Regent Theatre (Sydney)

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The Regent Theatre was Hoyts' showcase "picture palace" in Sydney, designed by the distinguished architect Cedric Ballantyne and built by James Porter & Sons.

Located at 487-503 George St, Sydney, near the Sydney Town Hall, it stood next door to the famed Sydney Trocadero dance hall, which was demolished in 1970.

The Regent operated as a cinema for most of its life, but from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s it was a popular venue for music concerts and stage shows, and in its final years hosted many large-scale musicals and performances by the Australian Opera and Australian Ballet.

The gala opening was on 9 March 1928 with the film Flesh and the Devil starring John Gilbert and Greta Garbo, the theatre closed with a screening of the documentary Ski Time on 26 May 1984. The last live performance was by American musician Ellen McIlwaine on 19 May 1984.

Demolition commenced in late 1988 after a court decision upheld the lifting of the permanent conservation order by the then Minister for Planning and Local Government.

The slump in the Sydney property market that followed meant that the site remained a vast hole in the ground until 2004, when work finally began on a new high-rise building complex.

Many of the theatre's fittings were sold at an auction in 1990, and can be found in a number of locations around Sydney and NSW. A lightweight plastic replica of the Art Deco crystal chandelier from the Regent's foyer now hangs in the foyer of the nearby The Metro Theatre; redeveloped from a cinema, it is now the city's leading rock music venue. The fate of the original chandelier, from which the Metro's copy was made, is unknown.