King's Theatre, Glasgow
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| Address | Bath Street Glasgow Scotland |
|---|---|
| Owner |
Howard & Wyndham Ltd (1904-1967) Glasgow City Council (1967 – present) |
| Designation | Category A listed |
| Type | Proscenium |
| Capacity | 1,785 (4 levels) |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 12 September 1904 |
| Years active | 109 |
| Architect | Frank Matcham |
The King's Theatre is located in Glasgow, Scotland. It was built for Howard & Wyndham Ltd under its chairman Baillie Michael Simons as a sister theatre of their Theatre Royal in the city and was designed by Frank Matcham, opening in 1904. The theatre is primarily a receiving house for touring musicals, dance, comedy and circus-type performances. The theatre also provides a prominent stage for local amateur productions. The King's Theatre also stages an annual pantomime, produced by First Family Entertainment
The theatre is currently operated by the Ambassador Theatre Group, under a lease from Glasgow City Council who own the building.
The theatre occupies the corner of Bath Street and Elmbank Street, in the Charing Cross area of the city. The longer Bath Street elevation houses both the main entrance, the scenery dock and stage door. The equally decorative but shorter Elmbank Street elevation has various fire exits and the entrance to the Gallery.
The King's Theatre was commissioned by the theatre company Howard & Wyndham at a cost of over £50,000 and opened on 12 September 1904.
In the 1930s like many city theatres, it had been policy to close during the summer while many city residents headed to the coast for their holidays, but this all changed in 1933 when the then managing director of Howard & Wyndham, A. Stewart Cruikshank, decided to experiment with a quality show, a cocktail of music, laughter and song, to outmatch the seaside-style summer shows. The show started at 8.30pm and was changed weekly, attracting huge crowds. The record run of 31 weeks under the top billing of Dave Willis remains unbroken in variety history. The first such show was on 5 June 1933, and was imaginatively titled the Half Past Eight Show. This successful summer tradition continued, with changes becoming fortnightly to allow as many people to see it as possible.
Howard and Wyndham Ltd acquired the larger Alhambra Theatre in Waterloo Street in 1954, in anticipation of selling their Theatre Royal in Hope Street to Roy Thomson as studios for the launch of the commercial television station STV, and the summer shows were transferred there.
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