The Aldwych Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Aldwych in the City of Westminster. The theatre was listed Grade II on 20 July 1971. Its seating capacity is 1,200 on three levels, a fairly large auditorium.

The theatre was built as a pair with the Waldorf Theatre now known as the Novello Theatre, both being designed by W.G.R. Sprague. Funded by Seymour Hicks, in association with the American impressario Charles Frohman, and built by Walter Wallis of Balham. The ornate decorations were in the Georgian style. The theatre was constructed on the newly built Aldwych.

The Aldwych theatre opened on 23 December 1905 with a production of Blue Bell, a new version of Hicks' popular pantomime Bluebell in Fairyland. In 1906, Hicks' The Beauty of Bath, followed in 1907 by The Gay Gordons, played at the theatre. In February 1913 the theatre was used by Serge Diaghilev and Vaslav Nijinsky for the first rehearsals of Le Sacre du Printemps before its controversial première in Paris later that year. In 1920, Basil Rathbone played Major Wharton in The Unknown. From 1925-1933, it became the home of Ben Travers's farces, also known as The Aldwych Farces. Members of Travers's company included Ralph Lynn, Tom Walls, Yvonne Arnaud, Norma Varden, Mary Brough, Winifred Shotter and Robertson Hare. In 1933, Richard Tauber presented and starred in a new version of Das Dreimäderlhaus at the Aldwych under the title Lilac Time. From the mid-1930s until about 1960, the theatre was owned by the Abrahams family.

Aldwych ( /ˈɔːldwɪtʃ/) is a place and road in the City of Westminster in London, England.

Aldwych, the road, is a crescent, connected to the Strand at both ends. At its centre, it meets the Kingsway. Buildings along its length are:

Nearby, in the Strand, is the now-disused Aldwych tube station.

Its official name is "Aldwych" but the road is sometimes colloquially referred to as "The Aldwych", rather in the same manner that "Strand" is often referred to as "The Strand".

The name, "Aldwych", derives from the Old English eald and wic meaning 'old trading town' or 'old marketplace'; the name was later applied to the street and district. It was recorded as Aldewich in 1211. In the seventh century, an Anglo-Saxon village and trading centre named Lundenwic ("London trading town") was established approximately one mile to the west of Londinium (named Lundenburh or "London Fort" by the Saxons) in what is now Aldwych. Lundenwic probably used the mouth of the River Fleet as a harbour or anchorage for trading ships and fishing boats.

Stephen Thomas Ward (19 October 1912 – 3 August 1963) was an osteopath and artist who became notorious as one of the central figures in the 1963 Profumo affair, a British public scandal which profoundly affected the ruling Conservative Party government. Ward introduced the married British cabinet minister and MP John Profumo to a showgirl named Christine Keeler at a house party hosted at Lord Astor's country home, Cliveden, in the summer of 1961. Profumo's subsequent sexual relationship with Keeler and his false statement to the House of Commons regarding its nature led to Profumo's resignation.

Following the Profumo scandal, Ward was charged with living off the profits of prostitution ("immoral earnings"). Ward committed suicide by overdosing on sleeping tablets on the last day of the trial.

Ward was the son of Arthur Evelyn Ward, Canon of Rochester Cathedral. He was educated at Highgate School in London. In 1920 the family moved to Torquay when Ward's father became Vicar of St. Matthias.

Pam St Clement (born Pamela Ann Clement, 12 May 1942) is a British actress. She played Pat Evans in the BBC soap opera EastEnders from 1986–2012, becoming one of the programme's longest-serving cast members. Clement announced her intention to leave EastEnders on 8 July 2011, and the character departed on 1 January 2012. She started her acting career in 1972, where she worked extensively on stage.

Clement's parents, Ann Tribe and Reginald Clement, married in 1940. Shortly after Clement's birth in 1942, her mother died and she was put into foster care when her father remarried. Clement subsequently grew up in various different foster homes until she was taken in by a family who owned a farm in Devon. She has commented: "I was very fortunate in the end. I was always being farmed off to holiday homes, then when I was just pre-teens I went down to Devon to some people who were very good at taking on youngsters, and what originated as a business arrangement became my home." Clement's father rose to become the managing director of a toy manufacturers in London and married five times in total over the course of his life.

Leonard Gordon 'Len' Goodman (born 25 April 1944) is a British professional ballroom dancer, dance judge, and coach. He is a leading personality on television dance programmes such as Strictly Come Dancing and Dancing with the Stars and runs a ballroom dance school in Dartford, Kent.

Goodman was born in Bethnal Green, the son of Louisa (née Eldridge) and Len Goodman. He moved to Blackfen near Welling (then in Kent) when he was six years old and attended Westwood Secondary Modern School where he was a member of the cricket team. He started dancing at the age of 19 after a short time as an apprentice welder (for Harland and Wolff in Woolwich). He tried dancing only in an attempt to recover from a foot injury sustained while playing football. He turned professional, won various competitions, and retired from dancing after winning the British Championships at Blackpool in his late twenties. He is a recipient of the Carl Alan Award, in recognition of outstanding contributions to dance. In 2006 and 2007, he was nominated for the Emmy Award in the Outstanding Reality/Competition Program category.