It’s been said that the history of Theatre Royal Drury Lane is tantamount to the history of British theater.
, though, that’s had the greatest influence on the fashion world; opening in 1958 with Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison in the starring roles, it would go on to run for a record-breaking 2,281 performances.
provided the costumes for the Edwardian period piece, rumored to be the most expensive production ever staged in the West End at the time. Drury Lane has been dubbed the most haunted theater in Britain, if not the world. It’s most notorious ghost, the Man in Grey, is said to frequent the Grand Circle in a tricorn hat and riding cloak, while two former Drury Lane stars have been reported to make appearances in actors’ dressing rooms: the Regency-era comic Joseph Grimaldi, who invented the clown as we know it, and Pantomime star Dan Leno, who first played the character of Mother Goose. More sinister is the story of renowned Irish playwright Charles Macklin, who fatally stabbed another actor in the Green Room in a row over a wig. Despite being convicted for manslaughter, “Wicked Charlie” never received a sentence, remaining a fixture on the London stage until the age of 93, when he abruptly announced his retirement in the middle of a performance at Drury Lane. Despite being billed as “fireproof” thanks to the first iron safety curtain in the West End, the third Drury Lane stood for a mere 15 years before burning to the ground in 1809, just as the original theatre had 137 years earlier. The blaze was so intense that Parliament was interrupted, but then-owner Richard Sheridan kept a famously cool head, taking a seat at a nearby tavern and drowning his sorrows with glasses of port while watching flames consume his life’s work. “Damn it, can’t a man enjoy a bottle of wine by his own fireside without being bothered?” he quipped as someone attempted to drag him away. Every reigning British monarch since the Restoration has visited The Lane, and it’s here that “God Save the King” was first performed in 1745, after royal troops defeated the Jacobite uprising led by Bonnie Prince Charlie. Composed in a fit of patriotic fervor by musician Thomas Arne, the song was met with rapturous applause—ultimately proving so popular that it was officially named the national anthem. Fifty-five years later, as the strains of “God Save the King” filled Drury Lane to announce the arrival of George III, an ex-soldier tried and failed to shoot the monarch, who insisted the show must go on as soon as his would-be murderer had been removed from the premises. Assassination attempts aside, George III was a noted fan of Drury Lane—as were his descendants. The king wept so much at the 18th-century tragedythat he had the play banned, while George V was so impressed by Frank Benson’s turn as Julius Caesar in 1916 that he requested a sword from the props room and knighted him on the spot. As for Queen Elizabeth II? Back in 1947, the then princess attended the opening night ofat Drury Lane with King George VI, Queen Elizabeth, Princess Margaret, and her soon-to-be fiancé, Lieutenant Mountbatten. The tune “People Will Say We’re in Love,” about a couple trying to hide their feelings for each other from the world, became a favorite of the young Elizabeth, who played it on her gramophone and requested it from bands throughout her courtship with Philip. She would name it as one of her best-loved songs for the rest of her life.
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