@sohoplace at Tottenham Court Road

I'm guessing a transfer is a safe way to test the theatre and sort out any snags before they start having original shows.

Me again. I'm just greedy!

I happened to be in the vicinity of @sohoplace yesterday, just as the light was going, so took some snaps.

The canopy lights change colour. How cool is that?


There's a small LED marquee above the entrance.


Just look at the curves on the staircase. It's almost as beautiful as the Nelson Stair in Somerset House.

And there's a proper stage door, with lights, and everything!

Until they put something on here I’m actually interested in paying money to see, I’m more excited about the opening of Outernet in Denmark Street which is more of a music venue (I’m seeing Daniel Avery there in December but among the other acts they’ve got lined up are Ride and Hercules & Love Affair): good to see this side of Soho being revitalised after so long

It is very unusual to have queues for the Gents, but the architects of @sohoplace have managed it, even though the audience level was nowhere near full.

Another gaffe is the signposting for all three of Gents, Ladies and Disabled on the left side of Level 1 (Stage level) despite there being only a Disabled toilet there. A staff member was exasperated at having to turn people back with "Yes, I know the signs are wrong".

Level 3 (Second Balcony) was not in use so I used the quiet toilets there. I was only able to reach them because I used the lift. When I tried the same trick at the interval and at the end, my passage was blocked by a guard on the staircase. Given the toilet capacity inadequacy, it was poor not to be allowing access to all the facilities publicly available.

I very nearly used the ladies by mistake because I initially failed to work out what the triangle and its upside-down variant were meant to represent. I always struggle with icons and long for the days when plain old words were used.

Being a nosey bugger, and because there was nothing to stop me or say I couldn't, I also rode the lift pre-show to levels 4 and 5. Through the glass doors, I could see rehearsal rooms and an attractive outdoor balcony at the top. The doors on level 4 opened on to what looked like a cleaner's cupboard.

After the Saturday matinée, egress from the building was excruciatingly slow - surprising considering the theatre holds only 600 people and was running at less than two-thirds of that. From seat to outside took five minutes, with the spiral staircase down to ground level being the bottleneck. I wouldn't want to be here if there were an emergency evacuation.

The lack of leg room on the front rows is difficult to forgive in a newly designed venue. The stage was raised two foot. Quite why it needed vertical sidewalls flush with the stage edges rather than allowing recesses for feet, I have no idea.

Sightlines for the current in-the-round configuration appear to be excellent from all seats. Even the view from the second balcony was impressive.

Where the building scores is in its aesthetic appeal. It looks both stunning and classy. I will look forward to seeing further productions here, but I won't plan on a quick getaway after.

Is the auditorium intended to have any other configurations? I could see Thrust as a possibility but I know zilch about these things.

Edit from the theatre website 

The flexible auditorium can be transformed into a number of different configurations

[b

Literally not found it as the door is so well hidden I had to get security to show me where it was and I wasn't the only one that night with the same problem.
But I can report that the food and service is excellent.

I can't stop myself reading the thread title as "so hop lace" (makes me think of a frilly version of French skipping!).

It looks very attractive in the photos.