Regent's Park Open Air Theatre seating plan

The Regent's Park Open Air Theatre has a capacity of 1232 seats, including 84 seats in the Lower Right, 168 seats in the Lower Centre, 84 seats in the Lower Left, 333 seats in the Upper Right, 230 seats in the Upper Centre and 333 seats in the Upper Left. Use our interactive seating plan to view 195 seat reviews and 148 photos of views from seat.

Venue overview

Regent's Park Open Air Theatre was founded in 1932 by two actor, director and producers Robert Atkins and Sydney Carroll. The first production was William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night which was staged at the New Theatre (now Noel Coward Theatre) in the West End, before transferring to Regent's Park.

During its early years, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre attracted some of the biggest names in the arts, including George Bernard Shaw, who wrote The Six of Calais specifically for the venue. Vivien Leigh, Jack Hawkins and Anna Neagle were amongst the star performers who walked the boards at the theatre in the 1930s.

As World War II caused many of London's theatres to shut their doors for much of the period, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre was one of only two London theatres that remained open for the entire duration of the war. The theatre staged a number of matinee seasons to combat the problem of blackouts in the evening.

It wasn't until 1974 that a permanent fixed auditorium was built to replace the makeshift performance space that had been there since the 1930s. The amphitheatre-style auditorium was built for a cost of £150,000 (£1.45 million today). The building work included a new box office, kitchen and picnic lawn, alongside backstage areas. Due to a delay in the building schedule, the season of work that year, which included a star-studded production of The Taming of the Shrew with Zoe Wanamaker and Jeremy Irons, was staged at the nearby Roundhouse in Camden.

The theatre continued to attract star performers in the later decades of the 20th century, including Dame Judi Dench, who made many appearances at the theatre, Dame Eileen Atkins, Ralph Fiennes and Richard E. Grant.

In 2000, a £2 million refurbishment project commenced overhauling the auditorium and front-of-house areas of the venue, including the building of the Robert Atkins Studio. A further £3.3 million redevelopment was completed in 2012, coinciding with the theatre's 80th anniversary.

Regent's Park Open Air Theatre won its first Olivier Award in 1987 with Caroline Smith's acclaimed production of The Taming of the Shrew. Since then, the theatre's productions have been awarded a further nine Olivier Awards.

In 2005, Timothy Sheader was appointed artistic director and has since staged some of the theatre's most commercially successful works, including blockbuster productions of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods, and stage adaptations of classic novels To Kill a Mockingbird and Lord of the Flies.