Page 31 - CinemaRecord Edition 3-2003 #41

Wide-Eyed in

the West End

Whatever the reality may be for the
accountants concerned about building
upkeep and salaries, the casual visitor
to London sees only the outward signs
of a booming theatre district.
The embodiment of theatre’s place
in the public imagination is surely the
Coliseum, its thrusting tower topped by
cherubs holding up the world with all
the assurance and solidarity usually
associated with a major insurance
company. To cap this statement of
importance, the word COLISEUM
revolves on it.
Not far behind in the show-off
stakes is the Palace, dominating a
major intersection on Charing Cross
Road. The brick frontage is as detailed
as a major train station, and the same
finish continues around the corner
along Shaftesbury Avenue.
Theatres of this ilk were
transformed in the 1990s by Cameron
Mackintosh, Andrew Lloyd Webber and
others, to house the block-buster shows.
Some of the best of British acting is
still in small, somewhat dowdy theatres.
However faded their facades and
scuffed their tiny foyers, they speak of
that golden age in the late 1890s - 1910
when theatre was the place to be at
night.
The Vaudeville, where Juliet
Stevenson (Truly, Madly, Deeply) is
concluding the season of a dramatic
two-hander, has the Upper Circle
stripped and walled off, but the building
is still redolent of a great stage
tradition.
In some theatres, especially those
having undergone name changes, the
history buff is catered for with a foyer
display, often with photos of changes to
the auditorium.
Of the cinemas, the less said the
better. Yes, there is still an Odeon
Leicester Square, but like all the big
ones, if they exist they are subdivided
to multi-screens.
The Empire, once MGM’s London
flag-ship, has suffered the greatest
indignity; sliced down the middle to Top and above: Too big for one photo - the Coliseum, St Martins Lane
turn one half into a casino.
- Ian Smith

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