 Venue |
Adelphi Theatre (1911-1916)
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| Other Names
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Adelphi Theatre (1911-1916)
Grand Opera House (1916-1932)
New Tivoli Theatre (1932-1966)
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| Address |
329 Castlereagh Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Australia
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| First Date |
5 April 1911 |
| Last Date |
1916 |
| Notes
| Located at the southern end of Castlereagh Street, between Campbell and Hay Streets. Opened 5 April 1911 as Adelphi Theatre. Renamed Grand Opera House 28 August 1916. Renamed New Tivoli Theatre 1932, later known as the Tivoli Theatre. Closed March 1966. Demolished 1969. |
| Related Venues |
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| Map |
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| Latitude | Longitude |
-33.879930 | 151.208141 |
| Events |
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The Follies of Pleasure, 15 July 1916
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vaudeville, 24 June 1916
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Hamlet, 23 June 1916
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Romeo and Juliet, 17 June 1916
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Othello, 10 June 1916
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As You Like It, 3 June 1916
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Richard III, 13 May 1916
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The Merchant of Venice, 29 April 1916
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Twelfth Night, 22 April 1916
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Hamlet, 12 April 1916
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You're the One, 18 March 1916
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Land of the Shamrock, 11 March 1916
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Arrah-na-Pogue, 4 March 1916
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Conn, The Shaughraun, 26 February 1916
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Mavourneen, 12 February 1916
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Dick Whittington and His Cat, 18 December 1915
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The Midnight Mail, 13 October 1915
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Robbery Under Arms, 2 October 1915
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From Mill Girl to Millionairess, 18 September 1915
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It's Never Too Late to Mend, 11 September 1915
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Our Boys of the Dardanelles, 4 September 1915
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The Silence of Dean Maitland, 21 August 1915
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Under Two Flags, 7 August 1915
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My Mate (or a Bush Love Story), 24 July 1915
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A Good Girl's Luck, 10 July 1915
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Mary Latimer - Nun, 26 June 1915
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East Lynne, 8 May 1915
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Tommy Atkins, 1 May 1915
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Sinbad the Sailor of the Fairy of the Diamond Valley, 27 March 1915
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What Women Will Do for Love, 20 March 1915
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Lady Godiva, 6 March 1915
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Base Coin, 20 February 1915
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The Night Side of London, 13 February 1915
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Babes in the Wood, 19 December 1914
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The Christian, 5 December 1914
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The Woman Always Pays, 28 November 1914
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Camille, 21 November 1914
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A Daughter of Israel, 14 November 1914
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The Kelly Gang, 31 October 1914
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Driving a Girl to Destruction, 24 October 1914
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The Ever Open Door, 10 October 1914
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The Rosary, 12 September 1914
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Under Two Flags, 29 August 1914
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The Sledgehammer, 19 August 1914
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The Barrier, 25 July 1914
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Mr. Wu, 11 July 1914
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Brought to Ruin, 4 July 1914
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The Bad Girl of the Family, 20 June 1914
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Queen of the Redskins, 13 June 1914
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The Girl Who Took the Wrong Turning, 6 June 1914
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From Convent to Throne, 30 May 1914
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The Beggar Girl's Wedding, 21 May 1914
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The Mayor of Tokio, 2 May 1914
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The Tenderfoot, 11 April 1914
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East Lynne, 28 March 1914
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Allah's Orchard, 21 March 1914
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Uncle Tom's Cabin, 28 February 1914
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The Pride of the Prairie, 10 February 1914
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Aladdin, 24 December 1913
-
A Girl's Temptation, 6 December 1913
-
The Monk and the Woman, 22 November 1913
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For the Term of His Natural Life, 1 November 1913
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White as a Lily, 18 October 1913
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The Night Side of London, 8 October 1913
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East Lynne, 27 September 1913
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Married to the Wrong Man, 20 September 1913
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Queen of the White Slaves, 30 August 1913
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The Luck of the Roaring Camp, 23 August 1913
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Her Road to Ruin, 2 August 1913
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No Mother to Guide Her, 19 July 1913
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Man to Man, 5 July 1913
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The Girl Who Knew a Bit, 7 June 1913
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The Evil Men Do, 24 May 1913
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The Cowboy and the Squaw, 3 May 1913
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The Woman Pays, 19 April 1913
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From Convent to Throne, 22 March 1913
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Under Two Flags, 8 March 1913
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The Beggar Girl's Wedding, 4 February 1913
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The Monk and the Woman, 21 December 1912
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East Lynne, 14 December 1912
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His Real Wife, 30 November 1912
-
What Women Will Do for Love, 23 November 1912
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At Cripple Creek, 2 November 1912
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The Girl Who Took the Wrong Turning, 12 October 1912
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Queen of the Redskins, 21 September 1912
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Her Forbidden Marriage, 31 August 1912
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The Girl Without a Home, 17 August 1912
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The Girl Who Loved a Soldier, 27 July 1912
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The Bad Girl of the Family, 13 July 1912
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The Marriages of Mayfair, 29 June 1912
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Brought to Ruin, 1 June 1912
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The King's Romance, 11 May 1912
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Sacred Concerts, 5 May 1912
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The Sins of Society, 6 April 1912
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The Night Side of London, 9 March 1912
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A Modern Adventuress, 24 February 1912
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The Luck of the Roaring Camp, 10 February 1912
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East Lynne, 3 February 1912
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A Girl's Temptation, 13 January 1912
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His Majesty's Guests, 23 December 1911
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The Bad Girl of the Family, 5 April 1911
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Hamlet, 23 June 1916
-
Romeo and Juliet, 17 June 1916
-
Othello, 10 June 1916
-
As You Like It, 3 June 1916
-
Richard III, 13 May 1916
-
The Merchant of Venice, 29 April 1916
-
Twelfth Night, 22 April 1916
-
Hamlet, 12 April 1916
-
Land of the Shamrock, 11 March 1916
-
Arrah-na-Pogue, 4 March 1916
-
Conn, The Shaughraun, 26 February 1916
-
Mavourneen, 12 February 1916
-
Dick Whittington and His Cat, 18 December 1915
-
Robbery Under Arms, 2 October 1915
-
From Mill Girl to Millionairess, 18 September 1915
-
It's Never Too Late to Mend, 11 September 1915
-
Our Boys of the Dardanelles, 4 September 1915
-
The Silence of Dean Maitland, 21 August 1915
-
My Mate (or a Bush Love Story), 24 July 1915
-
A Good Girl's Luck, 10 July 1915
-
Mary Latimer - Nun, 26 June 1915
-
East Lynne, 27 September 1913
-
Her Road to Ruin, 2 August 1913
-
No Mother to Guide Her, 19 July 1913
-
The Girl Who Knew a Bit, 7 June 1913
-
The Evil Men Do, 24 May 1913
-
The Cowboy and the Squaw, 3 May 1913
-
The Woman Pays, 19 April 1913
-
From Convent to Throne, 22 March 1913
-
Under Two Flags, 8 March 1913
-
The Beggar Girl's Wedding, 4 February 1913
-
The Monk and the Woman, 21 December 1912
-
East Lynne, 14 December 1912
-
His Real Wife, 30 November 1912
-
What Women Will Do for Love, 23 November 1912
-
At Cripple Creek, 2 November 1912
-
The Girl Who Took the Wrong Turning, 12 October 1912
-
Queen of the Redskins, 21 September 1912
-
Her Forbidden Marriage, 31 August 1912
-
The Girl Without a Home, 17 August 1912
-
The Girl Who Loved a Soldier, 27 July 1912
-
The Bad Girl of the Family, 13 July 1912
-
The Marriages of Mayfair, 29 June 1912
-
Brought to Ruin, 1 June 1912
-
The King's Romance, 11 May 1912
-
The Sins of Society, 6 April 1912
-
The Night Side of London, 9 March 1912
-
A Modern Adventuress, 24 February 1912
-
The Luck of the Roaring Camp, 10 February 1912
-
East Lynne, 3 February 1912
-
A Girl's Temptation, 13 January 1912
-
His Majesty's Guests, 23 December 1911
-
The Bad Girl of the Family, 5 April 1911
-
Under Two Flags, 7 August 1915
-
East Lynne, 8 May 1915
-
What Women Will Do for Love, 20 March 1915
-
Lady Godiva, 6 March 1915
-
Base Coin, 20 February 1915
-
The Night Side of London, 13 February 1915
-
Babes in the Wood, 19 December 1914
-
The Christian, 5 December 1914
-
The Woman Always Pays, 28 November 1914
-
Camille, 21 November 1914
-
A Daughter of Israel, 14 November 1914
-
The Kelly Gang, 31 October 1914
-
Driving a Girl to Destruction, 24 October 1914
-
The Ever Open Door, 10 October 1914
-
The Rosary, 12 September 1914
-
Under Two Flags, 29 August 1914
-
The Sledgehammer, 19 August 1914
-
Brought to Ruin, 4 July 1914
-
The Bad Girl of the Family, 20 June 1914
-
Queen of the Redskins, 13 June 1914
-
The Girl Who Took the Wrong Turning, 6 June 1914
-
From Convent to Throne, 30 May 1914
-
The Beggar Girl's Wedding, 21 May 1914
-
The Mayor of Tokio, 2 May 1914
-
The Tenderfoot, 11 April 1914
-
East Lynne, 28 March 1914
-
Allah's Orchard, 21 March 1914
-
Uncle Tom's Cabin, 28 February 1914
-
The Pride of the Prairie, 10 February 1914
-
Aladdin, 24 December 1913
-
A Girl's Temptation, 6 December 1913
-
The Monk and the Woman, 22 November 1913
-
For the Term of His Natural Life, 1 November 1913
-
White as a Lily, 18 October 1913
-
The Night Side of London, 8 October 1913
-
East Lynne, 27 September 1913
-
Married to the Wrong Man, 20 September 1913
-
Queen of the White Slaves, 30 August 1913
-
The Luck of the Roaring Camp, 23 August 1913
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J S Mann
- Scenic Artist, Set Designer
George Marlow
- Entrepreneur, Producer, Scriptwriter
Reg Robins
- Designer, Scenic Artist
T Dench
- Properties Master
J H Nunn
- Actor, Director
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| Resources |
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Article: George Willoughby Limited. An old firm, a new name, Table Talk, 25 September 1913, 28
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Article: Investment Stocks, The Sun (NSW), 19 January 1917, 3
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Article: Mr george Marlow's Companies, Sydney Morning Herald, 3 September 1910, 14
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Theatre in Castlereagh Street, opened 5 April 1911 as Adelphi Theatre, seating 2400. Architects: Eaton and Bates. Major alterations reduced seating to 2100 in 1915. Architect: Henry E. White. Renamed Grand Opera House 28 August 1916. Renamed New Tivoli Theatre 1932. Closed March 1966. Demolished 1969.
In 1910 the Sydney City Council split its Old Belmore Markets site - bounded by Campbell, Castlereagh, Hay and Pitt Streets - into two lots of about 0.2 hectares each and auctioned off 50-year leases. Both successful bidders claimed they would build theatres, but only Thomas Rofe did. His Adelphi Theatre, designed for the entrepreneur George Marlow, had a 18.3 metre square stage behind a 9.1 metre-wide proscenium. Marlow began with Frederick Melville's The Bad Girl of the Family, starring Nellie Ferguson and Robert Inman. George Willoughby managed the theatre from 1912 until 1915, when Marlow resumed management. He reopened a renovated Adelphi on 26 June 1915 with his wife Ethel Buckley heading a 'new and brilliant dramatic company' in Mary Latimer - Nun. On 23 October 1915 the theatre closed for major alterations. Henry E. White redesigned the auditorium, lowering the lofty circle and gallery to improve sight lines and reducing capacity to 2100. The Adelphi reopened on 21 December 1915 with Dick Whittington and His Cat, starring Carrie Moore as principal boy. In 1916 Marlow's partner Benjamin Fuller took over the stage direction, for vaudeville at first. Then he renamed the theatre the Grand Opera House for a season by the Gonsalez Grand Opera Company from Italy. In the early 1920s Fuller combined with Hugh J. Ward to present musical comedy and drama at the Grand Opera House, but at the end of the decade Fullers' gave up live theatre.
The theatre had a chequered existence until 1932, when Mike Connors and Queenie Paul took it for revue and renamed it the New Tivoli Theatre. In 1934 it became part of the second Tivoli Circuit. From 1948 until the theatre's closure in 1966 revue was interspersed with drama, musicals and opera, performed by local and touring companies. The Old Vic Theatre Company and the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company from England performed there. During renovation in 1954 White's rich decoration was removed or painted in a single colour, leaving a bland interior. But the Tivoli remained an asset to Sydney. Its capacious auditorium - 1933 seats at the time of closure and large stage and scenery store made it particularly suitable for touring shows. For a quarter of a century since its demolition in 1969 until the Capitol Theatre was rehabilitated these characteristics were combined in no Sydney theatre. The new developers promised to build a 1300-seat theatre but the part of the site dedicated for this purpose has remained vacant ever since the demise of the Tivoli.
Article: Ross Thorne, Tivoli Theatre Sydney 1911-66, Companion To Theatre In Australia, 1995, 605
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ON Friday of last week the Tivoli (Sydney) had its 35th anniversary as a theatre. A few days before its opening as the Adelphi (April 5, 1911) several of us were invited to an inspection. One of our number was Harry Skinner, letting manager of the Palace Theatre. A showman of the old school, Harry went from seat to seat in stalls, circle and gallery, to check up sighting angles on the stage. He was highly critical of the line of vision from side seats it would be bad luck to be ushered into anyhow. Rather elated at his discovery of the worst, he announced that he wouldn't let the architect build an outhouse for him. Some malicious person passed his judgment on to the architect, who considered, not without justification, that his professional capacity had been impugned. Result was that Harry received a solicitor's letter on his moot and burning comment. He was asked to acquaint the legal man with the name of his solicitor who would accept service of a writ for slander. Harry wrote back that there was no need for precipitate action. He was not only prepared to apologise, but to retract unreservedly. He would, he assured the solicitor of the architect, allow his client to build an outhouse for him should ever the occasion arise. In the face of this whole-souled acknowledgement of having been in the wrong the threatened proceedings were not carried any further. GEORGE Marlow was the first lessee of the Adelphi. He had been an actor of minor gifts with William Anderson, who presented lurid melodrama at 3/-, 2/- and 1/-. George's wife was an ambitious soubrette and, as he reasoned it, if Anderson could make his wife, Eugenie Duggan, a leading lady there was no earthly reason why he couldn't keep his own wife's salary in the family. So Ethel Buckley became a star. She appeared as a series of stage girls. The bad one of the family, the one who took the wrong turning, always to triumph virtuously however misjudged by those too ready to condemn. For years virtue had its box office reward, and George Marlow waxed wealthy. Like Anderson, he owned racehorses, but in his case he won a race now and then. And George would have a packet on his colors when winning. He went into real estate, buying around Circular Quay. Always he had kept as a saver a small tobacconist's shop in George Street. The day came when he concluded he would never have to go back to it. Then racing and real estate preoccupied him, and he sold his lease in the Adelphi, his scripts and company to George Willoughby. These nights you may often hear George Willoughby's fruity voice in ABC plays. He is either a colonel or a squire, always the head of a good county family. For George Willoughby has gone up in the world of make-believe. He came to this country as a farce comedy actor, and few in his day could be more solemnly hilarious. He was "The Wrong Mr. Wright" and other absurdities. As the successor and assign of the Marlow tradition a farceur was a calamity. Marlow believed in the heroine in distress with all the passion of a business man in a gilt-edged asset. He imparted his faith to his company who spoke the lines of masters of bathos with a fierce conviction that clutched at the heart of a multitude. No situation where the villain was in pursuit but was a breathless moment for Marlow's audiences. GEORGE Willoughby hadn't the same deep sincerity for the impossible. Burlesque of every human instinct and relation was to him a reversal of the uses of adversity. Where Marlow wrung tears of compassion from his patrons. Willoughby, with material that was a travesty of probability, was accustomed to evoke tears of laughter. He was congenitally and by stage training incapable of trading in such undisguised trash. Anyway, he couldn't disguise it as human experience. The more he spent on these productions the farther they receded from verisimilitude. As a vendor of the near-victim of a rich man's whim Willoughby was a flop. And simply because when they jumped in the lake he firmly believed that they ought to — for reasons his dramatists always neglected to mention. AFTER Willoughby had no doubt analysed the truth of humour as a disability, the Fullers entered into possession of the Adelphi, which now be came the Opera House. The redoubtable Sir Benjamin had the provender for appetites that sought satisfaction to that end of the town, and with varied bills he drew them in droves. But he, too, had yearnings for higher standards, and with Hugh Ward the St. James Theatre arose to challenge J. C. Williamsons in the light musical field. HOWEVER, as these recollections bear on the Opera House, there was before this, marathon litigation. It was marked by great tenacity of all parties. They were the brothers Fuller and T. E. Rofe. How the original antagonism began isn't very clear. But Rofe held the ground lease of the theatre from the City Council, and when a shop in the building was let by the operating lessees — the Fullers — without reference to him, he went to law. The case was fought to the Privy Council and Rofe won. The verdict enabled him to cancel the Fuller lease. Fullers had remodelled the auditorium by lowering the circle and gallery and resighting the house. These improvements cost over £25,000 and, of course, fell into Rofe's lap. COUNTING this consequence and the legal costs, the Fullers were set back by £60,000. It was then that they came up town to the St James, and Marlow once again became lessee of his old stand. While the Fullers ran the Opera House they introduced Stiffy and Mo in pantomime. It was then that the old gag, "As a music lover, what do you think of Mozart?" was inflicted on us. The answer, of course, was, "I prefer Stiffy's." Girl and dance shows, an American burlesque company, melodrama, and Italian grand opera kept the entertainment varied under the Fuller flag. LATER the theatre was re-christened the Tivoli, and vaudeville and revue experienced a revival amounting to a boom. This has been sustained to the enrichment of the management if not to the elevation of popular taste. However, they make no pretence to be a refining Influence. That obviously not being the answer to how hang out "House Full" signs.— CM.
Article: that reminds me, Smith's Weekly, 13 April 1946, 12
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Article: The Prompter's Box, The Herald, 2 August 1916, 3
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Law Report: Dowse v Marks [1913] NSWStRp 37; (1913) 13 SR (NSW) 332 (17 June 1913), Australasian Legal Information Institute, 17 June 1913
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Record: Ailsa McPherson, New Tivoli Theatre, Dictionary of Sydney, 2010
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Websites / Online media: Sydney Architecture - Adelphi Theatre / Grand Opera House / Tivoli Theatre, Sydney Architecture
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| Venue Identifier |
15301 |
| Dataset |
AusStage |
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