@sohoplace: where to sit, what to drink, when to go

@sohoplace is not on Soho Square. It stands at 4 Soho Place, on Charing Cross Road, on the Tottenham Court Road edge of Soho, directly above the station. That makes it one of the easiest theatres in the area to reach: the Northern, Central and Elizabeth lines all stop underneath it.

What it is

A 602-seat West End theatre, owned by Nica Burns and run by Nimax Theatres. The building is by architects AHMM, and the auditorium by Haworth Tompkins. The room is curved and flexible, and no seat is more than six rows from the stage. Seating is split across the Stalls, First Balcony and Second Balcony, and in the stalls it wraps right around the central stage.

A short history

It opened in autumn 2022 with Marvellous, the New Vic Theatre production directed by Theresa Heskins, about Neil Baldwin, who became Stoke City's kit man. It was billed as the first new-build West End theatre in 50 years, a claim that is relative to the Gillian Lynne Theatre, which opened in January 1973. It sits beside the site of the old Astoria, demolished for Crossrail, and is the centrepiece of Derwent London's £300m regeneration of what its own history page calls a neglected corner of Soho, with offices, retail and a new piazza. Even the address is notable: the theatre's visitor page calls it the first new street name in Soho for 72 years.

What to see

Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, produced by Sonia Friedman Productions and directed by Marianne Elliott, staged in the round. Gillian Anderson plays Martha and Billy Crudup George, with Josh Dylan as Nick and Phoebe Horn as Honey. Miriam Buether designed the set, described by London Theatre as claustrophobic. Performances began on 21 September, and the run is strictly limited. Press night is Wednesday 30 September at 7pm.

The seat to want is close and central. Time Out reported earlier in the year that the run was heavily sold out, with a decent number of more expensive tickets left, so book through the official Nimax show page rather than guessing at resellers.

When to go

Time Out's listing shows 7pm performances Monday to Saturday, and 2pm matinees on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Check the box office for anything else. The running time is listed as about three hours, so eat beforehand.

Go early. Because the show is in the round, there is often pre-show action, and the ground-floor bar opens about 90 minutes before curtain. The bars on levels one to three open about 45 minutes before. A BSL-interpreted performance is on Saturday 24 October at 2pm.

What to drink

Order at the ground-floor bar for cocktails, draught beers, wines, spirits and soft drinks, plus light snacks. The upper bars pour beers, wines, spirits and soft drinks, and sell ice creams. For a show with an interval, pre-order your drinks at any bar and skip the queue. There is an outside terrace too. Outside food and drink are not allowed, and hot food is banned, though plastic bottles of soft drink and sealed water in non-glass bottles are fine.

Prices and booking

Time Out lists tickets at £30 to £150. The box office is on 0330 333 5961. Access customers can choose up to two seats per performance at a discount.

Getting in

There is step-free access from the street to the foyer and lifts to every level. Wheelchair spaces are in Stalls row D. Leicester Square is the other nearby station.

For after

Stay put. Nimax says the building and its ground-floor bar stay open until 11pm after the show, so a cocktail in the foyer bar is the easy ending to the evening, and the right one after three hours of Albee.

More on the theatre's own story is on its history page, and practical details are on the visit page.