His Majesty's Theatre, 1988

This is a view across the stage and proscenium boxes at Auckland's His Majesty's Theatre. The structure, which featured a lavish, ornate auditorium, was built by the Australasian cultural entrepreneur J. C. Williamson in 1902. His monogram is visible above the stage. Despite calls by heritage advocates for the building to be saved, its owners saw no value in it and demolished it shortly after this photograph was taken.

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Auckland Council Libraries − Tāmaki Pātaka Kōrero o Tāmaki Makaurau, Sir George Grey Special Collections

Reference: 994-80

Permission of Auckland City Libraries Tāmaki Pātaka Kōrero must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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Comments

Phill
04 January 2018

The theatre was taken over by JCW about 15years after it was built. The decorative proscenium was cut out to widen and add height to the stage for My Fair Lady in the 60s. In the pi ture accompanying this article you can see the extra red velvet added to the house curtain on the sides and bottom. This ruined the sight lines going forward as the procenium was never returned. JCW were just theatre managers and they arrogantly painted out the original painting about the procenium and replaced it with their logo. To see how it looked when it was first opened see http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/collection/object/am_library-photography-52467

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Story: Theatres, cinemas and halls