Our history

With one of the largest auditoria in London, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre is the oldest, professional, permanent outdoor theatre in Britain and our annual 16-week season is attended by over 140,000 each year.

The early closure of a disastrous play by Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini, left the New Theatre - now the Noel Coward - in desperate need of a production. Robert Atkins and Sydney Carroll present a ‘black and white’ production of Twelfth Night, which they subsequently transfer to a makeshift theatre in Regent’s Park.

1932
The first full season includes a revival of the previous year’s Twelfth Night and the first of almost fifty different productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream to play at the theatre over the next eighty years.

1933
George Bernard Shaw writes The Six of Calais for the theatre.

1934
Jack Hawkins and Anna Neagle star as Orsino and Olivia in Twelfth Night. Robert Helpmann dances in an ‘al fresco’ ballet.

1934
Vivien Leigh plays Anne Boleyn in Henry VIII.

1936
The country is at war and the theatre produces matinee-only seasons due to the blackouts. Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and the Windmill Theatre are the only two theatres in London to remain open throughout the war.

1939
Dulcie Gray and Michael Bentine join the company for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twefth Night and The Taming of the Shrew.

1942
Post-war comedies dominate the programme but are balanced with King John (1948), Faust (1949), The Winter’s Tale (1950) and Cymbeline (1952).

1945-1955
Brick dressing rooms are built behind the stage, replacing the tents that had been used previously.

1949
Eileen Atkins appears as an attendant in Love’s Labour’s Lost.

1953
The company are invited to perform Twelfth Night and Hamlet at the Baalbek Festival in Lebanon. This marks the first of many Open Air Theatre overseas engagements; over the following years, in conjunction with the British Council, the company would perform in over twenty different countries including Dubai, Russia, Israel and Egypt.

1956
David Conville and David William establish The New Shakespeare Company as a non-profit distributing charitable company. Laurence Olivier is one of the key investors.

1962
The theatre’s production of Twelfth Night plays at Middle Temple Hall as part of the City of London Festival in the presence of HM The Queen Mother.

1964
Bernard Bresslaw plays Launce in The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Bresslaw’s long association with the theatre sees him playing Bottom many times and Dogberry twice, as well as Malvolio, Petkoff and Ferrovius, until his untimely death in 1993 just before going on stage to play Grumio.

1968
Felicity Kendal plays Hero in Much Ado About Nothing.

1970
In a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream Anthony Andrews plays Mustardseed.

1971
The current, fixed amphitheatre-style, auditorium is built at the cost of £150,000 followed by a workshop, a new box office, kitchen and picnic lawn. Delays in the building project cause the following season, which includes The Taming of the Shrew with Jeremy Irons and Zoë Wannamaker, to be staged at the Roundhouse.

1974
Robert Stephens, who had appeared the previous year in a production of The Zoo Story with Michael Gambon, stars alongside Edward Fox in Othello.

1976
Judi Dench appears alongside Penelope Keith and Dame Flora Robson in Sweet Mister Shakespeare. Dench’s long association with the theatre sees her both perform and direct on many occasions. She joins the Board of Trustees in 1993 and remains on the board today.

1976
A School Workshops Scheme is launched and becomes a permanent feature of the venue.

1979
Kate O’Mara appears in Much Ado About Nothing. O’Mara would appear again in The Merry Wives of Windsor, three years later.

1981
To celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the theatre a special evening is presented with HM The Queen and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh in attendance.

1982
Lesley Garrett appears in a double bill of English 18th Century Operas; Thomas & Sally and Rosina.

1983
Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre produces its first musical, Bashville written by the then Artistic Director David William.

1983
Richard E. Grant appears in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Natasha Richardson.

1984
Ralph Fiennes makes his professional debut as Curio in Twelfth Night. A year later he would return to play Romeo to Sarah Woodward’s Juliet in a production directed by Declan Donellan.

1985
Ian Talbot, makes his debut as Artistic Director with a production of Bartholomew Fair, which uses boar pigs borrowed from London Zoo.

1987
Caroline Smith’s new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream earns the theatre its first Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Comedy of the Year.

1987
The season musical sees Roy Hudd and Anthony O’Donnell star in The Fantasticks.

1990
Judi Dench directs The Boys from Syracus, which is nominated for four Laurence Oliver Awards, winning Best Musical Revival and Best Supporting Actress for Jenny Galloway.

1991
Theatre impresario Cameron Mackintosh finances The Card which is nominated for two Laurence Olivier Awards.

1994
Tim Piggott-Smith directs Damian Lewis in Hamlet.

1994
Toyah Wilcox plays Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by John Doyle.

1995
Kiss Me Kate is nominated for three Laurence Olivier Awards, including Best Revival.

1997
All’s Well that Ends Well makes its first appearance at the theatre with Nigel Planer as Parolles.

1997
The final season of the Century sees Rachel Kavanaugh direct The Merry Wives of Windsor and Twelfth Night. To close the season, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum marks the first appearance of a Sondheim musical at the theatre.

1999
At the cost of two million pounds, major building work commences to refurbish the auditorium and public areas of the theatre and to build the Robert Atkins Studio.

2000
Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance plays for two seasons before going on a UK tour with Gary Wilmot and Su Pollard.

2000-2001
A star-studded 70th Anniversary concert is hosted by Judi Dench and Ian Talbot.

2002
High Society is nominated at the Laurence Olivier Awards for Best Revival of a Musical and Best Supporting Actress for Tracie Bennett. After a UK tour the production transfers into the West End’s Shaftsbury Theatre at the end of 2005.

2003
Russ Abbott plays Bottom in a new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

2004
Timothy Sheader makes his Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre debut directing Twelfth Night.

2005
Ian Talbot revives his 2003 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream which includes Sheridan Smith amongst the cast.

2006
Timothy Sheader is appointed as Artistic Director, joining William Village, who had been appointed Executive Director and Co-Chief Executive the previous year. Sheader’s first season, in 2008, sees him direct Romeo and Juliet and Lerner and Loewe’s Gigi which stars Topol.

2007
A Midsummer Night’s Dream re-imagined for everyone aged six and over is the first of many successful Shakespeare plays specially adapted for younger audiences.

2008
The Importance of Being Earnest is introduced as the first non-Shakespeare play to be produced at the theatre for several years and plays to 96.5% capacity. Hello, Dolly! wins the Evening Standard Award for Best Musical and is nominated for four Laurence Olivier Awards, winning Best Musical Revival, Best Theatre Choreography for Stephen Mear, and Best Actress in a Musical for Samantha Spiro.

2009
Fundraising commences for a building project that will see a new box office, dressing room complex and office suite to be built on site, in time for the 2012 season.

2010
Stephen Sondheim visits the theatre twice to see Into The Woods. Oliver Ford Davies plays Danforth in The Crucible, directed by Timothy Sheader.

2010
Timothy Sheader directs Sondheim’s Into the Woods which becomes the highest grossing production in the history of the theatre and earns two Olivier Award nominations, winning Best Musical Revival. Philip Frank’s production of The Comedy of Errors becomes the highest grossing Shakespeare and Steve Marmion’s Macbeth re-imagined receives the highest attendance of any family show.

2010
Jon Bausor designs an epic set for Lord of the Flies directed by Timothy Sheader and Liam Steel. Lucy Bailey makes her directorial debut at the Park with a Hogarthian production of The Beggar's Opera. Crazy for You becomes the highest grossing production at the theatre and transfers directly into the West End.

2011