The Shaftesbury Theatre will start previewing Rock of Ages from 31st August, 2011. The show is a massive hit on Broadway and also has an Australian and US National Tour production running and now looks set to rock the West End!

Rock of Ages celebrates (glam) rock music of the 80’s featuring Material by Bon Jovi, Journey, Whitesnake, Poison, Pat Benatar and several much more. Expect to rock along with old favourites including ‘I wanna know what adore is’, ‘Wanted dead or alive’, ‘Every rose has its Torn’, We built this city’.

The Story: In 1987 on the Sunset Strip, a little town girl meets a huge city rocker in LA’s most renowned rock club and they fell in love to the greatest songs of the 80s. It’s ROCK OF AGES, an arena-rock adore story told by way of the mind-blowing, face-melting hits like Do not Stop Believin’, Dead or Alive, We Built This City, I Wanna Know what Love Is and also the Final Count Down. Don’t miss this awesomely great time about dreaming large, playing loud and partying on! Rock of Ages looks set to be the greatest party to need to town given that Mamma Mia and will rival We Will Rock You for total rock dominance in the West End!

Shaftesbury Theatre brief history: The theatre was created for the brothers Walter and Frederick Melville by Bertie Crewe and opened on 26 December 1911 with a production of The Three Musketeers, as the New Prince's Theatre, becoming the Prince's Theatre in 1914. It had a capacity of 2,392 and a stage 31' 10" wide by 31' deep.

The Prince's was the last theatre to be built in Shaftesbury Avenue, and is situated near New Oxford Street. It had considerable success with an 18 week season of Gilbert and Sullivan operas, presented by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, in 1919. These became a normal attraction at the theatre within the 1920s, interspersed with runs of theatre productions transferred from other venues. Basil Rathbone appeared at the Prince's Theatre in Could 1933 when he played Julian Beauclerc in a revival of Diplomacy. The Rose of Persia was revived at the theatre in 1935. The D'Oyly Carte returned in 1942.

The theatre was sold to EMI in 1962, and became the Shaftesbury Theatre the following year. Broadway productions that transferred to the theatre for lengthy runs in the 1960s included Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1962), The way to Succeed in Organization With out Really Attempting (1963) and Little Me (1964).

Part of the ceiling fell in on 20 July 1973, forcing the closure of the long-running musical Hair, right after 1,998 performances. The theatre practically fell victim to redevelopment, but a campaign by Equity succeeded in having the theatre placed on the 'Statutory List of Buildings of Special architectural or Historic Interest', and the theatre was Grade II listed by English Heritage in March 1974.

The theatre reopened with West Side Story a year later. Lengthy runs in the 1980s included They're Playing Our Song (1980) and Follies (1987). The next decade included long runs of Kiss of the Spider Woman (1992), Eddie Izzard: Definite Post (1995) and Rent (1998). During the redevelopment of the Royal Opera Home in nearby Covent Garden within the late 1990s, the theatre was booked as an option London venue for performances which includes Benjamin Britten's Paul Bunyan. A series of musicals followed.