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The Arts Theatre is a little venue with a big past and a low profile. Just 350 seats, it’s the smallest receiving house in the West End, although it’s so small it’s not typically considered to be a West End theatre in the classic sense. Nonetheless, it’s been quietly plugging away for almost a century now – next year is its centenary – and has seen some history, notably the English-language premiere of Samuel Beckett’s landmark Waiting for Godot.
In recent years the Arts Theatre was home to the musical Six before it went on to bigger things, and post-pandemic it’s been given over to touchy feely bloke musical The Choir of Man.
Why is this relevant to a story about a new theatre at Marble Arch? Because the Arts Theatre has shut down for a period of refurbishment and rather than simply taking an extended holiday, Arts Theatre co-runners Louis Hartshorn and Brian Hook are building a 550-seat temporary theatre as a stopgap that will keep all current theatre staff fully employed.
Rather than simply continue Arts Theatre business as usual, the venue’s creative team seem to have taken this as an opportunity to flex their muscles a bit. There’s no actual confirmed programming for Marble Arts (nice name), but we’re promised a state of the art theatre that will host ‘a mixture of new productions and established smash-hit shows’. So presumably not just more Choir of Man.
The venue has just had its planning permission granted and will go up this summer, and is apparently projected to last for at least two years. Only time will tell how good it is, but it should hopefully make a more favourable impression than previous temporary Marble Arch occupant, the infamous Mound.
Marble Arts will open this summer.
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