the Criterion Theatre established him
3052-635: The London Coliseum is the resident home to the English National Opera . The theatre is also the London base for performances by the English National Ballet , who perform regular seasons throughout the year when not on tour. The Peacock Theatre is located on the edge of the Theatreland area. Now owned by the London School of Economics and Political Science , it is used in the evenings for dance performances by Sadler's Wells , who manage
3161-949: The Lyric Hammersmith , Theatre Royal Stratford East , Rose Theatre, Kingston , New Wimbledon Theatre , the Rudolph Steiner Theatre in Westminster , the Ashcroft Theatre in Croydon , Secombe Theatre in Sutton , the Churchill Theatre in Bromley and the Hackney Empire in Hackney . London theatres outside the West End also played an important role in the early history of drama schools . In 1833, actress Frances Maria Kelly managed
3270-664: The Pavilion Theatre in Whitechapel . The comic theatrical genre the harlequinade was also popular among London audiences. Its most famous performer, Joseph Grimaldi , best known for developing the modern day white-face clown , made his stage debut at Drury Lane in 1780. The West End theatre district became established with the opening of many small theatres and halls, including the Adelphi in The Strand on 17 November 1806. South of
3379-670: The River Thames , the Old Vic , Waterloo Road , opened on 11 May 1818. The expansion of the West End theatre district gained pace with the Theatres Act 1843 , which relaxed the conditions for the performance of plays, and The Strand gained another venue when the Vaudeville opened on 16 April 1870. The next few decades saw the opening of many new theatres in the West End. The Adelphi hosted A Christmas Carol; or, Past, Present, and Future in 1844,
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3488-530: The Royal Opera House , and from 1914 to 1915 the house became the National Theatre of England. In May 1915 the theatre hosted Vladimir Rosing 's Allied Opera Season . Rosing presented the English premiere of Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades and introduced Tamaki Miura as Madama Butterfly , the first Japanese singer to be cast in that role. The theatre was purchased by Oswald Stoll in 1916 and renamed
3597-703: The Royal Strand Theatre in Westminster where she funded and operated a dramatic school, the earliest record of a drama school in England. In 1840 she financed the Royalty Theatre in Soho which opened as Miss Kelly's Theatre and Dramatic School. There are a number of annual awards for outstanding achievements in London theatre: Cinerama Cinerama is a widescreen process that originally projected images simultaneously from three synchronized 35mm projectors onto
3706-464: The Southcenter Mall of Tukwila, Washington. It closed in 2001. Cinerama also purchased RKO-Stanley Warner (consisting of theaters formerly owned by Warner Bros. and RKO Pictures ) in 1970. Stanley Warner Corporation acquired 35 percent of the company —as well as the exhibition, production and distribution rights to Cinerama—in 1953 during the production of Seven Wonders of the World , which
3815-572: The Victoria Palace Theatre following the run of Billy Elliot in 2016. The Dominion Theatre refurbishment was completed in 2017 with the unveiling of a new double-sided LED screen, the largest and highest resolution projecting screen on the exterior of a West End theatre. In 2012, gross sales of £529,787,692 were up 0.27% and attendances also increased 0.56% to 13,992,773-year-on-year. In 2013, sales again rose this time by 11% to £585,506,455, with attendances rising to 14,587,276. This
3924-558: The William Gibson play about Helen Keller , The Miracle Worker . Later in 1961, MGM leased the theatre to continue the run of the film Ben Hur following closure of the Empire, Leicester Square for rebuilding. This ran from 29 May 1961 to 6 May 1962, after which the theatre was closed until 19 November 1962 when Mutiny on the Bounty opened. This ran until 10 July 1963, and following
4033-460: The interregnum of 1649. On 24 January 1643, the actors protested against the ban by writing a pamphlet titled The Actors remonstrance or complaint for the silencing of their profession, and banishment from their severall play-houses . After the Restoration (1660), Puritan legislation was declared null and void, and theatre (among other arts) exploded. Two companies were licensed to perform,
4142-532: The "flagship" in the Plitt theatre chain . Efforts were made to preserve the theatre, but at the time it did not qualify for national or state historical landmark status (as it was not more than fifty years old) nor were there local preservation laws. It was torn down in 1992. An office complex with a TGI Friday's on the west end of the property is there today. The third super-Cinerama, the Indian Hills Theater ,
4251-401: The 1890s, Oscar Wilde , premiered his second comedy, A Woman of No Importance , at Haymarket Theatre in 1893. The subject of widespread public and media interest, Lillie Langtry (an associate of Wilde) made her West End debut in the comedy She Stoops to Conquer in 1881. In 1878, Ellen Terry joined Henry Irving 's company as his leading lady, and for more than the next two decades she
4360-424: The 26 frames/s of traditional Cinerama. The following feature films have been advertised as being presented "in Cinerama": RCA uses the word "Cinerama" to refer to a display mode which fills a 16:9 video screen with 4:3 video with, in the words of the manufacturer, "little distortion." Manuals for products offering this mode give no detailed explanation. One online posting says it consists of "a slight cropping at
4469-611: The Brothers Grimm ) before switching to a 70mm single lens in December 1963, and the Royalty had two runs of Brothers Grimm separated by a run of The Best of Cinerama before also switching to 70mm single lens in mid-1964. These London venues were directly operated by Cinerama themselves; elsewhere in the UK three-strip Cinerama venues were operated by the two main UK circuits, ABC at ABC Bristol Road, Birmingham and Coliseum, Glasgow, Rank at Gaumont, Birmingham, and Queens, Newcastle and by independents at
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4578-743: The Bulge (1965), The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), The Hallelujah Trail (1965) and Khartoum (1966). The less wide but still spectacular Super Panavision 70 was used to film the Cinerama presentations Grand Prix (1966); 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), which also featured scenes shot in Todd-AO and MCS-70); Ice Station Zebra (1968); and Krakatoa, East of Java (1969), which also featured scenes shot in Todd-AO. The other 70 mm systems used for single film Cinerama (Sovscope 70 and MCS-70) were similar to Super Panavision 70. Some films were shot in
4687-537: The Casino Cinerama and ran until 27 October. From the 29 October, The Royalty commenced a run of My Fair Lady which was still showing at the Warner Leicester Square . This ended on 29 June 1966 to be followed by a revival of Mediterranean Holiday until 7 August when Cinerama pulled out and the theatre closed. The lease was picked up by Gala Film Distributors and the Royalty reopened on 1 December with
4796-510: The Coliseum on 27 November 1963. A compilation film entitled The Best of Cinerama ran for eleven weeks from 22 March 1964, after which the theatre was converted to 70mm single lens Cinerama to take over the run of It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World from the Coliseum on 16 July. The theatre only premièred one Cinerama film, The Golden Head , which opened on 8 April 1965 and ran until 29 July. From 30 July The Greatest Story Ever Told transferred from
4905-402: The Park Hall, Cardiff, Theatre Royal, Manchester and Abbey, Liverpool. Most of these conversions of existing cinemas came just as Cinerama was switching to single lenses and thus had short lives as three-strip venues before switching to 70mm. Roman Cinerama Theater (now Isetann Cinerama Recto ) at Quezon Boulevard in Recto, Manila and Nation Cinerama Theater in Araneta Center , Quezon City were
5014-473: The Peacock Theatre. When Sadler's Wells determined to build its new theatre in 1996, the company moved to the Peacock Theatre. After the new Sadler's Wells Theatre opened in 1998, the Peacock became a dance venue for the company. The Rat Pack played at the theatre in 2002, and Doldrum Bay premièred here in 2003. The house is now shared between the London School of Economics (during the day) and Sadler's Wells evening dance productions. The Peacock Theatre
5123-474: The Stoll Theatre and, for a time, as the Stoll Picture Theatre, housing cine-variety until the 1950s. Rose-Marie played at the Stoll Theatre in 1942, followed by Kismet and Stars on Ice in 1947. The London transfer of a version of George Gershwin 's Porgy and Bess that restored it to an operatic form, took place here on 9 October 1952. Joan of Arc at the Stake was produced in 1954, starring Ingrid Bergman . The theatre closed on 4 August 1957, and
5232-415: The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. One of the first actresses on the stage, Nell Gwyn became a star of restoration comedy. Outside the West End, Sadler's Wells Theatre opened in Islington on 3 June 1683. Taking its name from founder Richard Sadler and monastic springs that were discovered on the property, it operated as a "Musick House", with performances of opera; as it was not licensed for plays. In
5341-420: The Ultra Panavision 70 widescreen process (which yielded a similar 2.76 aspect ratio to the original Cinerama, although it did not simulate the 146-degree field of view). Optically "rectified" prints and special lenses were used to project the 70 mm prints onto the curved screen. The films shot in Ultra Panavision for single lens Cinerama presentation were It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), Battle of
5450-474: The West End are of late Victorian or Edwardian construction and are privately owned. Many are architecturally impressive, and the largest and best maintained feature grand neo-classical, Romanesque, or Victorian façades and luxurious, detailed interior design and decoration. However, owing to the age of the buildings, leg room is often cramped, and audience facilities such as bars and toilets are often much smaller than in modern theatres. The protected status of
5559-482: The West End, the Theatre Royal Haymarket opened on 29 December 1720 on a site slightly north of its current location, and the Royal Opera House opened in Covent Garden on 7 December 1732. John Gay 's ballad opera The Beggar's Opera ran for 62 performances in 1728, and held the record for London's longest run for nearly a century. It has been called "the most popular play of the eighteenth century." Another musical show, Tom and Jerry, or Life in London (1821),
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#17328549819975668-490: The West Was Won had its World Premiere at the Casino on November 1, 1962, and ran until April 1965 after which the Casino switched to 70mm single lens Cinerama. London had two other three-strip venues, making it the only city in the world with three Cinerama theatres. These were the Coliseum Cinerama , from July 1963, and the Royalty Cinerama from November 1963, like the Casino, both converted live venues. The Coliseum played only one film in three-strip ( The Wonderful World of
5777-401: The West Was Won (1962) for exhibition in true Cinerama theatres around the world. In 2008, a Blu-ray disc of How The West Was Won was released, offering a recreation of Cinerama for home viewing. The three Cinerama images were digitally stitched together so that the resulting image does not have the visible seams of older copies. Furthermore, as a second viewing option, 3D mapping technology
5886-451: The X-rated Swedish film Night Games . Gala continued with a combination of foreign films and mainstream revivals until 19 December 1969 when the theatre closed as a cinema for the last time and returned to live theatre use. The Royalty Theatre's only successes were a run of the hit Oh! Calcutta! and a hit production of Bubbling Brown Sugar in the late 1970s. It was also the venue for the first and last concerts on what turned out to be
5995-481: The buildings and their confined urban locations, combined with financial constraints, make it very difficult to make substantial improvements to the level of comfort offered. In 2003, the Theatres Trust estimated that an investment of £250 million over the following 15 years was required for modernisation, and stated that 60% of theatres had seats from which the stage was not fully visible. The theatre owners unsuccessfully requested tax concessions to help them meet
6104-626: The camera at an angle, move away at an angle, and then repeat the process on the other side of the screen. The first Cinerama film, This Is Cinerama , premiered on September 30, 1952 at the Broadway Theatre in New York City. The New York Times judged it to be front-page news. Notables attending included New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey , violinist Fritz Kreisler , James A. Farley , Metropolitan Opera manager Rudolf Bing , NBC chairman David Sarnoff , CBS chairman William S. Paley ,; Broadway composer Richard Rodgers , and Hollywood mogul Louis B. Mayer . In The New York Times
6213-447: The center picture met the side pictures, resulting in what appeared to many viewers to be jittering vertical lines at one-third and two-thirds of the way across the screen as the two touching images constantly moved around relative to each other. Cinerama projectors used a device to slightly blur the join lines to make the jitter less noticeable. Future systems such as Circle-Vision 360° would correct for this by having masked areas between
6322-539: The comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan , opened in October (the first theatre and public building to be lit by electric lights, with The Times recording, "the success of the new mode of illumination was complete, and its importance for the development of scenic art can scarcely be overrated"), and five days later the Comedy Theatre opened as the Royal Comedy Theatre on Panton Street in Leicester Square . It abbreviated its name three years later. On 23 December 1886, Alice in Wonderland (the first major production of
6431-424: The company with Mike Todd, was still raving about the process in his memoirs thirty years later. In addition to the visual impact of the image, Cinerama was one of the first processes to use multitrack magnetic sound. The system, developed by Hazard E. Reeves , one of the Cinerama investors, played back from a fully coated 35 mm magnetic film with seven tracks of sound targeting a speaker layout similar to
6540-481: The costs. Starting in 2004, there were several incidents of falling plasterwork, or performances being cancelled because of urgent building repairs being required. These events culminated in the partial collapse of the ceiling of the Apollo Theatre in December 2013. Of these earlier incidents, only one led to people being hurt, but at the Apollo 76 people needed medical treatment for their injuries. A number of West End theatres have undergone refurbishments, including
6649-415: The early 19th century, however, music hall entertainments became popular, and presenters found a loophole in the restrictions on non-patent theatres in the genre of melodrama . Melodrama did not break the Patent Acts, as it was accompanied by music. Initially, these entertainments were presented in large halls, attached to public houses , but purpose-built theatres began to appear in the East End , such as
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#17328549819976758-424: The evening. The Cinerama projection screen, rather than being a continuous surface like most screens, is made of hundreds of individual vertical strips of standard perforated screen material, each about 7 ⁄ 8 inch (~22 millimeters) wide, with each strip angled to face the audience, to prevent light scattered from one end of the deeply curved screen from reflecting across the screen and washing out
6867-482: The extreme top and bottom cropped slightly to hide anomalies". He further comments on the unreliability of "numerous websites and other resources that will tell you that Cinerama had an aspect ratio of up to 3:1." In theaters, Cinerama film was projected from three projection booths arranged in the same crisscross pattern as the cameras. They projected onto a deeply curved screen, the outer thirds of which were made of over 1,100 strips of material mounted on "louvers" like
6976-437: The final tour of the English folk-rock singer Sandy Denny with her band in November 1977, and the venue features on the 1998 posthumous release Gold Dust which was produced over 20 years later from the original tapes. Spectacular 'follies' style shows and 'drag' shows didn't find an audience, and the theatre became used as a TV studio for This Is Your Life , but was later bought by the London School of Economics and renamed
7085-471: The finest venues in which to view Cinerama films. The theaters were designed by architect Richard L. Crowther of Denver, a fellow of the American Institute of Architects . The first such theater, the Cooper Theater, built in Denver, featured a 146-degree louvered screen (measuring 105 by 35 feet (32 by 11 meters)), 814 seats, courtesy lounges on the sides of the theatre for relaxation during intermission (including concessions and smoking facilities), and
7194-443: The first (identified) woman to tread the boards of a London theatre, on 8 December 1660, in a performance of Othello . The company left the theatre in 1663 and there is no record of further plays at the theatre. The building was finally destroyed by fire in 1809. At the beginning of the 20th century, the creation of Aldwych and Kingsway , linking High Holborn and Aldwych , destroyed a number of established London playhouses and
7303-448: The following venues: The modern Cinerama company exists as an entity of the Pacific Theatres chain. Cinerama Adventure (2003), a documentary directed by David Strohmaier, looked at the history of the Cinerama process, as well as digitally recreating the Cinerama experience via clips of true Cinerama films (using transfers from original Cinerama prints). Turner Entertainment (via Warner Bros.) has struck new Cinerama prints of How
7412-412: The highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world . Seeing a West End show is a common tourist activity in London . Famous screen actors, British and international alike, frequently appear on the London stage. There are approximately 40 theatres in the West End, with the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane , opened in May 1663, the oldest theatre in London. The Savoy Theatre —built as
7521-457: The house than in others. The three projections were admirably blended, yet there were visible bands of demarcation on the screen. Although existing theatres were adapted to show Cinerama films, in 1961 and 1962 the non-profit Cooper Foundation of Lincoln, Nebraska, designed and built three near-identical circular "super-Cinerama" theaters in Denver, Colorado; St. Louis Park, Minnesota (a Minneapolis suburb); and Omaha, Nebraska. They were considered
7630-480: The human field of vision, including peripheral vision. The image was photographed six sprocket holes high, rather than the usual four used in conventional 35 mm processes. The picture was photographed and projected at 26 frames per second rather than the usual 24 FPS. According to film historian Martin Hart, in the original Cinerama system "the camera aspect ratio [was] 2.59:1" with an "optimum screen image, with no architectural constraints, [of] about 2.65:1, with
7739-448: The image on the opposite end. The display is accompanied by a high-quality, seven-track discrete, directional, surround-sound system. The original system involved shooting with three synchronized cameras sharing a single shutter. This process was later abandoned in favor of a system using a single camera and 70mm (~2.75 inch) prints. The latter system lost the 146-degree field of view of the original three-strip system, and its resolution
7848-440: The image, the left camera shooting the right part of the image, and the center camera shooting straight ahead. The three cameras were mounted as one unit, set at 48 degrees to each other. A single rotating shutter in front of the three lenses assured simultaneous exposure on each of the films. The three angled cameras photographed an image that was not only three times as wide as a standard film but covered 146 degrees of arc, close to
7957-433: The laboratory for several years before Waller, joined by Hazard "Buzz" Reeves, brought it to the attention of Lowell Thomas who, first with Mike Todd and later with Merian C. Cooper , produced a commercially viable demonstration of Cinerama that opened on Broadway on September 30, 1952. The film, titled This Is Cinerama , was received with enthusiasm. It was the outgrowth of many years of development. A forerunner
8066-402: The more modern SDDS . There were five speakers behind the screen, two on the side and back of the auditorium with a sound engineer directing the sound between the surround speakers according to a script. The projectors and sound system were synchronized by a system using selsyn motors. The Cinerama system had some obvious drawbacks. If one of the films should break, it had to be repaired with
8175-524: The movie. They may well give us something brand-new here." A technical review by Waldemar Kaempffert published in The New York Times on the same day hailed the system. He praised the stereophonic sound system and noted that "the fidelity of the sounds was irreproachable. Applause in La Scala sounded like the clapping of hands and not like pieces of wood slapped together". He noted, however, that "There
8284-553: The non-musical Agatha Christie play The Mousetrap is the longest-running production in the world, and has been performed continuously since 1952. Running since 2011, Matilda the Musical , an adaptation of Roald Dahl 's Matilda , won a then-record seven Olivier Awards in 2012. Running since 2016, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child , a two-part play written by Jack Thorne based on an original story by J. K. Rowling , won
8393-516: The only Cinerama theaters built in the Philippines in the 1960s. Both theaters are now defunct as Roman Super Cinerama burned down in the late 1970s and became Isetann Cinerama Recto in 1988 while Nation Cinerama closed down in the early 1970s it is now Manhattan Parkview Residences built by Megaworld Corporation. The last Cinerama theater built was the Southcenter Theatre in 1970, opening near
8502-467: The performances range from classic plays, to cabaret, to plays in the languages of London's ethnic minorities . The performers range from emerging young professionals to amateurs. Productions at the Donmar included the 1980 play Educating Rita which starred Julie Walters in the title role before she reprised the role in the 1983 film . There are many theatres located throughout Greater London , such as
8611-418: The pop-eyed amazement of the men when the huge screen was opened to its full size and a thrillingly realistic ride on a roller-coaster was pictured upon it, attested to the shock of the surprise. People sat back in spellbound wonder as the scenic program flowed across the screen. It was really as though most of them were seeing motion pictures for the first time...the effect of Cinerama in this its initial display
8720-408: The projectors, called "jiggolos," alternately blocked the image from one projector and then the other; the overlapping area thus received no more total illumination than the rest of the screen, and the rapidly alternating images within the overlap smoothed out the visual transition between adjacent image "panels." Great care was taken to match color and brightness when producing the prints. Nevertheless,
8829-431: The resultant image showed the actors appearing to look past each other, particularly if they appeared on different films. Early directors sidestepped this latter problem by only shooting one actor at a time and cutting between them. Later directors worked out where to have the actors looking to create a natural shot. Each actor was required not to look at their fellow actor, but at a predetermined cue place instead. Finally,
8938-553: The same booth.) Due to the small number of Cinemiracle theatres, specially converted prints of Windjammer were shown in Cinerama theaters in cities which did not have Cinemiracle theaters, and ultimately Cinerama bought up the process. Only two films with traditional story lines were made, The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm and How the West Was Won . In order to make these films compatible with single film systems for later standard releases, they were shot at 24 frames/s, not
9047-475: The screens. The jitters continued, but viewers were less aware of them with the adjoining pictures no longer so close together. The impact these films had on the big screen cannot be assessed from television or video, or even from 'scope prints, which marry the three images together with the seams clearly visible. Because they were designed to be seen on a curved screen, the geometry looks distorted on television; someone walking from left to right appears to approach
9156-400: The seams between panels were usually noticeable. Optical limitations with the design of the camera itself meant that if distant scenes joined perfectly, closer objects did not. ( parallax error). A nearby object might split into two as it crossed the seams. To avoid calling attention to the seams, scenes were often composed with unimportant objects such as trees or posts at the seams, and action
9265-643: The site between Portugal Street and Sardinia Street became available. New York-based theatre impresario Oscar Hammerstein I (the grandfather of Oscar Hammerstein II ) commissioned Bertie Crewe to build a new theatre in the Beaux-Arts style . The theatre opened on 13 November 1911 as the London Opera House. It had an approximately 45 feet (13.7 m) by 78 feet (23.8 m) stage, and a capacity of 2,660. As an opera house, it found it difficult to attract audiences from
9374-491: The somewhat lower resolution Super Technirama 70 process for Cinerama release, including Circus World (1964) and Custer of the West (1967). In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Cinerama name was used as a film distribution company, ironically reissuing single strip 70 mm and 35 mm Cinemascope reduction prints of This Is Cinerama (1972). In recent years, surviving and new Cinerama prints have been screened at
9483-631: The theatre on behalf of the school. There is a great number of stage productions in London outside the West End. Much of this is known as fringe theatre (referred to as Off West End ) which is the equivalent of off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway theatre in New York City. Among these are the Menier Chocolate Factory , Bush Theatre and the Donmar Warehouse . Fringe venues range from well-equipped small theatres to rooms above pubs, and
9592-477: The three cameras. Consequently, Cinerama discontinued the three film process, except for a single theater (McVickers' Cinerama Theatre in Chicago) showing Cinerama's Russian Adventure , an American-Soviet co-production culled from footage of several Soviet films shot in the rival Soviet three-film format known as Kinopanorama in 1966. Cinerama continued through the rest of the 1960s as a brand name used initially with
9701-418: The three individual films would jitter and weave slightly as the films moved through the projectors. This normal frame-to-frame movement is typically imperceptible to cinema audiences where only a single projector is in use. However, in Cinerama, this resulted in the center picture constantly moving slightly relative to each of the side pictures. The shifting displacements were perceivable at the two points where
9810-421: The top & bottom combined with a slight stretch at only the sides," and praises it. The posting suggests that other vendors provide a similar function under different names. Mitsubishi calls it "stretch" mode. The RCA Scenium TV also has a "stretch mode" as well as a 4:3 picture stretched straight across. There is no obvious connection between this video mode and any of the Cinerama motion picture processes. It
9919-456: The tradition, although its screen is taller and often less wide. All but two of the feature-length films produced using the original three-strip Cinerama process were travelogues or episodic documentaries such as This Is Cinerama (1952), the first film shot in Cinerama. Other travelogues presented in Cinerama were Cinerama Holiday (1955), Seven Wonders of the World (1955), Search for Paradise (1957) and South Seas Adventure (1958). There
10028-572: The vicinity a spectral squeaking, not unlike a crying baby. One possible explanation is that the London Underground Piccadilly line Aldwych spur used to pass very close to the sub-stage areas of the theatre and it is noise from the tunnels that created the sound. West End theatre West End theatre is mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres in and near the West End of London . Along with New York City 's Broadway theatre , West End theatre represents
10137-411: The word American; but Dick Babish, present at the meeting when it was named, says this is "purely accidental, however delightful." The photographic system used three interlocked 35 mm cameras equipped with 27 mm lenses, approximately the focal length of the human eye. Each camera photographed one-third of the picture shooting in a crisscross pattern, the right camera shooting the left part of
10246-421: Was also one commercial short, Renault Dauphine (1960). Even as the Cinerama travelogues were beginning to lose audiences in the late 50s, the spectacular travelogue Windjammer (1958) was released in a competing process called Cinemiracle which claimed to have less noticeable dividing lines on the screen thanks to the reflection of the side images off mirrors. (This also allowed all three projectors to be in
10355-416: Was blocked to center actors within panels. This gave a distinctly " triptych -like" appearance to the composition even when the seams themselves were not obvious. It was often necessary to have actors in different sections "cheat" where they looked to appear to be looking at each other in the final projected picture. Enthusiasts say the seams were not obtrusive; detractors disagree. Lowell Thomas, an investor in
10464-586: Was built in Omaha, Nebraska. It closed on September 28, 2000 as a result of the bankruptcy of Carmike Cinemas and the final film presented was the rap music-drama Turn It Up. The theater was demolished on August 20, 2001. A fourth, the Kachina Cinerama Theater, was built in Scottsdale, Arizona by Harry L. Nace Theatres on Scottsdale Road opened on November 10, 1960. It seated 600 people. It later became
10573-582: Was built on the location of the 1958 World Fair in Brussels, for the whole duration of the fair, from April until October 1958. This Is Cinerama received its London premiere on September 30, 1954, at the Casino Cinerama Theatre (now the Prince Edward Theatre ), Old Compton Street, formerly a live theatre. The film ran for 16 months and was followed by the other three-strip travelogues. How
10682-677: Was considered the leading Shakespearean and comic actress in Britain. Opened in 1903, the New Theatre debuted The Scarlet Pimpernel in 1905, a play that introduced a heroic figure with an alter ego into the public consciousness. The theatre was renamed the Noël Coward Theatre in 2006 after the playwright Noël Coward . Constructed in 1897, Her Majesty's Theatre hosted a number of premieres, including George Bernard Shaw 's Pygmalion in 1914. The theatre building boom continued until about
10791-469: Was demolished for the construction of an office block. The present, smaller theatre was built and christened The Royalty Theatre in 1960, located on the ground level of an office building. It was the first West End theatre to be built since the Saville Theatre in 1931. The first production was of a Friedrich Dürrenmatt play, The Visit , with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne . In March 1961 it hosted
10900-621: Was despite slightly fewer performances occurring in 2013. On 16 March 2020, following government advice due to the COVID-19 pandemic , all theatres in the West End were closed until further notice. Theatres in London were allowed to re-open (with social distancing) on 17 May 2021, with full capacity permitted from 19 July. Opening in October 2022, @sohoplace is the first new West End theatre in 50 years. The length of West End shows depends on ticket sales. The longest-running musical in West End history
11009-697: Was down 1.4% compared to the previous year, box office revenues reached a record £799 million. The majority of West End theatres are owned by the ATG Entertainment , Delfont Mackintosh Theatres , Nimax Theatres , LW Theatres , and the Nederlander Organization . Theatre in London flourished after the English Reformation . The first permanent public playhouse, known as The Theatre , was constructed in 1576 in Shoreditch by James Burbage . It
11118-432: Was markedly lower. Three-strip Cinerama did not use anamorphic lenses , although two of the systems used to produce the 70mm prints ( Ultra Panavision 70 and Super Technirama 70) did employ anamorphic lenses, 35mm (~1.38 in) anamorphic reduction prints were produced for exhibition in theatres with anamorphic CinemaScope -compatible projection lenses. Cinerama was invented by Fred Waller (1886–1954) and languished in
11227-437: Was planned as the follow-up feature. Rising costs of making three-camera widescreen films caused Cinerama to stop making such films in their original form shortly after the first release of How the West Was Won . The use of Ultra Panavision 70 for certain scenes (such as the river raft sequence) later printed onto the three Cinerama panels, proved that a more or less satisfactory wide-screen image could be photographed without
11336-559: Was soon joined by The Curtain . Both are known to have been used by William Shakespeare 's company. In 1599, the timber from The Theatre was moved to Southwark , where it was used in building the Globe Theatre in a new theatre district formed beyond the controls of the City corporation. Regarding theatre as sinful, these theatres were closed in 1642 due to the Puritans who would later influence
11445-542: Was the triple-screen final sequence in the silent Napoléon (1927) directed by Abel Gance ; Gance's classic was considered lost in the 1950s, however, known of only by hearsay, and Waller could not have viewed it. Waller had earlier developed an eleven-projector system called "Vitarama" at the Petroleum Industry exhibit in the 1939 New York World's Fair . A five-camera version, the Waller Gunnery Trainer,
11554-447: Was the first London production to reach 100 consecutive performances . Tom and Jerry' s combination of a tour of London interspersed with song and dance, gave rise to numerous similar, loosely constructed entertainments, and "planted the seeds for later musical comedy and revue". The Patent theatre companies retained their duopoly on drama well into the 19th century, and all other theatres could perform only musical entertainments. By
11663-704: Was the first film photographed in the Cinerama process in almost 50 years. This sequence is part of a 12-minute production filmed entirely in the three-panel process. The new film, In the Picture , was presented at a Cinerama festival at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, California on September 30, 2012. Cinerama successors, Todd-AO , CinemaScope, and the various 70 mm formats, all attempted to equal or surpass its grandeur while avoiding its problems to greater or lesser degrees of success. The large format IMAX system continues
11772-463: Was used during the Second World War. The word "Cinerama" combines cinema with panorama, the origin of all the "-orama" neologisms (the word "panorama" comes from the Greek words "pan", meaning all , and "orama", which translates into that which is seen , a sight , or a spectacle ). It was suggested in the documentary Cinerama Adventure (2002) that Cinerama could have been an intentional anagram of
11881-550: Was used to produce an image that approximates the curved screen, called "SmileBox". Since then, other Cinerama films, including The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm , The Golden Head , and South Seas Adventure have also had "SmileBox" edition blu ray home-media releases. On January 14, 2012, an original Cinerama camera was used to film a sequence at the Lasky-DeMille Barn , the original home to Famous Players–Lasky , later to be renamed Paramount Pictures . This
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