The Princess Theatre, originally Princess's Theatre, is a 1452-seat theatre in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Established in 1854 and rebuilt in 1886 to a design by noted Melbourne architect William Pitt, it is the oldest surviving entertainment site on mainland Australia. Built in an elaborate Second Empire style, it reflects the opulence of the "Marvellous Melbourne" boom period, and had a number of innovative features, including state of the art electric stage lighting and the world's first sliding ceiling, which was rolled back on warm nights to give the effect of an open-air theatre.
Located on Spring Street in Melbourne's East End Theatre District, it is listed by the National Trust of Australia and is on the Victorian Heritage Register.
Astley's Amphitheatre
Entertainment on the site of today's Princess Theatre dates back to the gold rush period in 1854, when the Irish-American entrepreneur Tom Mooney constructed a barn-like structure called Astley's Amphitheatre.
It featured a central ring for equestrian entertainment and a stage at one end for dramatic performances. Its name echoed that of Astley's Amphitheatre, near Westminster Bridge, London. Its first lessee was George Lewis who staged a series of "grand concerts" there from 11 September 1854. Lewis was forced into insolvency within a year and Mooney divested himself of the amphitheatre and the adjacent Mazeppa Hotel to one Samuel Boyle.
It was later leased by the actor-manager George Coppin, who had already established himself as an actor at the Queen's Theatre, and would go on to build the Olympic Theatre (known as the "Iron Pot") on the corner of Exhibition and Lonsdale Streets (the future site of the Comedy Theatre), build the Haymarket Theatre and Apollo Music Hall, and lease (and eventually rebuild) the Theatre Royal in Bourke Street.
Princess's Theatre
In 1857, the amphitheatre was extensively renovated and the facade extended, re-opening on 16 April as the Princess's Theatre and Opera House. Its first manager, John Black, founded the Theatre Royal two years earlier.
In September 1877 L. M. Bayless, who had the lease on the Queen's Theatre, Sydney took a long term lease on the Princess's Theatre, and had it extensively refitted, and reopened 28 December 1877 as the New Princess Theatre.
The New Princess Theatre
By 1885, the theatre came under the control of "The Triumvirate", a partnership between J. C. Williamson, George Musgrove and Arthur Garner. The existing theatre had become rundown, and so the Triumvirate resolved to demolish the existing building.
The new theatre, designed by architect William Pitt, interiors designed by George Gordon, and built by Cockram and Comely, was completed in 1886 at a cost of £50,000. The design is in the exuberant Second Empire style, and the theatre forms part of the Victorian streetscape of Spring Street. The theatre re-opened, again, on 18 December 1886, this time simply known as the Princess Theatre, with a performance of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado.
When completed, it featured state-of-the-art electrical stage lighting, as well as Australia's first sliding or retractable roof and ceiling which provided ventilation from the auditorium. The marble staircase and grand foyers were hailed as equal to that of the Paris Opera, the Frankfurt Stadt and the Grand in Bordeaux.
Williamson left the Triumvirate in 1899 to form his own company, and Musgrove continued operate the theatre until 1910. The Princess came under a rapid succession of different owners until 1915, when Ben Fuller took control. Fuller then went into partnership with Hugh Ward, and in 1922 they engaged the architect Henry Eli White to extensively renovate the auditorium and foyers, and add the grand copper awning. The New Princess Theatre reopened on 26 December 1922 with a performance of The O'Brien Girl.
The theatre was purchased from Fuller in 1933 by Efftee Films, the film production company of Francis Thring, the theatrical and film entrepreneur, who had his initials FT carved over the proscenium arch. He produced several musicals there including the Australian musicals Collits' Inn and The Cedar Tree, and made it the first home of his radio station 3XY founded in 1935.
When Thring died, Sir Ben Fuller and Garnet Carroll took over the lease of the Princess and in 1946 they formed another partnership forming Carroll-Fuller Theatres Ltd to purchase the theatre.