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Dateline: 25th June, 2003 Macintosh's New Theatre to Go Ahead As we reported in April, Cameron Macintosh is to build a new theatre above the Queen's in Shaftesbury Avenue and this week he has announced further details both of the new theatre and the work to be done on his other theatres in the West End. The new theatre - the Sondheim - is intended to take productions from venues such as the Donmar, the Almeida and the Cottesloe, for which there is no suitable venue in the West End at the moment. At the same time, the other two theatres on the block (Queen's and Gielgud) will be refurbished and the Queen's substantially remodelled. He intends to add 200 seats to the Queen's but to reduce it from three to two floors, freeing the upper floor for the Sondheim, whose foyer will have views across the West End rooftops. The Gielgud and the Queen's will share a common foyer and the whole work will cost £20m. He anticipates that the work will start within three years and will take twenty months to complete. Meanwhile he is to spend £7m on refurbishing the Prince of Wales, work on which will start in September and is due to be competed by next spring, when Mamma Mia! will transfer there from the Prince Edward. The theatre will e fronted by a glass tower and the auditorium will be redecorated and the seating improved to make it more comfortable and give greater leg room. The bars and foyers will also be expanded and refurbished. Three other theatres - the Strand, Albery and Wyndham's - will have improved disabled access and refurbishment to the bars and foyers, and the Strand's sightlines are to be improved. The total cost of the renovations will be £35m. Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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