Arts Theatre

Arts Theatre

6-7 Great Newport Street, London WC2H 7JB

Getting here

Closest Tube Station

Leicester Square, Covent Garden

Closest Train Station

Charing Cross

The Arts Theatre is in the heart of the West End, Leicester Square. Almost a century old, the venue opened as a private member club in 1927.

The Smallest Theatre in the West End

It is currently an independent theatre offering a good platform for smaller musicals and plays. The theatre won the Best Theatrical Venue at the Broadway World Awards.

It is a beautiful red brick building with a period façade and beautiful arched windows. While the interior houses a simple rectangular auditorium, massive pilasters connect the exterior of the 2nd and 3rd floors. Although the theatre may seem small, the well-planned design maximises the auditorium’s seating by utilising the theatre’s three sides and arranging it over two levels. This makes the theatre feel larger.

Fun Fact: The façade of the Arts Theatre is older than the venue.

Seating at the Arts Theatre

The Arts Theatre is intimate, providing 123 seats in the Circle and 230 in the Stall – a total of 353 seats. Usually, theatregoers can book the Circle Slips at heavy discounts. Even though the arrangement faces side-on to the stage, the discounted prices make this area highly demanded. The centre of rows B-C offers a great viewing experience. However, the premium seats offer the best view of the stage, especially the centre of rows B-H in the Stalls. See the action clearly and conveniently without restriction. Overall, the theatre is a conventional black box venue which offers the audiences with good views.

The History of the Theatre

Back in 1927, the Arts Theatre Club was founded. The building was leased from the Salisbury Estate, and a surprisingly comfortable theatre was built in the basement. Designed by P Morley Horder, it cost about eighteen and a half thousand pounds. Upon its opening, the theatre focused on producing experimental un-licensed shows for subscriber-only spectators, keeping away from over-enthusiastic censorship. But it produced some fantastic shows which led the theatre to transfer to commercial endeavours and be hugely successful. One such production is Gordon Daviot’s Richard of Bordeaux (1932).

In 1934, Basil Ionides refurbished the auditorium, after which a fire badly damaged it. However, its reconstruction commenced immediately. Alec Clunes produced over a hundred shows here from 1942 to 1952, which gave it the nickname “The National Pocket Theatre” and also national status. The venue’s responsibility was on Sir Peter Hall next. He was only 24 when he started handling the theatre. Then, it became home to Caryl Jenner’s The Unicorn children’s theatre from 1967 to 1999. The following two decades have witnessed the theatre staging a wide variety of new, mainstream hits. A group of producers leased the Arts Theatre in 2000 and ran it for five years. During that time, they staged Julian Mitchell’s famous play Another Country. J J Goodman took over in 2011.

Today, the theatre is the smallest independent commercial theatre in the West End. It is famous for showing innovative plays, comedies, and one-off cabarets.

Arts Theatre Seating Plan

Austentatious is the current production at Arts Theatre. The latest booking period for Austentatious at Arts Theatre started 17/12/2022 21:45:00 and runs until 22/07/2024 19:30:00. Tickets for Austentatious start at £25 and are available to book now.

The Choir of Man is the current production at Arts Theatre. The latest booking period for The Choir of Man at Arts Theatre started 29/10/2021 19:30:00 and runs until 29/09/2024 15:30:00. Tickets for The Choir of Man start at £37 and are available to book now.

THE JUNGLE COMEDY LOCK-IN is the current production at Arts Theatre. The upcoming booking period for THE JUNGLE COMEDY LOCK-IN at Arts Theatre starts 05/04/2024 21:45:00 and runs until 20/04/2024 21:45:00. Tickets for THE JUNGLE COMEDY LOCK-IN start at £19 and are available to book now.

Arts Theatre is located in London. The full address is Arts Theatre, 6-7 Great Newport Street, London WC2H 7JB.

Play

Bette & Joan

Play

Beautiful Thing

Play

Bad Jews

The dark comedy returns to London's Arts Theatre for a limited run

Play

Lilies On The Land

Play

Dirty Great Love Story

Awarded a Scotsman Fringe First Award for outstanding new writing, Dirty Great Love Story combines drama and poetry.

Musical

Summer Arts Festival: Putting It Together

Play

Project Juno

Play

Dave Young "No Cutback's On Laughter"!

Musical

Some Girl I Used To Know

Denise Van Outen stars in her new musical play

Play

A Dish of Tea with Dr Johnson

Play

The Tailor-Made Man

Play

Summer Arts Festival: Cheeky Chappie

Play

Park Avenue Cat

Play

All That Fall

Musical

Cemlyn Jones

Play

Woody Sez

Play

The Pajama Men: Just The Two Of Each Of Us

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Rotterdam

'No, Alice, I don’t want to become a man, I just want to stop trying to be a woman.’

Play

Summer Arts Festival: Sinful

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Dice House, The

Play

A Walk On Part: The Fall Of New Labour

Musical

Seussical

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Tim Key - Masterslut

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Summer Arts Festival: What About Samuel?

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American Justice

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Fuddy Meers

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Toyer!

Play

A Guide To Sexual Misery

Play

Triple Espresso

Musical

Cecil's Starlight Safari with The Musical Balloon Band

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Baggage

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Happy Days

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Summer Arts Festival: The Last Lunch

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Fully Committed

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Storytime

Musical

The Tailor-Made Man

Play

Complete Works of Shakespeare

Musical

Some Small Love Story

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Catwalk Confidential

Play

F**cking Men

Play

Shakespeare's Queens & The Madness of King Lear

Musical

Beyond The Fence

Musical

I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change

Play

Summer Arts Festival: Shappi Khorsandi

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Reduced Shakespeare Company's The Complete World Of Sports(Abridged)

Musical

Shout!

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Summer Arts Festival: The Hat Party

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NotMoses

Musical

Drag Divas

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That Thing Friday Night

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Simon Amstell - Numb

Musical

Summer Arts Festival: Barb Jungr

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Alternative Comedy Gala

Musical

The Golden Voice

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Bombshells

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The Killing of Sister George

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How to Lose Friends and Alienate People

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Summer Arts Festival: The Girl Who Trod on the Loaf

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Kingmaker

Dance

Summer Arts Theatre: The Arts Dance - An Evening of Contemporary Dance

Musical

The Mystery Of Edwin Drood

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The Awkward Squad

Play

Stig of the Dump

Play

Madness of George Dubya, The

Musical

American Idiot

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Red Bastard

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A British Subject

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Hurricane

Play

Big Pants & Botox

Play

All That Fall

Play

Wet Weather Cover

Concert

All Or Nothing

1965. A new phenomenon erupted out of London’s East End. It was the essence of all that was cool. It was Mod.

Play

Oleanna

Oleanna returns to London! Tickets for the Arts Theatre run are available now!

Play

Irvine Welsh’s PORNO

The darkly comic PORNO revisits the events of Trainspotting fifteen years later

Musical

Father Christmas Needs a Wee!

We're bursting with excitement, whilst Father Christmas is just bursting!

Musical

The Giant's Loo Roll

Watch out for some frightened sheep, lots of excited children and a fantastic amount of toilet paper in this rip roaring new musical

Musical

Lovesong of The Electric Bear

Musical

All Or Nothing: The Mod Musical

1965. A new phenomenon erupted out of London’s East End. It was the essence of all that was cool. It was Mod.

Play

The Wipers Times

Returning to London's West End for 7 weeks only!

Musical

Knights of the Rose

Legendary classic rock meets Shakespeare, Marlowe and Chaucer

Musical

Guess How Much I Love You

The adorable hares from the classic children's book make their West End debut this Christmas.

Musical

The Toxic Avenger

Prepare to laugh, scream and sing as ‘Toxie’ rocks the house and saves the day!

Concert

The All or Nothing Experience

1965. A new phenomenon erupted out of London’s East End. It was the essence of all that was cool. It was Mod.

Play

Gatsby

Play

Santa’s New Sleigh

Meet Santa and take a photo with him on his sleigh - so don’t forget to bring your cameras!

Musical

Ruthless! The Musical

The Off-Broadway show that discovered young performers like Britney Spears and Natalie Portman comes to the West End!

Musical

Murder Ballad

In the true tradition of all great murder ballads, when songs of love-gone-wrong are sung, blood must be spilled. The question is…by whom?

Play

Leave Hitler To Me, Lad

Play

Ruby Wax: Sane New World