Regent Theatre, Melbourne

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The Regent Theatre is a theatre in Melbourne, Australia.

It is listed by the National Trust of Australia and is on the Victorian Heritage Register.

Contents

[edit] History

When first opened on Collins Streetin 15 March, 1929 as the flagship Melbourne theatre for the Regent franchise, the theatre has 3250 seats and equipped with a Wurlitzer organ and was the second largest theatre to the State Theatre.

The cinema was gutted by a fire on the 28 April, 1945 which destroyed both the auditorium and organ. The reconstructed Regent opened on 16 December, 1947, including a new organ making it one of the last old theatres to be build in the country.

By the 1960s, persistent rumours of the theatres closure forced proposals for it to be split into two cinemas.

On 1st July, 1970, Regent shut the doors of the city theatre, the one at South Yarra and Ballarat.

It is one of the last remaining fully intact theatres of the Regent picture palace franchise. The Regent in Sydney was demolished in 1988 and the Regent Theatre in Brisbane had its interiors substantially altered in 1978. The Ballarat Regent Theatre remains only as a historical facade to a complex developed in the 1990s. The cinema in Melbourne was the only to be used as a performing arts venue.

Lord Mayor Ron Walker was an early advocate of demolition of the old theatre, however Norm Gallagher helped to place a green ban on the building at the time.

The building remained unused for 26 years.

[edit] Redevelopment

Entrepeneur David Marinner earmarked the Regent for restoration when he established a revival movement for classical performing arts theatres in Melbourne during 1991 as part of a strategy to create a monopoly and promote the city a performing arts capital. In a deal with the Melbourne City Council, Marriner proposed to to purchase the adjacent City Square site for development of the multi-storey Westin Hotel and apartments on the condition that some of the money go towards restoring the theatre. The redevelopment took 3 years from September 1993, to its final reopening on January, 1996.

The exterior of the Regent is near identical to the Sydney theatre and Rennaisance Revival in style. The interiors are of a Roccoco style.

The Regent Theatre reopened on October 26, 1996 with a production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard.

[edit] Use

Over the years, the Regent has seen many live shows, including:

[edit] External Links

Theatre in Melbourne
Major Venues Athenaeum | Capitol Theatre | Comedy Theatre | Forum Theatre | Her Majesty's | La Mama | Malthouse Theatre | National Theatre | Palais Theatre | Princess Theatre | Regent Theatre | State Theatre
Major Companies Melbourne Theatre Company | Playbox Theatre Company | Red Stitch Actors Theatre | Theatreworks
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