fbpx
Wikipedia

Princess Theatre (Melbourne)

The Princess Theatre, originally Princess's Theatre, is a 1452-seat theatre in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Established in 1854 and rebuilt in 1886 to a design by noted Melbourne architect William Pitt, it is the oldest surviving entertainment site on mainland Australia. Built in an elaborate Second Empire style, it reflects the opulence of the "Marvellous Melbourne" boom period, and had a number of innovative features, including state of the art electric stage lighting and the world's first sliding ceiling, which was rolled back on warm nights to give the effect of an open-air theatre.

Princess Theatre
Spring Street facade
Address163 Spring Street
Melbourne, Victoria,
Australia
OwnerMarriner Group
DesignationVictorian Heritage Register
Capacity1,452
Construction
Opened1854
Rebuilt1886
ArchitectWilliam Pitt
Website
www.marrinergroup.com.au

Located on Spring Street in Melbourne's East End Theatre District, it is listed by the National Trust of Australia and is on the Victorian Heritage Register.

Astley's Amphitheatre

 
Astley's Amphitheatre, c. 1850s

Entertainment on the site of today's Princess Theatre dates back to the gold rush period in 1854, when the Irish-American entrepreneur Tom Mooney constructed a barn-like structure called Astley's Amphitheatre.

It featured a central ring for equestrian entertainment and a stage at one end for dramatic performances. Its name echoed that of Astley's Amphitheatre, near Westminster Bridge, London. Its first lessee was George Lewis who staged a series of "grand concerts" there from 11 September 1854.[1] Lewis was forced into insolvency within a year and Mooney divested himself of the amphitheatre and the adjacent Mazeppa Hotel to one Samuel Boyle.

It was later leased by the actor-manager George Coppin, who had already established himself as an actor at the Queen's Theatre, and would go on to build the Olympic Theatre (known as the "Iron Pot") on the corner of Exhibition and Lonsdale Streets (the future site of the Comedy Theatre), build the Haymarket Theatre and Apollo Music Hall, and lease (and eventually rebuild) the Theatre Royal in Bourke Street.

Princess's Theatre

 
The Interior of the Princess Theatre, Melbourne, 1865. Samuel Calvert. State Library Victoria

In 1857, the amphitheatre was extensively renovated and the facade extended, re-opening on 16 April as the Princess's Theatre and Opera House.[2] Its first manager, John Black,[3] founded the Theatre Royal two years earlier.[4]

In September 1877 L. M. Bayless, who had the lease on the Queen's Theatre, Sydney took a long term lease on the Princess's Theatre,[5] and had it extensively refitted, and reopened 28 December 1877 as the New Princess Theatre.[6]

The New Princess Theatre

 
Princess Theatre Melbourne ca. 1894 State Library Victoria

By 1885, the theatre came under the control of "The Triumvirate", a partnership between J. C. Williamson, George Musgrove and Arthur Garner. The existing theatre had become rundown, and so the Triumvirate resolved to demolish the existing building.

The new theatre, designed by architect William Pitt, interiors designed by George Gordon, and built by Cockram and Comely, was completed in 1886 at a cost of £50,000. The design is in the exuberant Second Empire style, and the theatre forms part of the Victorian streetscape of Spring Street. The theatre re-opened, again, on 18 December 1886, this time simply known as the Princess Theatre, with a performance of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado.

When completed, it featured state-of-the-art electrical stage lighting, as well as Australia's first sliding or retractable roof and ceiling which provided ventilation from the auditorium. The marble staircase and grand foyers were hailed as equal to that of the Paris Opera, the Frankfurt Stadt and the Grand in Bordeaux.

 
The theatre at dusk, July 2010

Williamson left the Triumvirate in 1899 to form his own company, and Musgrove continued operate the theatre until 1910. The Princess came under a rapid succession of different owners until 1915, when Ben Fuller took control. Fuller then went into partnership with Hugh J. Ward, and in 1922 they engaged the architect Henry Eli White to extensively renovate the auditorium and foyers, and add the grand copper awning. The New Princess Theatre reopened on 26 December 1922 with a performance of The O'Brien Girl.

The theatre was purchased from Fuller in 1933 by Efftee Films, the film production company of F. W. Thring, the theatrical and film entrepreneur, who had his initials FT carved over the proscenium arch. He produced several musicals there including the Australian musicals Collits' Inn and The Cedar Tree, and made it the first home of his radio station 3XY founded in 1935.[7]

When F.W. Thring died, Sir Ben Fuller and Garnet Carroll took over the lease of the Princess and in 1946 they formed another partnership forming Carroll-Fuller Theatres Ltd to purchase the theatre.[8]

 
Stained glass window on the Princess Theatre exterior.

After Fuller's death in 1952, Carroll assumed complete control.[9] For the following 12 years, often in association with other entrepreneurs, he presented an eclectic array of opera, ballet, musical comedy and drama, though he was constrained by the lack of an interstate circuit. At the Princess in 1954 he hosted the National Theatre Movement’s gala performance of The Tales of Hoffmann for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. Other notable productions included Ballet Rambert (1947–48), the Old Vic Theatre Company with Sir Laurence (Lord) Olivier and Vivien Leigh (1948), the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company (1949), the Vienna Boys' Choir (1954), the Chinese Classical Theatre (1956) and the Sadler's Wells Opera Company (1960 and 1962). Carroll often staged elaborate American musicals—among them Kismet (which he himself produced in 1954), The Sound of Music (1960), The King and I (1960) and Carousel (1964)—while they were still in their early months on Broadway, and tried unknown singers and actors.[10]

Carroll died on 23 August 1964 and ownership passed to his son, John Carroll. For some years he maintained the pattern set by his father, but in 1969 the family company, Carroll Freeholds Pty Ltd, leased the Princess to the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust. Over time, the theatre was used less frequently, and the theatre fell into disrepair.

1989 reopening and current operation

In 1986, David Marriner purchased the theatre and commenced a renovation and refurbishment to restore the building to its 1922 state, and improve its technical capacity. The refurbished theatre reopened on 9 December 1989 with the musical Les Misérables, followed by The Phantom of the Opera, which established a new record for the longest running show ever staged in Victoria.

The Princess Theatre continues to be owned and operated by the Marriner Group as a venue for major musical theatre productions, including Beauty and the Beast, Mamma Mia!, Jersey Boys and The Book of Mormon.

The Australian production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child opened at the Princess Theatre in early 2019,[11] as the third location for the production after London and New York. The theatre underwent a comprehensive internal and external refurbishment in 2018 in preparation for the production.[12] In its first year, the production was the most successful in the history of Australian theatre, with other 326,000 attendees. However, it was then forced to take a forty-nine week hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[13]

Ghost sightings

 
Frederick Federici, c. 1888

The theatre has experienced several reported ghost sightings.[14]

On the evening of 3 March 1888, the baritone Frederick Baker, known under the stage name "Frederick Federici", was performing the role of Mephistopheles in Gounod's opera Faust. This production ended with Mephistopheles sinking dramatically through a trapdoor returning to the fires of hell with his prize, the unfortunate Dr Faustus. As Federici was lowered down through the stage into this basement, he had a heart attack and died almost immediately.[15] He never came back onstage to take his bows, but when the company was told of what had happened at the end of the opera, they said that he had been onstage and taken the bows with them.[16] Since then, various people have claimed to see a ghostly figure in evening dress at the theatre. For many years, a third-row seat in the dress circle was kept vacant in his honour.[17]

Previous productions

Notable productions at the Princess Theatre include:

It has also been used as a venue for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, including the stage show Puppet Up! in 2007.

References

  1. ^ "Local Intelligence". The Banner (Melbourne). No. CVIII. Victoria, Australia. 1 September 1854. p. 9. Retrieved 20 August 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. ^ "Advertising". The Age. No. 774. Victoria, Australia. 14 April 1857. p. 1. Retrieved 6 September 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. ^ "A Peep Behind the Scenes of the Princess's Theatre". The Age. No. 1, 155. Victoria, Australia. 5 July 1858. p. 6. Retrieved 6 September 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. ^ "The Princess's Theatre". The Age. No. 781. Victoria, Australia. 22 April 1857. p. 4. Retrieved 6 September 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. ^ "Queen's Theatre, Sydney". The Australasian. Vol. XXIII, no. 599. Victoria, Australia. 22 September 1877. p. 19. Retrieved 6 March 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. ^ "The New Princess Theatre". The Weekly Times (Melbourne). No. 433. Victoria, Australia. 29 December 1877. p. 14. Retrieved 6 March 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. ^ Argus, 4 August 1993, p.7, quoted in The Two Frank Thrings, Peter Fitzpatrick, Monash University Publications 2012
  8. ^ . Archived from the original on 10 March 2015. Retrieved 17 May 2015.
  9. ^ . Archived from the original on 10 March 2015. Retrieved 17 May 2015.
  10. ^ "Carroll, Garnet Hannell (1902–1964)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
  11. ^ "Hit play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child coming to Melbourne in 2019". 23 October 2017.
  12. ^ https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/harry-potter-show-transforming-melbourne-theatre/news-story/cacd6324fc406b91bbe0077ceca6182c?nk=ad940100a3c32cd364580c6c9f296be9-1532208643[bare URL]
  13. ^ "The magic returns after 49 weeks | News". 24 February 2021.
  14. ^ The theatre ghost 23 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine from the ABC
  15. ^ Stone, David. Frederick Federici 30 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine at Who Was Who in the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, 27 August 2001, accessed 4 September 2011
  16. ^ "Shocking Occurrence at the Princess's Theatre: Tragic Death of Mr. Federici", The Argus (Melbourne), 5 March 1888, p. 8; and "Production of Faust in Melbourne", The Press, Volume XLV, Issue 7025, 29 March 1888, p. 3, National Library of New Zealand
  17. ^ Graeme Blundell, "Marvellous Meelbourne", The Age, 27–28 August 2005

External links

Coordinates: 37°48′39″S 144°58′20″E / 37.810725°S 144.972169°E / -37.810725; 144.972169

princess, theatre, melbourne, this, article, about, historic, theatre, melbourne, victoria, australia, other, uses, princess, theatre, princess, theatre, originally, princess, theatre, 1452, seat, theatre, melbourne, victoria, australia, established, 1854, reb. This article is about the historic theatre in Melbourne Victoria Australia For other uses see Princess Theatre The Princess Theatre originally Princess s Theatre is a 1452 seat theatre in Melbourne Victoria Australia Established in 1854 and rebuilt in 1886 to a design by noted Melbourne architect William Pitt it is the oldest surviving entertainment site on mainland Australia Built in an elaborate Second Empire style it reflects the opulence of the Marvellous Melbourne boom period and had a number of innovative features including state of the art electric stage lighting and the world s first sliding ceiling which was rolled back on warm nights to give the effect of an open air theatre Princess TheatreSpring Street facadeAddress163 Spring StreetMelbourne Victoria AustraliaOwnerMarriner GroupDesignationVictorian Heritage RegisterCapacity1 452ConstructionOpened1854Rebuilt1886ArchitectWilliam PittWebsitewww marrinergroup com auLocated on Spring Street in Melbourne s East End Theatre District it is listed by the National Trust of Australia and is on the Victorian Heritage Register Contents 1 Astley s Amphitheatre 2 Princess s Theatre 3 The New Princess Theatre 4 1989 reopening and current operation 5 Ghost sightings 6 Previous productions 7 References 8 External linksAstley s Amphitheatre Edit Astley s Amphitheatre c 1850s Entertainment on the site of today s Princess Theatre dates back to the gold rush period in 1854 when the Irish American entrepreneur Tom Mooney constructed a barn like structure called Astley s Amphitheatre It featured a central ring for equestrian entertainment and a stage at one end for dramatic performances Its name echoed that of Astley s Amphitheatre near Westminster Bridge London Its first lessee was George Lewis who staged a series of grand concerts there from 11 September 1854 1 Lewis was forced into insolvency within a year and Mooney divested himself of the amphitheatre and the adjacent Mazeppa Hotel to one Samuel Boyle It was later leased by the actor manager George Coppin who had already established himself as an actor at the Queen s Theatre and would go on to build the Olympic Theatre known as the Iron Pot on the corner of Exhibition and Lonsdale Streets the future site of the Comedy Theatre build the Haymarket Theatre and Apollo Music Hall and lease and eventually rebuild the Theatre Royal in Bourke Street Princess s Theatre Edit The Interior of the Princess Theatre Melbourne 1865 Samuel Calvert State Library Victoria In 1857 the amphitheatre was extensively renovated and the facade extended re opening on 16 April as the Princess s Theatre and Opera House 2 Its first manager John Black 3 founded the Theatre Royal two years earlier 4 In September 1877 L M Bayless who had the lease on the Queen s Theatre Sydney took a long term lease on the Princess s Theatre 5 and had it extensively refitted and reopened 28 December 1877 as the New Princess Theatre 6 The New Princess Theatre Edit Princess Theatre Melbourne ca 1894 State Library Victoria By 1885 the theatre came under the control of The Triumvirate a partnership between J C Williamson George Musgrove and Arthur Garner The existing theatre had become rundown and so the Triumvirate resolved to demolish the existing building The new theatre designed by architect William Pitt interiors designed by George Gordon and built by Cockram and Comely was completed in 1886 at a cost of 50 000 The design is in the exuberant Second Empire style and the theatre forms part of the Victorian streetscape of Spring Street The theatre re opened again on 18 December 1886 this time simply known as the Princess Theatre with a performance of Gilbert and Sullivan s The Mikado When completed it featured state of the art electrical stage lighting as well as Australia s first sliding or retractable roof and ceiling which provided ventilation from the auditorium The marble staircase and grand foyers were hailed as equal to that of the Paris Opera the Frankfurt Stadt and the Grand in Bordeaux The theatre at dusk July 2010 Williamson left the Triumvirate in 1899 to form his own company and Musgrove continued operate the theatre until 1910 The Princess came under a rapid succession of different owners until 1915 when Ben Fuller took control Fuller then went into partnership with Hugh J Ward and in 1922 they engaged the architect Henry Eli White to extensively renovate the auditorium and foyers and add the grand copper awning The New Princess Theatre reopened on 26 December 1922 with a performance of The O Brien Girl The theatre was purchased from Fuller in 1933 by Efftee Films the film production company of F W Thring the theatrical and film entrepreneur who had his initials FT carved over the proscenium arch He produced several musicals there including the Australian musicals Collits Inn and The Cedar Tree and made it the first home of his radio station 3XY founded in 1935 7 When F W Thring died Sir Ben Fuller and Garnet Carroll took over the lease of the Princess and in 1946 they formed another partnership forming Carroll Fuller Theatres Ltd to purchase the theatre 8 Stained glass window on the Princess Theatre exterior After Fuller s death in 1952 Carroll assumed complete control 9 For the following 12 years often in association with other entrepreneurs he presented an eclectic array of opera ballet musical comedy and drama though he was constrained by the lack of an interstate circuit At the Princess in 1954 he hosted the National Theatre Movement s gala performance of The Tales of Hoffmann for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip Other notable productions included Ballet Rambert 1947 48 the Old Vic Theatre Company with Sir Laurence Lord Olivier and Vivien Leigh 1948 the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company 1949 the Vienna Boys Choir 1954 the Chinese Classical Theatre 1956 and the Sadler s Wells Opera Company 1960 and 1962 Carroll often staged elaborate American musicals among them Kismet which he himself produced in 1954 The Sound of Music 1960 The King and I 1960 and Carousel 1964 while they were still in their early months on Broadway and tried unknown singers and actors 10 Carroll died on 23 August 1964 and ownership passed to his son John Carroll For some years he maintained the pattern set by his father but in 1969 the family company Carroll Freeholds Pty Ltd leased the Princess to the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust Over time the theatre was used less frequently and the theatre fell into disrepair 1989 reopening and current operation EditIn 1986 David Marriner purchased the theatre and commenced a renovation and refurbishment to restore the building to its 1922 state and improve its technical capacity The refurbished theatre reopened on 9 December 1989 with the musical Les Miserables followed by The Phantom of the Opera which established a new record for the longest running show ever staged in Victoria The Princess Theatre continues to be owned and operated by the Marriner Group as a venue for major musical theatre productions including Beauty and the Beast Mamma Mia Jersey Boys and The Book of Mormon The Australian production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child opened at the Princess Theatre in early 2019 11 as the third location for the production after London and New York The theatre underwent a comprehensive internal and external refurbishment in 2018 in preparation for the production 12 In its first year the production was the most successful in the history of Australian theatre with other 326 000 attendees However it was then forced to take a forty nine week hiatus due to the COVID 19 pandemic 13 Ghost sightings EditMain article Frederick Federici Frederick Federici c 1888 The theatre has experienced several reported ghost sightings 14 On the evening of 3 March 1888 the baritone Frederick Baker known under the stage name Frederick Federici was performing the role of Mephistopheles in Gounod s opera Faust This production ended with Mephistopheles sinking dramatically through a trapdoor returning to the fires of hell with his prize the unfortunate Dr Faustus As Federici was lowered down through the stage into this basement he had a heart attack and died almost immediately 15 He never came back onstage to take his bows but when the company was told of what had happened at the end of the opera they said that he had been onstage and taken the bows with them 16 Since then various people have claimed to see a ghostly figure in evening dress at the theatre For many years a third row seat in the dress circle was kept vacant in his honour 17 Previous productions EditNotable productions at the Princess Theatre include 1933 Collits Inn 1934 The Cedar Tree 1951 An Aboriginal Moomba Out of the Dark 1956 Kismet 1957 Salad Days 1958 Bells are Ringing Free as Air 1959 Once Upon a Mattress 1960 The Music Man West Side Story 1961 Lock Up Your Daughters The Most Happy Fella The Sound of Music 1962 The King and I 1963 Wildcat 1964 Carousel Finian s Rainbow 1965 High Spirits Porgy and Bess 1966 Robert and Elizabeth 1968 Marlene Dietrich 1972 Carol Channing 1975 The Magic Show 1976 Betty Blokk Buster Follies 1979 Danny La Rue 1983 West Side Story 1984 Fiddler on the Roof 1986 The Rocky Horror Show 1988 Manning Clark s History of Australia The Musical 1989 Les Miserables 1990 The Phantom of the Opera 1993 Cats Scrooge 1994 West Side Story Me and My Girl Hot Shoe Shuffle 1995 Beauty and the Beast 1997 Chess A Little Night Music The Phantom of the Opera 1998 Les Miserables 1999 The Boy from Oz 2000 The Importance of Being Earnest The Sound of Music 2001 Mamma Mia 2002 The Witches of Eastwick 2004 The Producers 2005 Dirty Dancing 2006 Swan Lake on Ice Kiss Me Kate 2007 The Phantom of the Opera 2008 Guys and Dolls 2009 Jersey Boys 2010 Hairspray 2012 Moonshadow South Pacific 2013 Legally Blonde 2014 The King amp I Once 2015 Anything Goes Fiddler on the Roof 2016 Matilda the Musical 2017 The Book of Mormon 2018 Mamma Mia 2019 Harry Potter and the Cursed Child It has also been used as a venue for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival including the stage show Puppet Up in 2007 References Edit Local Intelligence The Banner Melbourne No CVIII Victoria Australia 1 September 1854 p 9 Retrieved 20 August 2021 via National Library of Australia Advertising The Age No 774 Victoria Australia 14 April 1857 p 1 Retrieved 6 September 2021 via National Library of Australia A Peep Behind the Scenes of the Princess s Theatre The Age No 1 155 Victoria Australia 5 July 1858 p 6 Retrieved 6 September 2021 via National Library of Australia The Princess s Theatre The Age No 781 Victoria Australia 22 April 1857 p 4 Retrieved 6 September 2021 via National Library of Australia Queen s Theatre Sydney The Australasian Vol XXIII no 599 Victoria Australia 22 September 1877 p 19 Retrieved 6 March 2022 via National Library of Australia The New Princess Theatre The Weekly Times Melbourne No 433 Victoria Australia 29 December 1877 p 14 Retrieved 6 March 2022 via National Library of Australia Argus 4 August 1993 p 7 quoted in The Two Frank Thrings Peter Fitzpatrick Monash University Publications 2012 Garnet H Carroll 2 Archived from the original on 10 March 2015 Retrieved 17 May 2015 Garnet H Carroll 2 Archived from the original on 10 March 2015 Retrieved 17 May 2015 Carroll Garnet Hannell 1902 1964 Australian Dictionary of Biography National Centre of Biography Australian National University Hit play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child coming to Melbourne in 2019 23 October 2017 https www heraldsun com au news victoria harry potter show transforming melbourne theatre news story cacd6324fc406b91bbe0077ceca6182c nk ad940100a3c32cd364580c6c9f296be9 1532208643 bare URL The magic returns after 49 weeks News 24 February 2021 The theatre ghost Archived 23 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine from the ABC Stone David Frederick Federici Archived 30 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine at Who Was Who in the D Oyly Carte Opera Company 27 August 2001 accessed 4 September 2011 Shocking Occurrence at the Princess s Theatre Tragic Death of Mr Federici The Argus Melbourne 5 March 1888 p 8 and Production of Faust in Melbourne The Press Volume XLV Issue 7025 29 March 1888 p 3 National Library of New Zealand Graeme Blundell Marvellous Meelbourne The Age 27 28 August 2005External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Princess Theatre Melbourne Marriner Theatres What s on at Princess Theatre Citysearch Melbourne permanent dead link Coordinates 37 48 39 S 144 58 20 E 37 810725 S 144 972169 E 37 810725 144 972169 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Princess Theatre Melbourne amp oldid 1121805211, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.