One Saturday Night in the West End
From The Sunday Times Magazine, November 26th 1978
See also Plays of the Year 1912 - Plays of the Year 1913 - Plays of the Year 1914
I bought this issue of the Sunday Times Magazine when it first came out in November 1978, whilst I was working as an LX Dayman at the Lyric Theatre during the run of 'Filumena'. And luckily I kept it, somehow knowing that it would come in useful at some point in the future. For me it's a great reminder of all the shows that were on a few years after I first started working in theatre over 40 years ago.
There is actually a great deal more information in the magazine about the 'State of British Theatre' in the late 1970s, which is how this issue was entitled, including many fascinating articles and images, but this West End Section ties in nicely with the Stage Yearbook pages entitled 'Plays of the Year' with I have added to the site recently, see the links below:
Plays of the Year 1912 - 1913 - 1914
Other articles in this issue were entitled: 'The Crisis Beyond the Neon', 'Beyond the Fringe', 'Top Playwrights', 'Bringing Classics to the Gorbals' (at the Citizen's Theatre), 'Seven Faces' (Photographs of Actresses by Lord Snowden), 'Directors as God' (Peter Gill at Hammersmith's Riverside Studios), 'The Understudies', 'The Playwright as Historian' by David Hare, 'Tickling up the Provinces' with Ken Dodd, and of course 'One Saturday Night in the West End', which is shown on this page. If you can find a copy of this magazine it's well worth a look as it really shows how British Theatre was doing in the late 1970s.
Above - 'Elvis' at the Astoria Theatre and 'Evita' at the Prince Edward Theatre
Above - 'The Lady's Not for Burning' at the Old Vic Theatre, 'The Unvarnished Truth' at the Phoenix Theatre, and 'Dave Allen's One Man Show' at the Vaudeville Theatre.
Above - 'Ten Times Table' at the Globe Theatre, 'No Sex Please We're British' at the Strand Theatre, 'The Mousetrap' at the St. Martin's Theatre, 'Filumena' at the Lyric Theatre, and 'The Homecoming' at the Garrick Theatre.
Above - 'Annie' at the Victoria Palace Theatre, 'Bar Mitzvah Boy' at Her Majesty's Theatre, 'Clouds' at the Duke of York's Theatre, 'Bubbling Brown Sugar' at the Royalty Theatre, and 'The Passion of Dracula' at the Queen's Theatre.
Above - 'Cousin Vladimir' at the Aldwych Theatre, 'The Double Dealer' at the Olivier Theatre, 'Under Milkwood' at the Mayfair Theatre, 'Shut Your Eyes and Think of England' at the Apollo Theatre, 'Oliver' at the Albery Theatre, and 'Whose Life is it Anyway?' at the Savoy Theatre.
Above - 'Plenty' at the Lyttelton Theatre, 'Vieux Carre' at the Piccadilly Theatre, 'Once a Catholic' at the Wyndham's Theatre, 'Look after Lulu' at the Haymarket Theatre, 'Who Killed Agatha Christie?' at the Ambassador's Theatre, and 'Oh! Calcutta!' at the Duchess Theatre.
Above - 'Jesus Christ Superstar' at the Palace Theatre, 'Six of One' at the Criterion Theatre, and 'Ipi Tombi' at the Cambridge Theatre.
Above - 'Dracula' at the Shaftesbury Theatre, 'Murder at the Vicarage' at the Fortune Theatre, and 'A Chorus Line' at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.