Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, located in the Haymarket, in the City of Westminster. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre. In the early decades of the 20th century, Tree produced spectacular productions of Shakespeare and other classical works, and the theatre hosted premières by major playwrights such as George Bernard Shaw, J. M. Synge, Noel Coward and J. B. Priestley. Since World War I, the wide flat stage has made the theatre suitable for large-scale musical productions, and the theatre has specialised in hosting musicals. The theatre has been home to record-setting musical theatre runs, notably the World War I sensation Chu Chin Chow and the current production, Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, which has played continuously at Her Majesty's since 1986. The theatre's capacity is 1,216 seats, and the building was Grade II* listed by English Heritage in January 1970. Really Useful Group Theatres has owned the theatre since 2000.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Her_Majesty%27s_Theatre

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1759:

Although General James Wolfe was fatally wounded at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham near Quebec City, New France , his British forces defeated the French in a decisive battle in the French and Indian War. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Plains_of_Abraham

1814:

War of 1812: Fort McHenry was attacked by British forces during the Battle of Baltimore, later inspiring Francis Scott Key to write "The Star-Spangled Banner," which later became the national anthem of the United States. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Baltimore

1848:

American railroad worker Phineas Gage survived an accident in which a large iron rod was driven completely through his head and destroyed areas of his brain's frontal lobes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Gage

1987:

A radioactive item was scavenged from an abandoned hospital in Goiânia, Brazil, resulting in four deaths and serious contamination in 249 others. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_accident

1993:

After rounds of secret negotiations in Norway, PLO leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin formally signed the Oslo Peace Accords. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslo_Accords

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

corkscrew (v): To wind or twist in the path of a corkscrew; to move with much horizontal and vertical shifting http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/corkscrew

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it. --Roald Dahl http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl