Regent Theatre, Melbourne
The Regent Theatre in June 2014
|
|
| Address | 191 Collins St Melbourne, Victoria Australia |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 37°48′56″S 144°58′03″E / 37.8155°S 144.9675°ECoordinates: 37°48′56″S 144°58′03″E / 37.8155°S 144.9675°E |
| Owner | Marriner Group |
| Designation | National Trust of Australia, Victorian Heritage Register |
| Capacity | 2,143 |
| Current use | musicals, opera |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 1929 |
| Reopened | 1996 |
| Website | |
| www.marrinergroup.com.au | |
The Regent Theatre is a 2,143 seat theatre in Melbourne's East End Theatre District, Australia. It is listed by the National Trust of Australia and is on the Victorian Heritage Register.
When first opened on Collins Street on 15 March 1929 as the flagship Melbourne theatre for Francis W. Thring's Regent franchise (later sold to Hoyts), the theatre had 3,250 seats, was equipped with a Wurlitzer organ and was the second largest theatre to the State Theatre. It also had a ballroom, the Plaza, in the basement.
The cinema was gutted by a fire on 29 April 1945 which destroyed both the auditorium and organ. The reconstructed Regent opened on 19 December 1947, including a new organ, making it one of the last picture palaces to be built in the country.
By the 1960s, persistent rumours of the theatre's closure (and of the Plaza Theatre in the basement) forced proposals for it to be split into two cinemas. Ultimately, this was not to be, the theatre being replaced by the Hoyts Cinema Centre in Bourke Street. The Regent Plaza Theatre is cited as one of the few cinemas adapted for Cinerama outside of North America.
The Regent was located on the site reserved for the Melbourne City Council City Square project and the council had announced intentions to acquire and demolish many of the buildings on the block from 1966.
On 1 July 1970, Hoyts shut the doors of the Regent for the last time. The South Yarra Regent closed the same night and Ballarat location soon followed suit. The Plaza closed in November of that year. In December, 1970, an auction was held at the theatre where everything that was not bolted down was auctioned off, raising a few thousand dollars.
In response to the closure and clouds over the building's future, a "Save the Regent" committee was formed led by president Loris Webster was formed to preserve the unoccupied building and prevent its demolition by the council.
...
Wikipedia