Hotels near Criterion Theatre

The tiny entrance of the Criterion Theatre
is almost invisible among the massive advertisements, traffic and
crowds of Piccadilly Circus. To ignore it, however, is to miss one of
London's most enchanting theatres. The 590-seat Grade II listed Victorian theatre has been entertaining theatre goers since 1874. Use of mirrors and stunning murals of
clouds and cherubs turns this underground labyrinth into an airy
paradise. It has shown a wide variety of fare since it opened in 1974,
including the first UK production of Beckett's Waiting for Godot (1955). The Criterion's greatest successes have always come from bawdy comedy. A Little Bit of Fluff
(1915) was blamed for the destruction of the public's morals with its
brief flash of a woman's unclothed leg: it ran for 1241 performances. Run for Your Wife
outdid this with a seven year run in the 1980s, and it recently played
host to the Reduced Shakespeare Company, who performed their Complete Works of William Shakespeare more than 2000 times.