Venue: Leicester Haymarket Theatre
Address: Belgrave Gate, Leicester, Leicestershire, England
Town: Leicester, GB

The Leicester Haymarket Theatre is a theatre in Leicester, England, next to the Haymarket Shopping Centre on Belgrave Gate in Leicester City centre. It operated as a theatre (with two stages) from 1973 to 2007, and again briefly between 2017 and 2020. Since 2023 it has been a teaching and performing base for a dance school. The Haymarket Theatre was designed by Building Design Partnership, to supersede the small Phoenix Theatre. When first built, the auditorium sat 750 people, "built with a large London dimensioned stage, capable of staging grand Opera, or Ballet, but having too small a seating capacity to make it viable for such shows". Later a rehearsal area in the building was converted into a smaller, more intimate stage, the Studio Theatre, which sat 120 people. The Haymarket Theatre was opened by Sir Ralph Richardson on 30 November 1973. The opening season started ahead of the official opening with The Recruiting Officer on 17 October 1973, Economic Necessity on 24 October and Cabaret on 21 November. Leicester City Council purchased a 99-year lease of the theatre in 1974. The Haymarket's early production directors were Robin Midgley and Michael Bogdanov. The musical director was American Robert Mandell, and the Haymarket soon gained a reputation for developing and producing stage musicals, many of which transferred to the West End in London and Broadway in New York. The Haymarket mounted several musicals in collaboration with Cameron Mackintosh. Between 1973 and 2007 the theatre was operated by The Leicester Theatre Trust. The Trust vacated the theatre in 2007 when it moved to the newly built Curve Theatre, Leicester in Leicester's Cultural Quarter. The last show held at the Haymarket by the Leicester Theatre Trust was Wizard of Oz starring Helena Blackman in 2006. The theatre was closed in 2007 and remained so for the next 10 years. In June 2016 the management of the theatre was taken over by an organisation known as the Haymarket Consortium who undertook tha