3-070-612 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The new Savoy Theatre, front towards the Thames Embankment, 1881. 'Let it be duly recorded that on Monday evening, the 10th of October, 1881, at about a quarter to nine o'clock, after the National Anthem had been sung in right loyal fashion, the electric light made its very first appearance upon any stage. The scene was the new, handsome, and commodious Savoy Theatre, just completed by Mr. R. D'Oyly Carte, on the Thames Embankment, and when - the audience having sufficiently admired London's latest playhouse, praised the decorations, and recognised the true art feeling that characterised the whole - Mr. Manager came forward to say he had subdued the bashfulness of the electric spark, and she had consented to appear, there was a hum of expectation and anxiety throughout the house. The effect was instantaneous. A start, a tremor, and a pause, and then suddenly the auditorium was literally brilliant with the novel light'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.