His Majesty's Theatre

Theatre at corner of Hay and King Streets, Perth, opened 24 December 1904, seating 2584. Architect: William Wolf. Closed 1976. Bought by Western Australian government 1977. Restored and reopened as general-purpose lyric-drama theatre, 28 May 1980.

An Edwardian delight, carefully modified to meet 1980s requirements in function, comfort and sense of occasion, His Majesty's Theatre is testimony to the Perth theatre architect, Peter Parkinson, who restored it. Thomas Molloy, a land speculator built the original theatre, combined with a four-storey hotel, near his Theatre Royal in Hay Street on a quarter-hectare site. The architect of the new theatre was William Wolf, a German-trained American who emigrated to Australia m 1877 and began to practise in Perth in the mid-1890s. In His Majesty's he followed the current English model but, perhaps showing European influence, gave it a fly-tower stage, which at 20 by 23 metres was larger than tradition suggested. The three-level auditorium had two waterfalls to help to cool the air and a sliding dome and roof for ventilation. 

The theatre opened with The Forty Thieves. Later lessees - William Anderson, Fullers', J.C. Williamson’s, Edgley and Dawe and Michael Edgley successively – presented many major productions from the eastern states, from Nellie Stewart in Paul Kester's Sweet Nell of Old Drury to My Fair Lady. Other famous performers who appeared in the theatre included H. B. Irving, Sybil Thorndike and Vivien Leigh. When Michael Edgley's lease ended in 1976 His Majesty's closed. Its owner, Norman B. Rydge, chairman of the film-exhibiting Greater Union Organisation, asked $2 million for the theatre, which he had bought from Edgley in 1973 for $825 000. The theatre was threatened with redevelopment until the Western Australian government bought it for $1 ·9 million in 1977 with the intention of restoring the auditorium and refitting the stage.

Parkinson made structural modifications to reposition posts supporting the two balconies to give the audience a better view and hide new air-conditioning ducts. The old hotel with its ground-floor bars and shops, first-floor public rooms and dining-room, and 48 bedrooms and bathrooms on the upper floors was converted to provide the theatre with comfortable foyers and bars, new toilets, administrative offices, rehearsal space, and improved dressing rooms and orchestra rooms. The complex houses the West Australian Opera and Ballet Companies and the Theatre Collection.