The Young Vic re-opens its doors tonight following a £12.5 million redevelopment. The Waterloo theatre, Jude Law's favourite artistic haunt in the capital, has been closed for two years.
Bolstered by a £5 million donation from the Arts Council, the venue now has three theatres and double the space it occupied prior to its renovation.
Appropriately, the Young Vic will re-open with the show that marked its closure - Tobias And The Angel. The community opera features a cast of more than 100, including two public choruses from Southwark and Lambeth.
A spokesman for the theatre said: "A lot of people on the Young Vic's new stage tonight will never have been on stage before."
Future productions include a stage adaptation of DBC Pierre's Booker Prize-winning novel Vernon God Little, a revival of Thomas Otway's bawdy restoration comedy The Soldier's Fortune and the world premiere of a new musical entitled The Enchanted Pig.
TV impressionist Rory Bremner is adapting a version of Bertolt Brecht's early play A Respectable Wedding as part of a season called The Big Brecht Fest.
Tonight's re-opening marks a change in theatrical fortunes for The Cut, the thoroughfare between Southwark and Waterloo-stations.
Until last month's hit revival of Eugene O'Neill's A Moon For The Misbegotten, Kevin Spacey's Old Vic, located down the road from the Young Vic, was empty for six months.
Artistic director David Lan said: "In terms of what we do and what we dream to achieve, we're different from everybody else." Theatreland speculation persistently links Law with playing Hamlet at the Young Vic, a venue he last graced in 2002 in a production of Dr Faustus.
Mr Lan said: "I hope Jude will do Hamlet in the future. We're talking about various projects."
