Ten surprising facts about London's West End
22 March 2021 - Omega
It’s been over a year now since our last trip to London’s dazzling West End and we bet you can’t wait to join us for another magical theatre break later this year. In the meantime, we’re harking back to the pre-Covid chapters in our history book to bring you ten surprising facts about London’s West End.
Leave the light on
Have you ever heard of ‘leaving on the Ghost Light’? It’s a popular theatre tradition that saw a massive resurgence when Covid hit and theatres were forced to close in March 2020. It simply involves leaving a single-bulbed light or floor lamp lit in the middle of the stage at the end of an evening before locking up a theatre. Practically this is for safety reasons - no one wants to fall off stage into the orchestra pit - but historically it is believed that every single theatre has a ghost and the light is thought to allow them a safe space to perform on stage in the middle of the night. Not spooky at all(!)
The Phantom's makeup
Speaking of creepy figures loitering around live entertainment venues after-hours, did you know that the makeup behind The Phantom of the Opera’s mask has always been a closely guarded secret? Although we only see The Phantom without his mask for a very short time during the show, a team of makeup artists are on hand to create the required ‘hideously disfigured’ look with prosthetics that still allow the mask to fit on top, (and for the actor to comfortably belt out Music Of The Night, of course!) We might have thought we took forever to get ready for a night out, but The Phantom's craterous makeup takes almost an hour to complete before each and every show!
The Macbeth curse
Of all the theatrical superstitions, this is one of our favourites! Legend tells that - apart from during rehearsals or the performance itself - you must never utter the word ‘Macbeth’ or any quotes from the script whilst inside a theatre. Apparently, someone broke this famous rule at Shakespeare’s Globe which prompted disaster after disaster during that night’s performance. So, how did this begin? Apparently, witches were furious that a set of incomplete spells had been included in the Macbeth script and so they put a curse on the entire play! … If witches cursed Shakespeare’s famous production then we would love to know who’s behind the hijinx at The Play That Goes Wrong?!
The Ghosts of Drury Lane
West End hauntings are known to be rather common but the Theatre Royal Drury Lane is thought to be the most haunted of the lot! From a weird presence in the shadows, sightings of actors that had, in fact, passed away long ago, televisions mysterious changing channel when anyone backstage even mentions paranormal activity in passing, doors slamming in the empty theatre… the otherworldly events at this venue are countless!
Actors' wages
If you thought the fact above was scary then this one is even more startling! On the West End, Actors’ wages depend on the size of the venue in which they are performing, so if the theatre has less than 799 seats then their weekly take-home could be just £569! This increases in increments so if the auditorium’s capacity is over 1,100 then they might earn around £695. This is less than Stage Managers; £815 per week and Musicians; £1000 each week.
The Great London Beer Flood
A tidal wave of beer you say? Sounds like a pretty destructive PR stunt! In 1814 a giant fermentation tank - over 20 foot high, holding over 3,500 barrels of ale - exploded at the Meux and Company’s Horse Shoe Brewery on Tottenham Court Road, and quite literally swept through the streets of London. That’s over 300,000 gallons (or 2,400,000 pints)! Although it sounds like the best happy hour ever, with people scooping up the liquid in any vessel they could find, unfortunately at the time, the narrow London lanes didn't have proper drainage, which resulted in the beer pouring straight into everyone's cellars and the houses collapsing. Many lives were lost and, as the court ruled the incident as an ‘Act of God’, the brewery was not liable to pay out a penny!
Dancing from London to Norwich
In 1600, Will Kemp, a popular comedic actor and clown who appeared in many of Shakespeare’s plays, decided to morris-dance from London to Norwich. It was actually a rather baffling act of rebellion, after his pal Shakespeare turned him down for the part of the clown in Hamlet. We love the idea of a passive-aggressive morris-athon!
Break a Leg!
As we know, thespians can be superstitious folk and in the theatre biz it’s actually bad luck to say ‘good luck’. The reason being is that spirits and sprites would always jinx your wishes and make the opposite of what you wanted to happen, and so this is how the term ‘break a leg!’ came to be. Others believe it actually derives from the Ancient Greek tradition of stamping your feet instead of clapping; in theory, they might actually break a leg if they stamped hard enough!
Weird Shakespearean phrases
There are so many words that Shakespeare is thought to have introduced into the common vernacular, from ‘Swagger’ and ‘Bandit’ to ‘Lonely’ and ‘Green-eyed’ (monster), it is believed that he actually invented up to 1,700 words in total! Our favourites have got to be the phrases he cooked up though, such as ‘vanish into thin air’, ‘the world is my oyster’ and ‘love is blind’. Good old Bill certainly had a way with words!
World War 2 and the West End
Much like Covid, the start of the Second World War saw the closing of everything from theatres and dance halls to cinemas and sporting venues. There were over 20 plays and musicals showing in the West End in September 1940, but they soon closed their doors as a precaution in case they were hit during the air raids. However, as the months went on the rules were eventually relaxed and theatres provided a welcome distraction for Londoners during such troubling times.
If you enjoyed our surprising facts about the West End, why not discover even more for yourself during one of our fabulous London coach breaks!