Our Newsletter celebrates 1000th edition

This week we celebrate the 1000th edition of our London Theatre Newsletter. First issued on 17 February 1996, by London Theatre Guide's founder, Darren Dalglish, the Newsletter has evolved over the years and continues to provide readers with up to date theatre-related news, features and reviews.

After 1000 weeks, the Newsletter has grown to cover both West End and Fringe news, providing readers a general outlook of all the openings, closings, cast changes and theatre gossip spanning an exciting nineteen years. The Newsletter continues to attract new readers, and we have adapted the style to include less text, more images and even special offers.

The first edition of the Newsletter began with some context, discussing how part of the West End had been shut down due to an IRA bomb scare. The big news of the week came from new musical The Fields of Ambrosia closing its doors at the Aldwych Theatre after just one week, to be replaced by Peter Bowles in Present Laughter.

A new production of Jesus Christ Superstar had been announced, with Summer Holiday and Heathcliff also finding their ways into the West End. Sondheim's musical Passion was set to open and had just announced a cast that included Michael Ball, Maria Friedman and Helen Hobson. Andrew Lloyd Webber's Starlight Express had just celebrated its 5000th performance and was about to mark its 12th Birthday in London.

The original production of David Hare's Skylight was preparing to open at the Wyndham's Theatre starring Michael Gambon and Lia Williams, along with Neil Simon's Chapter Two at the Gielgud Theatre starring Tom Conti and Sharon Gless.

The first newsletter also included a feature on actor Anthony Sher, who at the time was playing the lead role in Stanley at the National Theatre. Sher had by then already appeared on the London stage several times, and has returned many times since, including earlier this year in Death of a Salesman at the Noel Coward Theatre.

To celebrate our 1000th issue we will be running a competition in collaboration with our parent company, Encore Tickets Limited. The prize will be two tickets to see Wicked, one of the most popular shows in the West End. Further details will be included in this week's Newsletter, which will be emailed to subscribers on Friday 25 September.

The Newsletter is free! New subscribers can sign up here.