The Dominion Theatre, located in London, England has long been known as one of the best places to watch musical theater in the West End. For a time the Dominion was converted into a movie theater in order to increase its audience visitation, but the 1950s found the theater reverting to its latest venue of live action shows. Before it became a movie theatre, the venue hosted the musical comedy Follow Through in 1930 starring Elsie Randolph. After this, the theater was taken over by Gaumont British Theatres in 1932 and began playing motion pictures full time. Even with this break in the Dominion’s musical production history, the venue still featured live musical performances between films by such stars as Judy Garland and Sophie Tucker.
After its reversion, the Dominion featured its first popular productions with the show South Pacific, which went on to boast a record breaking run of four years and twenty-two weeks. This was followed by another long run of the shows Cleopatra, and The Sound of Music, which graced the theater from March 1965 through June 1968. By the year 1981 the Dominion began featuring a majority of live shows with only the occasional film squeezed in. One example of this was its 1983 debut of the film Star Wars. In the 1960s and 70s the venue featured the show’s Star, The Band Show, and Lawrence of Arabia.
By the 1990s the Dominion Theatre was facing the threat of demolition, but was miraculously saved, restored, and reopened. After the restoration of the Dominion, famous shows like Grease, Scrooge, and the ever popular Beauty and the Beast brought in record numbers of audiences to the venue, which brought even more popularity to the theater. In the 2000s the Dominion hosted Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake, another production of the hit Grease, and Notre-Dame de Paris.
Then in 2002 the Dominion would open its doors to its longest running production to date. The Dominion’s most famous show We Will Rock You is based on the music of the band Queen, and shows no sign of losing its popularity any time soon. This production has gone on to break box office records and has even become the most successful production showing in the capital. Overall, the Dominion Theatre has been one of London’s premiere locations to find great shows over the years, and it continues to do so even today.
