Find the theatre programme you are looking for by choosing a decade below. Our collection of old theatre programmes runs from rare Georgian playbills and Victorian bills through the golden age of the West End to modern musicals, covering London and regional UK theatres.Every programme is an original piece of theatre memorabilia, described with its venue, production, date, principal cast and condition.
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2000's Theatre Programmes
2000s theatre programmes from the West End and touring productions. The decade saw blockbuster musicals such as Mamma Mia!, Billy Elliot and Wicked arrive alongside long-running favourites, and star casting in straight plays brought film actors back to the London stage. -
1990's Theatre Programmes
1990s theatre programmes from the era of the West End mega-musical, when Miss Saigon, Sunset Boulevard and long-running hits like Les Misérables and The Phantom of the Opera filled London theatres, alongside classic revivals and new plays. -
1980's Theatre Programmes
1980s theatre programmes and souvenir brochures from a landmark decade for British musical theatre, which saw Cats (1981), Starlight Express (1984), Les Misérables (1985) and The Phantom of the Opera (1986) open in London. -
1970's Theatre Programmes
1970s theatre programmes covering rock musicals such as Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, The Rocky Horror Show, long-running comedies and farces, pantomime and variety from theatres across the UK. -
1960's Theatre Programmes
1960s theatre programmes from a decade of change on the British stage, from Lionel Bart’s Oliver! (1960) and the founding of the National Theatre company to Broadway transfers, variety bills and the end of stage censorship in 1968. -
1950's Theatre Programmes
1950s theatre programmes from the era of My Fair Lady, The Mousetrap (which opened in 1952), Look Back in Anger and the great variety bills, with stars such as Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh and John Gielgud on the London stage. -
1940's Theatre Programmes
1940s theatre programmes from wartime and post-war Britain. Many wartime programmes carry air-raid notices telling audiences what to do if a warning sounded, and paper rationing made them noticeably thinner, which adds to their character as theatre memorabilia. -
1930's Theatre Programmes
1930s theatre programmes from the age of Ivor Novello’s Drury Lane spectaculars, Noël Coward comedies, Cochran revues and the great variety palaces, often with striking Art Deco covers and period advertising. -
1920's Theatre Programmes
1920s theatre programmes from the jazz-age West End, when revues by Charlot and Cochran, musical comedies and the early plays of Noël Coward drew crowds, and programmes were packed with period advertising. -
1910's Theatre Programmes
1910s theatre programmes from the Edwardian twilight and the First World War, when shows such as Chu Chin Chow and The Bing Boys Are Here entertained soldiers on leave and music hall was at its height. -
1900's Theatre Programmes
Edwardian theatre programmes from 1900 to 1909, the heyday of musical comedy at the Gaiety and Daly’s, actor-managers such as Herbert Beerbohm Tree and Henry Irving, and the grand variety theatres. -
1800's Theatre Programmes
1800s theatre programmes and playbills from Regency and Victorian Britain. Early bills were single printed sheets listing a long evening of entertainment, often a main play followed by a farce; folded programmes became common later in the century. -
1700's Theatre Programmes
Rare 1700s theatre playbills from Georgian Britain, some of the earliest surviving forms of the theatre programme. These printed bills were posted and handed out to advertise the evening’s performance and are now scarce pieces of theatre history.
