More About the Bridge Theatre

The Bridge opened on 18 October 2017, the first wholly new theatre of its scale added to London's commercial theatre sector in eighty years. It was founded by Nicholas Hytner and Nick Starr after twelve years running the National Theatre together, and it has been owned by Trafalgar Entertainment since June 2026. The auditorium was built to change shape completely for each production.

The auditorium is designed to be taken apart. It plays end-stage, as a thrust, and in the round, and for a promenade production the whole Stalls floor comes out and the audience stands on it. That is why the seating plan for one show does not describe the next.

The building was designed by Steve Tompkins and Roger Watts of Haworth Tompkins, and it won the RIBA London Award in 2018.

What plays here

New writing, adaptations of classics, and star-led drama, with the occasional comedy night. It is best known for the immersive work: Julius Caesar in 2018 and A Midsummer Night's Dream in 2019 both cleared the Stalls floor and put the audience on it among the actors, and the much celebrated Guys and Dolls did the same from 2023 and became the biggest hit the theatre has had.

Simon Stone keeps coming back. The Lady from the Sea was his, and so was The Oresteia.

Into the Woods is the one that left and kept going. Jordan Fein's production ran here to 30 May 2026, took two Olivier Awards including Best Musical Revival, and became the first show this theatre has sent to the West End. Performances at the Noël Coward Theatre run from 22 September 2026 to 9 January 2027. Our guide to the West End run has the seats and the prices for that theatre.

The productions people still ask about

Guys and Dolls, March 2023 to January 2025. Nicholas Hytner's promenade staging, and the first musical this theatre ever put on. Mindy's, the Save-a-Soul mission and a barber shop rose out of the floor around roughly 420 standing people. Nine Olivier nominations, and Arlene Phillips and James Cousins won Best Theatre Choreographer.

A Midsummer Night's Dream, summer 2019. Hytner again and promenade again, with Gwendoline Christie and Oliver Chris trading Oberon's and Titania's lines between them, David Moorst as Puck and Hammed Animashaun as Bottom. The fairies flew over the standing audience.

The Lady from the Sea, autumn 2025. Simon Stone's version of Ibsen, with Alicia Vikander making her London stage debut alongside Andrew Lincoln and Joe Alwyn. Lizzie Clachan's set put a swimming pool on the stage halfway through.

The Oresteia, July to 19 September 2026. Stone again, three hours forty with two intervals, with Mary-Louise Parker, David Morrissey, Tom Glynn-Carney and Rosie Sheehy. The critics split on it.

Past productions

• Young Marx, 2017. The opening production
• Julius Caesar, 2018. Promenade
• Nightfall, Allelujah! and A Very Very Very Dark Matter, 2018
• A German Life and My Name Is Lucy Barton, 2019
• A Midsummer Night's Dream, 2019. Promenade
• The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, 2019
• A Number, 2020
• Straight Line Crazy, John Gabriel Borkman and A Christmas Carol, 2022
• Guys and Dolls, March 2023 to January 2025. Promenade
• Richard II and The Lady from the Sea, 2025
• Into the Woods, to 30 May 2026
• The Oresteia, to 19 September 2026

Other theatres worth comparing

• Soho Place Theatre, 602 seats. London's other purpose-built modern theatre, opened in 2022, with the seating wrapped around the stage and an auditorium that is also rebuilt between productions
• Lyric Theatre, 938 seats over four levels on Shaftesbury Avenue. A conventional West End theatre holding much the same number of people, if you want to compare the two