HISTORICAL NOTES

The Princess Theatre is the second building on the present site to be used for entertainment during the past 135 years.  The first building was Astley’s Amphitheatre, which opened in 1854.  It was a brick building with a roof span of 80 feet.  It had a central ring devoted to equestrian entertainment and a stage at one end for dramatic performances.  Despite an auspicious opening, with public demand seemingly insatiable, attendances soon dropped and it, as well as the adjoining Mazeppa Hotel, were auctioned.

Astley’s was then remodelled and redecorated by George Copping and reopened as the Royal Amphitheatre.  Unfortunately, despite the star attraction, Lola Montez, the theatre soon closed yet again.  Competition was intense.  The Theatre Royal, Coppin’s Olympic, Queen’s and Astley’s had a combined capacity of 8,000, notwithstanding the offerings of the Sale de Valentino, the Exhibition Building, Cremorne Gardens, Cyclorama and the Hippodrome.

In 1857, the amphitheatre was renovated and the facade extended.  It reopened as the Princess Theatre and Opera House.  Despite opening night being postponed several times, the renovations were still not completed in time.

The ownership of the theatre changed on an almost annual basis but, nevertheless, it was a successful venture.  After yet another change in ownership in 1865, the theatre was again remodelled, with everything other than the shell of the building being new.  It had a tromp l’oeil ceiling, 20-burner gasolier and Corinthian colonnade in part of the Dress Circle.

Although for many years the Princess was a popular house, where many stars and plays made their debut on the Australian stage, it once again became dilapidated and fell into disrepair.  The inglorious end came with its closing on 3 January 1885 to a poorly-attended house.

By 1885, the partnership of J C Williamson, George Musgrove and Arthur Garner (“The Triumvirate”) had been formed. Together, they resolved to build a new theatre.   William Pitt, designer of the Rialto and St Kilda Town Hall, was engaged as the architect.  George Gordon, the chief scene painter, was charged with designing the interior and Cockram and Comely were engaged as the builders. At a cost of £50,000, the work took nine months (three months longer than planned) and was finished in time for the opening in December 1886.  Even so, the Dress Circle remained undecorated on opening night.

The new Princess Theatre was the fourteenth theatre erected in Melbourne.  Of the previous thirteen, four were burnt down, three converted to other uses, two razed to the ground and four were still operating.

The present theatre opened on 18 December 1886, with a performance of “The Mikado”.  The marble stair and foyer were hailed as equal to the Paris Opera, the Frankfurt Stadt and the Grand in Bordeaux.  The only dissenter from universal praise was The Bulletin, which likened the sensation of the opening roof as “like going to a picnic without the ants and the earwigs”.

Among the novelties, painted panels were included above the proscenium which, when raised, revealed ferneries and rockeries through which tumbled miniature waterfalls.

The theatre became the venue for good drama, opera and ballet, and patrons wore evening dress long before it was customary in other theatres.  One unfortunate, in full evening dress, met his end in the theatre.  Frederick Baker (Federici), playing the part of Mephistopheles in Faust, descended into hell amid smoke and flame via a stage trap and suffered a heart attack in the process and died.  His ghost still haunts the theatre!

In 1901, the former open terraces on the first floor were enclosed with stained glass windows to create a Wintergarden and more usable foyer space.  Once again, William Pitt was the architect and Hughes of Brooks Robinson designed the windows.  Other than the Wintergarden, very little in the way of alterations occurred.

By 1922, the theatre was again in need of refurbishment.  The new owners, Benjamin and John Fuller and Hugh J Ward, commissioned prolific theatre architect, Henry White, to carry out extensive renovations.  White was also responsible for the present interior of the Athenaeum Theatre and the Palace Theatre, now the Metro nightclub.

At a cost of £50,000, the interior was extensively replastered and redecorated, the columns supporting the Dress and Upper Circle were removed and replaced by new cantilevered balconies, and the original shops and separate entrances to the theatre from Spring Street were turned into a new street-level foyer.  To do this, White continued Pitt’s column and arch at the foot of the marble stair along the length of the building to form a grand colonnade to Spring Street.  The copper awning to Spring Street was also installed.

The new interior was designed in the “Adam” style.  The technique of colour glazing was used, wherein all the colours merge into each other.  In the dome, the colours blend from a darker hue to a lighter range near the central sunburst.  In 1922, twenty men were employed on the dome alone.  In 1989, all the painters were trained on-site in the special techniques, just as was done in 1922.  The decorative ceiling and marble stair to the Dress Circle foyer date from 1886, however, the decorative treatment is the 1922 scheme.

The theatre reopened on 26 December 1922 with a performance of the latest Broadway hit “The O’Brien Girl”.

The theatre once again gradually slipped into disrepair and no longer suited the requirements of the modern show.  In 1986, David Marriner purchased the Princess Theatre and set about planning its total refurbishment and ensuring its future viability as a live theatre.  This included raising the height of the proscenium, removing the nineteenth-century stage equipment, constructing a new fly tower above the stage and west wing containing dressing rooms, the installation of new bars and the complete restoration to historic areas.

Before restoration could commence, a complete historical study was carried out, the building thoroughly investigated and documented and recommendations made to reinstate the 1922 scheme.  This was largely because so much of the 1886 scheme had disappeared during the 1922 works.  Samples of original light fittings were found in the theatre and accurately reproduced.  Approximately 2,000 samples of paint were microscopically analysed to find the details of the 1922 scheme.

On 9 December 1989, the Princess Theatre reopened with the musical “Les Miserables”, followed by “The Phantom Of The Opera”, which commenced in December 1990 and established a new record for the longest-runing show ever staged in Victoria.  The previous record was held by “My Fair Lady”, which commenced in 1959 at Her Majesty’s Theatre.

There is no doubt the Princess Theatre has been lovingly restored to a standard that has once again enabled it to become one of Australia's most loved theatre venues.