Prince of Wales Theatre seating capacity slightly to 1,160 seats and to modernise the theatre's facilities. New bars were added, the auditorium completely rebuilt, the backstage areas refurbished and the theatre's famous tower and exterior completely gutted and refurbished with new LED lighting and a crisp modern finish. The theatre re-opened with ABBA's musical "Mamma Mia!" on 16 April 2004. On 18 August 2007, "Mamma Mia!" became the longest-running show ever at the Prince of Wales, overtaking the previous record held by "Aspects of Love" with 1,326 performances at the venue and counting. The production marked another landmark on Thursday 23 August 2007, celebrating
Development of musical theatre the theatre. Harry Tierney and Joseph McCarthy's 1919 hit musical "Irene" ran for 670 performances, a Broadway record that held until 1938's "Hellzapoppin". The British public supported far longer runs like that of "Maid of the Mountains" (1,352 performances) and especially "Chu Chin Chow". Its run of 2,238 performances was more than twice as many as any previous musical, setting a record that stood for nearly forty years until "Salad Days". Revues like "The Bing Boys Are Here" in Britain, and those of Florenz Ziegfeld and his imitators in America, were also extraordinarily popular. A new generation of composers of