Control of the theatre transferred to Prince Littler in 1944. John Clements and Kay Hammond starred that year in a revival of Noël Coward's "Private Lives", and Margaret Rutherford starred in "The Happiest Days of Your Life" in 1948, followed by Sybil Thorndike and Lewis Casson in "Treasure Hunt", directed by John Gielgud in 1949. After this, "Seagulls Over Sorrento" ran for over three years beginning in 1950. The theatre's longest run was the comedy "Boeing-Boeing", starring Patrick Cargill and David Tomlinson, which opened in 1962 and transferred to the Duchess Theatre in 1965. In 1968 Gielgud starred in Alan Bennett's "Forty Years On", and in 1969 he returned in David Storey's "Home", with Ralph Richardson. He returned to the theatre in 1988, at the age of 83, in "The Best of Friends" by Hugh Whitemore.