W. G. R. Sprague designed the Aldwych Theatre, and he also designed the Waldorf Theatre, now the Novello Theatre, as its pair. Seymour Hicks funded it in association with the American impresario Charles Frohman. It opened on December 23, 1905, in the newly built Aldwych. The article calls the style Edwardian Baroque, and the house seats 1,200 on three levels.
In 1913 Diaghilev and Nijinsky held the first rehearsals of Le Sacre du Printemps there. The Aldwych farces, mostly by Ben Travers, ran from 1923 to 1933. Laurence Olivier directed the first London production of A Streetcar Named Desire there in 1949.
The Royal Shakespeare Company made it its London base in 1960 and stayed more than twenty years. It is Grade II listed and owned by Nederlander.
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