Former theatre in City of Westminster, London, England
The St James's Theatre was in King Street, St James's, London. It opened in 1835 and was demolished in 1957. The theatre was conceived by and built for a popular singer, John Braham; it lost money and after three seasons he retired. A succession of managements over the next forty years also failed to make it a commercial success, and the St James's acquired a reputation as an unlucky theatre. It was not until 1879–1888, under the management of the actors John Hare and Madge and W. H. Kendal that the theatre began to prosper.
The Hare-Kendal management was succeeded, after brief and disastrous attempts by other lessees, by that of the actor-manager George Alexander, who was in charge from 1891 until his death in 1918. Under Alexander the house gained a reputation for programming that was adventurous without going too far for the tastes of London society. Among the plays he presented were Oscar Wilde's "Lady Windermere's Fan" (1892) and "The Importance of Being Earnest" (1895), and A.W.Pinero's "The Second Mrs Tanqueray" (1893).
After Alexander's death the theatre came under the control of a succession of managements. Among the long-running productions were "The Last of Mrs Cheyney" (1925), "Interference" (1927), "The Late Christopher Bean" (1933) and "Ladies in Retirement" (1939). In January 1950 Laurence Olivier and his wife Vivien Leigh took over the management of the theatre. Their successes included "Venus Observed" (1950) and for the 1951 Festival of Britain season "Caesar and Cleopatra" and "Antony and Cleopatra".
In 1954 Terence Rattigan's "Separate Tables" began a run of 726 performances, the longest in the history of the St James's. During the run it emerged that a property developer had acquired the freehold of the theatre and obtained the requisite legal authority to knock it down and replace it with an office block. Despite widespread protests the theatre closed in July 1957 and was demolished in December of that year.
History.
Background and construction.
In 1878 "Old and New London" commented that the St James's Theatre owed its existence "to one of those unaccountable infatuations which stake the earnings of a lifetime upon a hazardous speculation". John Braham, a veteran operatic star, planned a theatre in the fashionable St James's area, on a site in King Street, bounded by Crown Passage to the west, Angel Court to the east and buildings in Pall Mall to the south. A hotel called Nerot's had stood there since the 17th century but was by now abandoned and decaying. To generate income, the façade would incorporate one or two shops. Building and opening the theatre were not straightforward. The Theatres Trust comments that Braham quarrelled regularly with his architect, Samuel Beazley, and other professional advisers and contractors. He also faced difficulties in obtaining the necessary licence to open a theatre; the management of the nearby Theatre Royal, Haymarket opposed it, as did other interested parties. The licence was issued by the Lord Chamberlain on the instructions of William IV, but Braham continued to encounter opposition from rivals.
The theatre, which cost Braham £28,000, was designed with a neo-classical exterior and a Louis XIV style interior built by the partnership of Grissell and Peto. The frontage was in three bays, three storeys high, with shops in each outer bay. The façade had a four-column Ionic portico, a balustraded balcony and a two-storey loggia topped by a tall sheer attic. The interior was decorated by the Frederick Crace Company of Wigmore Street, London. After the opening, "The Times" described it in detail:
The prevailing colour is a delicate French white. A border of flowers, richly embossed in gold, runs round the dress circle, and has a tasteful and elegant effect. The panels of the boxes in the front of the first circle are ornamented by designs, in the style of Watteau, placed in gilded frames of fanciful workmanship. … The front of the slips and gallery are distinguished by neat gold ornaments, relieved by handsome medallions. The proscenium, which, like that of Covent-garden, is shell-form, is painted in compartments, where the loves and graces are depicted gaily disporting. Two slender fluted Corinthian columns, supported on pedestals of imitative marble, add greatly to the beauty of the stage-boxes. A series of arches, supporting the roof, and sustained by caryatides, runs entirely round the upper part of the theatre. ... The "tout ensemble" of the house is light and brilliant. It looks like a fairy palace. Then, the two great points which are most important to the comfort of an audience – hearing and seeing – have been sedulously consulted; and, with reference to them, we think that the new theatre takes the lead of all its brethren.
Early years: 1835–1857.
The theatre opened on 14 December 1835 with a triple bill consisting of two farces by Gilbert à Beckett and an opera, "Agnes Sorel", with music by his wife, Mary Anne à Beckett. This ran for a month before being replaced by one of the few successes of Braham's tenure, another bill containing an operetta – "Monsieur Jacques" – and a farce, "The Strange Gentleman", by "Boz" (Charles Dickens). In April 1836 the first of many visiting French companies played at the theatre, a tradition that endured intermittently throughout the 122-year existence of the St James's. 
The theatre did not attract the public in the numbers Braham had expected; in addition to its unexciting programmes it was felt to be too far west to appeal to theatregoers. Braham struggled financially and after three seasons he gave up. John Hooper, previously Braham's stage director, ran the theatre for four months in 1839. His programmes included the presentation of performing lions, monkeys, dogs and goats. In November 1839 Alfred Bunn, whom the theatre critic and historian J. C. Trewin called a former "autocrat of Drury Lane and Covent Garden", took over the house, and changed its name to "The Prince's Theatre" in honour of the Prince Consort. Among Bunn's early offerings was a season of German opera, beginning with "Der Freischütz". Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort came to two performances during the season, but otherwise Bunn's tenure was undistinguished and unprofitable.
The theatre was dark for most of 1841. In 1842 John Mitchell (1806–1874), a bookseller and founder of the Bond Street Ticket Agency, took over, reverted the name to the original, and ran the St James's for twelve years, with much artistic success but little financial return. He presented French plays with the greatest stars of the Parisian stage, including Rachel, Jeanne Plessy, Virginie Déjazet and Frédérick Lemaître. He also engaged a French opera company, which opened in January 1849 with "Le domino noir", and followed with "L'ambassadrice", "La dame blanche", "Richard Coeur-de-Lion", "Le chalet" and many other popular French works. In between French offerings, Mitchell occasionally sub-let the theatre. In 1846, an amateur performance of Ben Jonson's "Every Man in his Humour" included Dickens playing Captain Bobadil. Mitchell had a fondness for international entertainments, and presented German conjurors, Tyrolean singers, dramatic readings by Fanny Kemble, P. T. Barnum's infant prodigies – Kate and Ellen Bateman, aged eight and six – in scenes from Shakespeare, and, most popular of all, the Ethiopian Serenaders who enthused London about the American-style minstrel shows, a form of entertainment that remained popular for decades.
After Mitchell left, the actress Laura Seymour (1820–1879) ran the theatre for a season in association with Charles Reade, from October 1854 to March 1855. Under Seymour's management the interior was remodelled, replacing the first tier of boxes with the now more fashionable dress circle. Among the few notable aspects of her tenure was the London debut of the comic actor J. L. Toole. The house was once again dark for most of 1856, but in 1857 the theatre returned to royal and public favour when Jacques Offenbach brought his opéra bouffe company from Paris, with a repertoire of nine of his works. This was followed by the Christy Minstrels who played to good houses for two weeks in August 1857 before moving to other venues.
Five managements: 1858–1869.
Following this the theatre had a succession of managements. F. B. Chatterton became the lessee for two years from 1858. He presented a season, mainly of Shakespeare, by the popular actor Barry Sullivan, and staged F. C. Burnand's first major play, a burlesque called "Dido", which ran for 80 performances. Alfred Wigan, who had been a member of Braham's original company, briefly took over the house in 1860, and was succeeded, equally briefly, by George Vining. Under Frank Matthews, who took over in December 1862, the theatre had its longest-running production thus far: "Lady Audley's Secret", which ran for 104 nights. Matthews ended his tenancy in July 1863 and was followed by Benjamin Webster, who mounted a series of revivals and a few new burlesques and extravaganzas, which were financially unsuccessful.
A member of Webster's company, Ruth Herbert, took over in 1864 and ran the theatre until 1868. She attracted much praise for presenting Henry Irving in his first important appearance on a London stage. His performance in Dion Boucicault's "Hunted Down" in November 1866 caused a sensation. The following month the theatre presented W. S. Gilbert's first burlesque, "Dulcamara! or, The Little Duck and the Great Quack", a parody of Donizetti's "L'elisir d'amore", which ran until Easter the following year. The Herbert management ended in April 1868. The theatre historian W. J. MacQueen-Pope writes:
She had done nobly and had earned widespread praise. She had kept the theatre open and had brought at least two young people, both destined for greatness, to the notice of the London public – Henry Irving and Charles Wyndham. But the St James's had lost her a lot of money. 
The season after her departure was notable for two Offenbach productions in which Hortense Schneider starred, bringing the Prince of Wales and London society to the theatre in June 1868.
Mrs John Wood; Marie Litton and others: 1869–1878.
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After Mrs Wood's departure, the St James's stood empty for three years. Nobody wanted it. Money had been poured into it and had vanished like water … People now began to call it, not the St James's Theatre but Braham's Folly.
 W. J. MacQueen-Pope
In 1869 the theatre was taken by Mrs John Wood, whose first production was "She Stoops to Conquer", which ran for 160 performances – a long run for the time. It was beaten by "La Belle Sauvage" which opened in November 1869 and ran for 197 nights. There were successful productions of John Poole's "Paul Pry", "Fernande" (in which Fanny Brough made her London debut), "Anne Bracegirdle", and "Jenny Lind at Last". The theatre was well patronised and appeared to be finally prospering. But expenses outran receipts, and Wood gave up the management of the theatre in 1871, and went to the US to replenish her funds.
In 1875 another actress, Marie Litton, took the theatre. She had made her name in management, founding and running the Court Theatre, with which Gilbert's works had become closely, and profitably, associated. In one of her productions at the St James's, a work by Gilbert, "Tom Cobb", was in a triple-bill with "The Zoo", a short comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan. Another of Litton's productions was a double bill of revivals of Frank Marshall's farce "Brighton" and William Brough's burlesque "Conrad and Medora", in which she co-starred with Henrietta Hodson. When Litton left for another theatre in 1876, first Horace Wigan, and then Mrs John Wood made brief returns to management at the St James's, the latter with some success in "The Danischeffs", which ran to good houses for more than 300 performances. She was succeeded by Samuel Hayes, who produced three failures in quick succession and then withdrew.
John Hare and the Kendals: 1879–1888.
The owner of the freehold of the theatre, Lord Newry, began to take an active interest in its affairs. He invited the actor John Hare to take over, which he did, in 1879, in partnership with two fellow-actors, Madge Kendal and her husband William. The theatre was again extensively renovated, with new decor by Walter Crane. "The Era" commented that the new management was in possession of "a house which, for taste and elegance, and comfort, is far in advance of anything the Metropolis has yet been able to boast."
A historian of the St James's,