The National Theatre began in 1963 with the first Artistic Director Lord Laurence Olivier begin directing and producing shows from The Old Vic Theatre. By 1977, the National Theatre moved into its current home on the South Bank. The building designed by Sir Denys Lasdun has become noted and famed for the brutalist concrete fly towers that overlook the National's Olivier and Lyttelton theatres. The National Theatre is home to four theatres as of 2015, the amphitheatre style Olivier, the Lyttelton for smaller productions, the recently reopened Dorfman (previously Cottesloe) and the red crate Temporary Theatre which looks out over the River Thames.
As a producing theatre, the National Theatre produce around 30-40 productions each year covering a wide range of genres from Shakespeare to classics and of course musical theatre. Notable productions include Here Lies Love, the London transfer of the off-Broadway hit by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim which reopened the Dorfman in October 2015, Jerry Springer The Opera opened in 2003 at the National as part of the then new Artistic Director Sir Nicholas Hytner's opening season, Tori Amos and Marianne Elliott bought the new work The Light Princess in 2013 which garnered positive reviews. A number of musical theatre productions took place under Artistic Director Trevor Nunn between 1997 and 2003 and many transferred into the nearby West End.
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