Venue Information
Ambassadors TheatreAddress: West Street, WC2H 9ND
Nearest Tube or Train: Leicester Square (Northern line, Piccadilly line)
Nearest Buses: 14, 19, 22, 24, 29, 38, 40, 176
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Theatre Quick Facts
Date opened: 5 June 1913Designer: W. G. R. Sprague
First production: Panthea by Monckton Hoffe
Number of seats: 425
Other facts: Formerly called the New Ambassadors Theatre
Theatre History
The Ambassadors Theatre was designed by famous theatre architect W. G. R. Sprague, who also designed the St Martin’s Theatre opposite.
The theatre opened in 1913 with a performance on Panthea by Monckton Hoffe.
In 1996, the Ambassadors Theatre was bought by the Ambassador Theatre Group, who renamed it The New Ambassadors; and in 2007, it was sold again, this time to Stephen Waley-Cohen who already owned St Martin’s Theatre, and he put the name back to the Ambassadors.
Ambassador Theatre Group, now called ATG, bought the theatre back from Waley-Cohen in 2018.
Famous performers and productions at the Ambassadors include Vivien Leigh, who made her West End debut at the theatre in The Mask of Virtue in 1935. It was during this show that Laurence Olivier first saw his future wife perform. Also, Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones starring Paul Robeson, and Spring Meeting in 1938 with Margaret Rutherford.
Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap started its famous West End run at the Ambassadors in 1952, before then moving to the St Martin’s Theatre in 1974, where it continues as the world’s longest-running stage play.