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Apollo Victoria Theatre
Address	Wilton Road
City	Westminster, London
Designation	Grade II*
Architect	E. Warmsley Lewis and W E Trent
Owned by	Live Nation
Capacity	2,208 (seated)
Type	West End theatre
Opened	1930, as cinema
Years active	1981 - present
Previous names	New Victoria Cinema New Victoria Theatre
Production	Wicked
www.livenationtheatres.co.uk/index.asp?VenueID=88
	Coordinates: 51°29′44″N 0°08′34″W / 51.4956, -0.1427

The Apollo Victoria Theatre is a West End theatre on Wilton Road near Victoria station in the City of Westminster.

The building was designed as the New Victoria "super-cinema" by E. Warmsley Lewis and W E Trent in 1929 in striking Art Deco style. The building is constructed in austere concrete, relieved by vertical fluting to the front, and horizontal fluting to the long side elevation. This austerity is relieved by polished marble, granite, and chrome detailing. Internally the theatre is elaborately decorated with pilasters spreading to fountains at the ceiling and concealed lighting^[1]. The cinema closed in 1975, reopening six years later as the New Victoria Theatre, with a concert by Shirley Bassey providing the opening night^[2].

For eighteen years, the theatre was home to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, Starlight Express, for which the theatre was extensively redesigned to accommodate a multi-tier roller skating arena. On 12 January 2002, shortly before the show's 18th birthday, Lloyd Webber made the decision to stop the show, in order to open his new production of A. H. Rahman's Bombay Dreams, which received its world première on 19 June 2002. The original production, which starred Raza Jaffrey, ran for two years before closing on 13 June 2004 after over 1,500 successful performances^[2].

As a "short" filler production, the Bee Gees musical Saturday Night Fever was brought back to the West End following a 14-month UK tour and a previous world première at the London Palladium in 1998. The show, booking to December of that year, was extended and was booking through to 29 April 2006. However, it left the theatre on 18 February 2006 to make way for the European première of Broadway's Movin' Out, the Billy Joel musical in March 2006. The show, which starred Britain's James Fox (who also played the 'Pianoman' role on Broadway and on US Tour) was due to run until 17 July 2006, however it closed after only 8 weeks in London citing poor audience figures.

Another Broadway production Wicked received its European première at the venue on 27 September 2006 with a cast including Idina Menzel recreating her original Broadway role as 'Elphaba', Australia's Helen Dallimore as Glinda, Adam Garcia, Miriam Margolyes, Nigel Planer, Katie Rowley-Jones, James Gillian, and Martin Ball. The show took a record-breaking £761,000 during its first eight performances.

The largest West-End Theatre, its capacity is 2,305 including standing spaces.

• The Sound of Music (August 17, 1981 – September 18, 1982)
• Camelot (November 23, 1982 – February 5, 1983)
• Fiddler on the Roof (June 28, 1983 – October 29, 1983)
• Starlight Express (March 27, 1984 – January 12, 2002) by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe
• Bombay Dreams (June 19, 2002 – June 13, 2004) by AR Rahman and Meera Syal
• Saturday Night Fever (July 2, 2004 – February 18, 2006) by The Bee Gees and Nan Knighton
• Movin' Out (March 28, 2006 – May 22, 2006) by Twyla Tharp and Billy Joel
• Wicked (September 27, 2006 - October, 2010 (Contracted to but may be subject to change), by Stephen Schwartz

• Victoria

• Apollo Victoria Theatre website