In 1933, the star Josephine Baker played a four-week season here, including her famous ‘Bananas Dance’.

In 1935, the theatre was briefly renamed the Radio Theatre, before being bought by an international Casino syndicate for £25,000. The theatre reopened on 2^nd April 1936 as the London Casino, a cabaret/restaurant/dancing venue. The existing stage was converted into a semi-circular dance floor, the substage area became kitchens, and staircases were built connecting the stalls directly to the dress circle.

The first stage show in the reconfigured venue was Folies Parisiennes, followed by Bal Tabarin, La Revue d’Elegance and Folies de Minuit.

Initially profitable, the venue’s lavish productions and high running costs eventually led to serious financial problems.

Upon the outbreak of war, the theatre fell dark for two years. On the night of 10^th May 1941, one of the world air raids of World War II badly damaged the theatre, blowing out every window. Bombs also destroyed most of the surrounding buildings in Greek Street.

After The Blitz, repairs began, including alterations to the stage by the architects T and E Braddock. In 1942, the theatre was finally able to reopen, becoming the Queensberry All Services Club for the remainder of World War II. From here, the BBC first broadcast Variety Bandbox. Originally designed to keep up morale, this radio show would become a long-running fixture of the BBC light entertainment schedule. Stars appearing here included Vera Lynn, Tommy Trinder, Glenn Miller and George Formby.

The venue returned to theatrical use in 1946 under the management of Tom Arnold and Emile Littler, becoming known once more as the London Casino. The first show of this new era was Elsa Shelley’s play Pick-Up Girl.

1947 saw the first in a series of International Variety shows presented by Bernard Delfont introduce Chico Marx, Max Wall and Max Miller to the London Casino’s audiences.

The first of many pantomimes, Mother Goose was also performed here in 1947 with Stanley Holloway as Squire Skinflint. The next year’s pantomime was Humpty Dumpty starring a thirteen-year-old Julie Andrews.

Latin Quarter, Robert Nesbitt’s ‘luxury musical’ was presented here annually from 1949 until 1952. The audience was greeted by one band in the foyer, another on stage and a third in the orchestra pit, with fresh violets places on seats and balloons festooning the ceiling.

In 1953, Cicely Courtneidge starred in Vivian Ellis’s revue Over the Moon. This was followed by Harold Rome’s musical comedy Wish You Were Here, which was set in a holiday camp and featured a swimming pool on stage.

In 1954, the theatre was converted for large screen ‘Cinerama’, a new three-projector very-wide-screen technique devised in New York. Conversion was overseen by architects Frank Baessler and T and E Braddock and required installation of three separate projection boxes. Sight lines from the upper circle were poor, and the level was taken out of use, reducing the overall seating capacity to 1,337.

The premiere of This is Cinerama was screened on 30^th September 1954. Screenings were presented with an intermission to allow the spools to be changed for the second half. These early films were travelogues, introducing a world to exotic locations then often restricted to wealthy travellers. Travelogues dominated the early years of Cinerama, grossing $9.5 million in the first eight years. To reflect this change of use, the venue became known as the Casino Cinerama Theatre. The final three-strip Cinerama screening was in 1962 with the world premiere of How the West Was Won. The film then ran for an impressive 123 weeks.

Three-projector cinerama was eventually replaced by a single lens format. First seen in 1963 at the Coliseum Cinerama (now the London Coliseum), this new cinerama format’s first screening here was The Greatest Story Ever Told, running from April to July 1965.

 A new era of large-scale 70mm presentations followed, including Battle of the Bulge, 2001 A Space Odyssey and Ben-Hur. The final successful run was Song of Norway, which opened in December 1970 in the presence of HRH Princess Alexandra and closed in February 1972.

By the 1970s, audience habits were changing, and the Casino Cinerama Theatre began to struggle, mainly showing revivals of old films or new low-budget titles. The final Cinerama screening in May 1974 was the Italian comedy Run Run Joe!

In 1974, EMI & Bernard Delfont took over the running of the theatre. The theatre was refurbished at a cost of £150,000 (around £1.1 million today) and a conventional cinema screen installed, allowing the Casino Theatre to show movies alternating with theatrical productions. The theatre reopened on 18^thDecember with a production of the pantomime Cinderella starring Twiggy as Cinderella, Roy Kinnear and Hugh Paddick as the Ugly Sisters, with Harry H Corbett and Wilfred Brambell as the Broker’s Men.

The following Christmas, Danny La Rue starred in The Exciting Adventures of Queen Daniella.

In 1976 the musical Dean, based on the life of James Dean played here and, in 1977, a Christmas production of Peter Pan ran with Ron Moody as the villainous Captain Hook.

The final film season before the theatre was returned to full theatrical use included Lady Sings The Blues and Mahogany, ending on 8^th April 1978.

The theatre was now converted for sole use as a theatre by RHWL Architects and reverted to its original name, the Prince Edward Theatre.

The Prince Edward Theatre reopened on 21^st June 1978 (following previews from 12^th June) with the world premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s musical Evita. Evita marked the directorial West End debut of Hal Prince and made an international star of Elaine Paige as Eva Peron, alongside David Essex as Che Guevara. Evita ran until February 1986, becoming the longest running show in this theatre’s history. During its West End run, the role of Eva Peron was also played by Marti Webb, Stephanie Lawrence, Siobhan McCarthy and Kathryn Evans.