TheTheatre Royal onHindley Street,Adelaide was a significant venue in the history of the stage andcinema inSouth Australia. After a small predecessor of the same name onFranklin Street (built 1838), the Theatre Royal on Hindley Street was built in 1868. It hosted both stage performances andmovies, passing through several changes of ownership before it was eventually demolished to make way for a multi-storey car park in 1962.
The first "Theatre Royal" inAdelaide was a small venue above the Adelaide Tavern inFranklin Street, managed by a Mr Bonnar, and was opened in May 1838. The first production staged there wasMountaineers, or, Love and Madness (Colman). Bonnar was succeeded as manager by Sampson Marshall. This was eclipsed in 1841 by the opening of theQueen's Theatre on Gilles Arcade, offCurrie Street, and the old theatre was remodelled as a Commercial Exchange. In December 1850 theRoyal Victoria Theatre (later Queen's) opened, also on Gilles Arcade, with Coppin andSamuel Lazar joint managers.[citation needed]
In December 1865 a prospectus was issued in Adelaide for a Theatre Royal company to take overWhite's Assembly Rooms and the adjacent Clarence Hotel,[2] alternatively to purchase a vacant site and erect a new building.[3] By December 1867 plans had been prepared for a new structure to be added to the rear of Peter Cummings & Son's drapery store at 21 Hindley Street, Leonard Voullaire's at 23 (then was the financially troubled Paull & Meredith's wine bar 1868–1870), and Mrs Bament's at 27.[4] Paull & Meredith had a wine bar.[5]Thomas English was chosen as supervising architect and W. Lines the builder.[6] The proprietors were Lazar, John Temple Sagar, andJochim Matthias Wendt.[7] The foundation stone was laid by owner of the propertyHenry Fuller on 8 January 1868, and the At the foundation ceremony, Fuller, thenMayor of Adelaide, said that it would replace the "inferior" Royal Victoria as Adelaide's principal theatre. Seating 1300, it opened as Adelaide's second major theatre.[8]
The first performance was held on 13 April 1868 (Easter Monday), a production ofAll that Glitters is not Gold byJohn Norton.[9]
Edgar Chapman became owner of the property shortly afterwards, and it remained in his family for some time.[citation needed] The first lessee and director wasGeorge Coppin of Coppin, Harwood and Hennings, with stage manager J. R. Greville (1834–1894), a noted comedian.[10]
Lazar was lessee and manager from 1870, for a time in partnership with one Reuben Mills, suspended while his liquidity was being sorted out, then sole lessee from 1871.[11]James Allison joined him as partner in 1873, became sole lessee around 1876.[citation needed]
In October 1876Edgar Chapman purchased the Theatre Royal, its hotel and the adjoining shops for £11,000, and lost no time in appointingGeorge Johnson architect for a complete rebuild of the theatre.[12] Enlarged to accommodate 3,000 patrons, the theatre became the first example ofVictorian theatrical interior design in Adelaide.[8] The rebuilt house was opened on 25 March 1878 with an address written byEbenezer Ward, followed by the operaGiroflé-Girofla withEmily Soldene,Minna Fischer andClara Vesey.[13] These first few years were the heyday of musical theatre.[14]
In 1883 external fire stairs were erected in response to demands from the City Council.[15]
In January 1885Arthur Chapman, a brother of the owner, joinedGeorge Rignold and James Allison as co-lessees; Chapman being the local representative.[16] In December Rignold and Allison withdrew from the partnership, leaving Chapman as sole trustee,[17] as well as acting as managing the property for the ailing Edgar Chapman, and then for his estate. He continued in both roles April 1886, whenWilliamson, Garner, & Musgrove took over the lease, and on 1887 appointedWybert Reeve as manager.
Around 1889 Reeve became sole lessee of the theatre. On 19 October 1896 he hosted the first public demonstration in South Australia ofmoving pictures, the projector being acinématographe Lumière.[18] A number of short films, around a minute in length and featuring dancers and American folk heroes, were shown.[19] However, the venue was deemed unsuitable as a cinema, and the screening apparatus was moved to theBeehive Building not long afterwards.[8]
Wybert Reeve retired from management in 1900, and sold the lease toFrederick Pollock, who managed the theatre capably until forced by illness to take onHerbert Myers (1879–1927), his wife's nephew, as manager. Pollock died in November 1908, and his wife continued to run it in partnership with Myers.[citation needed]
The theatre was further enlarged and updated in 1914[20] underJames Williamson, who reopened on 11 April that year and continued to run the theatre for around 50 years.William Pitt was commissioned by the manager George Tallis. Pitt's design included aproscenium arch in order to improve the acoustics, and lengthening of both the auditorium and the exteriorfacade. Interior decor was inLouis XV period style.[8] In 1918 the theatre hosted the premiere ofThe Woman Suffers, an Australiansilent film directed byRaymond Longford.[19]
Myers purchased the lease in December 1921,[21] and in 1920 purchased the property from the Chapman estate. Myers, before his death in 1927, sold a half-share in the theatre to Sir George Tallis of Melbourne, who later sold a quarter interest of his share to the Tait family business.[22] (Theatre entrepreneurFrank Tait had worked for J. C. Williamson's from 1900 until 1916, when he joined J. & N. Tait inSydney.[23])
In March 1934, a "physical culture demonstration" was performed at the theatre by Weber, Shorthose & Rice.[24]
Before or around November 1934, the Waterman family createdS.A. Theatres Ltd, a subsidiary of theirOzone Theatres, for the purpose of taking on the lease of the Theatre Royal, and for creating the Chinese Gardens open-air theatre at theExhibition Grounds onNorth Terrace[25] Both theatres would show the sameMGM films at both venues.[26]
During the war years, the Theatre Royal ran an orchestra, in which the mother of QCTed Mullighan played violin.[27]
Tallis died in 1947. Myers' half share was inherited by his widow, Dora Myers, who was still alive when in January 1954 the Tallis estate sold its interest to J. C. Williamson's, which had been leasing the theatre, with the lease expiring in that month.[22]
At an auction on 6 May 1955, department storeMiller Anderson & Co. bought the Theatre Royal for £175,000[8] and took over the properties between the Theatre Royal and Gresham Street, and erected a five-storey building. They demolished the theatre in 1962 to build an "exceptionally ugly" multi-level car park.[28]
The many live shows hosted at the Theatre Royal, performers included:[8]
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