22 THE RIVER MAGAZINE | Spring 2018 | C U L T U R E | The curtain is up on London’s first commercial theatre of scale in 80 years. We speak THE | C U L T U R E | I t was a question posed by the former National Theatre Artistic Director Nicholas Hytner and his Producer Nick Starr as they planned to open London’s first commercial theatre in 80 years. They needn’t have worried. Since the Bridge Theatre opened in October 2017 it has received an exciting response, say the pair. “The big initial question was:‘will people come to a theatre next to Tower Bridge’. We found the answer to that. Yes they will. It’s very good news,”says Hytner. The 900-seat theatre, which sits next to City Hall and overlooks Potters Fields Park, has spectacular views of Tower Bridge. It sits within Berkeley Homes’One Tower Bridge development alongside a cluster of restaurants including The Ivy and the Coal Shed. It wasn’t a hard choice to pick the riverside venue as the home for their London Theatre Company to commission and produce new shows. “We looked all over London but BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME, SO THE SAYING GOES. BUT WILL THEY?