Queen's Theatre in a modern style. The reconstructed theatre opened 8 July 1959 with John Gielgud's solo performance in "Shakespeare speeches and sonnets, Ages of Man". Since April 2004, the theatre has played host to Cameron Mackintosh's production of "Les Misérables" which transferred after 18 years at the nearby Palace Theatre. The musical celebrated its 20th anniversary at the venue on 8 October 2005 and overtook "Cats" as the longest running musical of all time a year later on 8 October 2006. The theatre was Grade II listed by English Heritage in June 1972. An extensive refurbishment was undertaken in the latter
Musical theatre way for Kern's later work by showing that a musical could combine light, popular entertainment with continuity between its story and songs. Historian Gerald Bordman wrote: The theatre-going public needed escapist entertainment during the dark times of World War I, and they flocked to the theatre. The 1919 hit musical "Irene" ran for 670 performances, a Broadway record that held until 1938. The British theatre public supported far longer runs like that of "The Maid of the Mountains" (1,352 performances) and especially "Chu Chin Chow". Its run of 2,238 performances was more than twice as long as any previous musical,