Theatre Royal, Haymarket, SW1
The Theatre Royal is where Billy's dad and brother proudly turn up to see him dance the lead in Matthew Bourne's all-male Swan Lake in Billy Elliot.
The theatre was built in 1720, on the site of the Kingís Head Inn and the Gun Smith shop, and rebuilt in 1821. It was the 1737 production of The Historical Register by Henry Fielding (author of Tom Jones) that, at least partly, provoked the introduction of the censorship of plays by the Lord Chamberlain. The contentious content was not sex, but a scandalous caricature of the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole. This censorship (craftily evaded by ‘frozen’ nudes at the Windmill Theatre, as seen in Mrs Henderson Presents...) continued until 1968.
Billy Elliot (2000, dir: Stephen Daldry)
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