During its tenure at the theatre, the Derby Playhouse company gained a national reputation for its productions, particularly the works of Stephen Sondheim.
On 29 November 2007, following the refusal of Derby City Council to advance £40,000 from their 2008 grant, the board of trustees of the theatre announced that it was going into voluntary liquidation and that performances would cease immediately.
[9] Mark Woolgar was Resident Director for the first five seasons, programming work ranging from Shakespeare, Shaw and Ibsen to Ayckbourn, Orton and Coward.
Over the next seven years, the Playhouse's major productions included All My Sons with Miranda Richardson, Piaf with Caroline Quentin, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui starring Ben Roberts; new plays such as Rony Robinson's The Brewery Beano and Don Shaw's The Conspirator;[20] and box office successes such as Funny Peculiar, Having A Ball!
[21] In 1987, Annie Castledine succeeded Christopher Honer as Artistic Director, and for the next three years, the Playhouse saw a completely different style of theatre.
[22] Revivals of plays such as The Innocent Mistress, The Children's Hour and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs together with re-interpretations of classics such as A Doll's House and Jane Eyre.
There were also plays from the popular repertoire such as Arsenic and Old Lace, Gaslight and Noises Off alongside new work such as Sunday's Children, The Queen of Spades, Selling the Sizzle and Self Portrait and a series of co-productions with such companies as Shared Experience, Paines Plough and Temba.
[24] However, the City Council offered the theatre an additional grant, which enabled the Playhouse to continue to operate, although on a smaller scale.
[26] During the Clements period the programme included a variety of work, ranging from classics such as Death of a Salesman, Aphra Behn's Lucky Chance and Shakespeare's Richard III, to contemporary drama such as Our Boys, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice and Children of a Lesser God, and newly commissioned work such as Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Passion Killers and Blood Money.
[27] Musicals became an important part of the programme, starting with Grease, and including Little Shop of Horrors, Cabaret and Assassins, while the pantomimes written by Mark Clements and Michael Vivian drew in record numbers at Christmas time.
Written, composed and directed by Stephen Edwards, Moon Landing was subsequently nominated in the Best Musical Production category of the 2008 TMA Awards.
The company's last production before its permanent closure was The Killing of Sister George starring Jenny Eclair and directed by Cal McCrystal.