The history of the Theatre Royal Drury Lane is the theatrical history of England

Andrew Lloyd Webber has not been in the best of moods lately, largely thanks to all the Covid delays to his new musical Cinderella, now finally about to open — for the umpteenth announced time — at the Gillian Lynne Theatre. The bigger news, however, is that his theatre at the other end of Drury Lane, the grand old Theatre Royal, is finally finished after massive renovations.

Lloyd Webber has spent an awesome £60 million on the rebirth of his Grade I-listed theatre, known to show folk as ‘the Lane’, with his wife Madeleine heavily involved and in cahoots with the heritage expert Simon Thurley and the great theatre architect Steve Tompkins. The result? Oh my goodness! The sheer elegance of its 1812 Greek revival design by Benjamin Wyatt is drop-dead.

Few theatregoers ever really notice the building in the stampede for the bar and seats and 55 new ladies’ loos. Now you can walk in off the street at any time of day and wander around the building’s stately front-of-house rooms. (You’ll need a guided tour for the auditorium.) In effect, the Lloyd Webbers have made us all members of what looks like London’s grandest club. The theatre historically has been divided into two, the king’s side and the prince’s side. The story goes that after George III and his fat son and heir had a massive row on a visit, after which they remained on non-speakers, the venue was supplied with two royal boxes and separate staircases.

On the first floor is the rotunda and its Pantheon-inspired dome with square coffers, their size diminishing as they reach an oculus from which light floods on to a round walkway. Once you’ve completed a circular perambulation of loveliness, you can waft into the marble-pillared Grand Saloon — the plan is for tea to be served there — and on to the terrace above the original portico where Angela Conner’s superb bronze of Noël Coward — his 1931 show Cavalcade, which premièred here, had a cast of more than 400 — now sits with the inevitable cigarette in hand.