The first new theatre to be built in the West End in a decade will start to take shape near Foyles bookshop from 2017, once Crossrail works on the site are completed.
The so-far unnamed venue will feature an auditorium that can accommodate audiences of between 350 and 500 people, and will include a ground-level bar running the length of the building between Charing Cross Road and Soho Square. It is a new venture by Nimax Theatres, which owns six historic West End playhouses.
The company’s chief executive Nica Burns, in an interview for tomorrow’s ES magazine, said: “I want this to be a facility that fills a hole, not something that’s in competition with anything.”
The new theatre is expected to open in 2020. There is a dearth of drama venues in the West End that cater for smaller audiences and which are more flexible than Victorian “proscenium arch” buildings.
