Varieties Opera Comique

Theatre in Bourke Street, opened as Prince of Wales Theatre 24 August 1872. Architect: George Johnson. Became known as Prince of Wales Opera House. Renamed Her Majesty's Opera House September 1884. Renamed Alhambra Theatre 1893. Lost licence 1899. Rebuilt as Opera House, opened 18 May 1901, seating 1539. Architect: William Pitt jnr. Renamed Tivoli Theatre 1912. Auditorium rebuilt 1956. Architect: Dudley Ward. Closed 2 April 1966. Interior destroyed by fire April 1967. Theatre sold as redevelopment site in 1969.

The laissez-faire attitude to safety in theatre design adopted by entrepreneurs and licensing authorities alike in the late 19th century was strikingly exemplified in the Prince of Wales Theatre in Melbourne. It stood on a site that was initially occupied by the Australia Hall, built above a stable in 1866. By the end of the year it was referred to as the Varieties. Singers, instrumentalists and comedians performed on a rough platform at one end of an 'unprepossessing chamber' furnished with tables and chairs and served by two bars in the style of an English music hall. The hall, renamed the Opera Comique in 1869, was destroyed in a fire on 5 July 1870.

On 27 December 1871 the architect George Johnson submitted plans for a theatre on the site to the Victorian Board of Health, the licensing authority. Johnson estimated a capacity of 3000 persons. Each would have had little more than a quarter of a square metre, and the board's inspector believed that 2200 would be more appropriate. In building the Prince of Wales Theatre, it seems, the old rubble stone outer walls of previous buildings on the site were reused to a height of three metres, then brick was added to the height of gallery, which was protected from elements by a timber wall to the roof. The architect chose wooden posts to support the three balconies above the pit and stalls, although cast-iron posts were readily available. Patrons of the top gallery had to negotiate gangway exits that were 560 mm wide with only 1.4 metres' headroom. The entrance to the theatre, reached through the ground floor of the hotel, stood 7.6 metres from the rear of the hotel and it was suspected that contaminated air from the hotel's stable and kitchen yards entered the ventilation intake. Another official observation was that a fire in the hotel would cut off most egress from the theatre.

The new theatre opened on 24 August 1872 with Dion Boucicault's comedy London Assurance, starring Mary Gladstane, whose husband, L. M. Bayless, was lessee of the theatre. W. S. Lyster took over the theatre for his opera companies in March 1873 and it became known as the Prince of Wales Opera House. After Lyster's death in 1880, the theatre housed productions by his nephew George Musgrove. It was lit by electricity in 1882. From September 1884, the theatre was under new management as Her Majesty's Opera House, and from 1886 it was the Melbourne base of the Brough-Boucicault Comedy Company. About that time, only 14 years after the opening, inspectors referred to the theatre as 'this dilapidated makeshift sort of building', though illustrations show a handsome interior and descriptions praise its white-and-gold decoration.

By 1893 the theatre had become a vaudeville house. Despite some slight modifications it limped well behind the ever-rising standards of safety and construction of theatres. The Board of Health's files indicate the social irresponsibility of theatre owners and entrepreneurs and of officials who continued to license the theatre in disregard of inspectors' advice that it breached the board's recommendation. It was finally refused a licence in 1899.

Harry Rickards, lessee since 1895, oversaw the building of a new theatre designed by William Pitt Jnr. A newspaper article described it as French Renaissance but it more closely approached an 'Alhambra style' that was popular for variety theatres at the time. The new Opera House had three levels, including the stalls, and seated only 1539 persons. Although English engineering developments over the previous decade had eliminated most of the need for balcony-supporting posts, Pitt supported the dress circle and the gallery with 14 posts in the stalls. These remained until Dudley Ward redesigned the auditorium in 1956. The stage was commodious, measuring 18.3 by 19.5 metres and it had a fly tower. Rickard's successor, Hugh D. McIntosh changed the name to Tivoli Theatre in 1912 and this remained until the theatre closed in 1966.