More About Regent's Park Open Air Theatre

The theatre exists because a play by Mussolini flopped. In 1932 it closed early at the New Theatre, now the Noël Coward, and Robert Atkins and Sydney Carroll filled the gap with a black-and-white production of Twelfth Night, then moved it to a makeshift stage in Regent's Park. A full season followed in 1933, including the first of nearly fifty productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream the theatre has staged since.

It kept going through the Second World War, playing matinees only because of the blackout, and it was one of just two London theatres that stayed open throughout. In August 2020 it was back again ahead of most of London, with a concert staging of Jesus Christ Superstar, because outdoor theatres were allowed to reopen before indoor ones.

Laurence Olivier was among the investors when David Conville and David William set up the New Shakespeare Company here in 1962, and plenty of well-known names have been on this stage. Vivien Leigh played Anne Boleyn here in 1936. Ralph Fiennes's first professional job was here, as Curio in Twelfth Night in 1985, and a year later he was Romeo. Judi Dench first appeared in 1976, later directed here, and joined the board of trustees in 1993. Stephen Sondheim came twice to see the 2010 Into the Woods.

The auditorium itself dates from 1974, a fixed amphitheatre built for £150,000, and it has grown since, most recently with a new back row, row U, added in 2023. The theatre is run by a registered charity that receives no regular public subsidy, and its 2024 season was its longest and best attended, with 180,899 people over 27 weeks.

Past productions

The 2026 season ran Sherlock Holmes in June, A Midsummer Night's Dream in July and CATS from late July to 19 September.

Before that:

  • Shucked, May 2025, and Brigadoon, August 2025, the latter directed by Drew McOnie
  • Fiddler on the Roof, 2024. The most nominated musical revival in Olivier history, and it went on to the Barbican, a UK and Ireland tour and then Australia
  • La Cage aux Folles and Robin Hood, 2023, the first season with row U in the auditorium
  • Legally Blonde and 101 Dalmatians, 2022. Legally Blonde brought 61% of its bookers here for the first time
  • Carousel, 2021, with Joanna Riding returning to the show she had won an Olivier for
  • Evita, 2019. The theatre's fastest-selling and highest-grossing production, and it won the Evening Standard Award for Best Musical
  • Little Shop of Horrors, 2019, which took three WhatsOnStage Awards
  • Jesus Christ Superstar, 2016. An Olivier for Best Musical Revival, a run at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and ten years of international touring since
  • Henry V, 2016, with Michelle Terry in the title role, for the four hundredth anniversary of Shakespeare's death
  • The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, 2014. Olivier and WhatsOnStage nominated for Best Musical Revival
  • Into the Woods, 2010. Re-staged by its own directors in Central Park two years later
  • Henry VIII, 1936, with Vivien Leigh as Anne Boleyn
  • The Six of Calais, 1934. Written for this theatre by George Bernard Shaw
  • Twelfth Night, 1932. The production that started the whole thing, moved into the park from the West End