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The Dominion Theatre, Tottenham Court Road, London, W.1.

Above - The Dominion Theatre during the run of 'We Will Rock You' in October 2006.

The Dominion Theatre opened on the 3rd of October 1929 with a musical comedy called 'Follow Through' by Laurance Schwab which ran for a disappointing 148 performances. The second production, the musical 'Silver Wings' faired little better. This was followed by two weeks of Variety with Maurice Chevalier (See Programmes Below).

The main body of the Dominion Theatre was built on the site of a brewery, 'Meux's Horse Shoe Brewery' which began trading in 1809 and was demolished in 1922. For a short while the site was home to 'O'Brien's Fun Fair' and then in 1925 it was home to 'Luna Park' which consisted mainly of a large tent showing Variety performances. There was also on the site a small Cinema called the 'Court Cinema' which opened in 1911 and closed in 1928 when the surprisingly small frontage of the Dominion rose in its place, with a cafe above the entrance. I say surprisingly small frontage because the Theatre itself is vast.

Right - Programme for 'Silver Wings' with Lupino Lane (Shown Left) the second production at the newly opened Dominion Theatre in 1930.

The steel framed Dominion Theatre was designed by William and T. R. Millburn and built for Moss Empires by Bovis with a frontage of Portland Stone. The auditorium was built on three levels, Stalls, Dress, and Upper Circle, with a capacity of 2835. However the upper circle is no longer used and the current capacity is a more reserved 2007, but this is not small by any means. The Theatre Royal Drury Lane only holds a couple of hundred more people.

Left and Right - Programme for 'The Maurice Chevalier Season' at the Dominion Theatre Monday December the 1st 1930. This was the third production at the newly opened Theatre.

Above - Programme Detail for 'The Maurice Chevalier Season' at the Dominion Theatre Monday December the 1st 1930.

Although the Dominion wasn't designed as a Cinema, its early failure as a live Theatre meant that in 1930, just a year after opening, the Theatre was converted to one, and in 1933 it was sold to Gaumont British. The Theatre has had many alterations over the years and gradually various parts of it were converted to offices and such like. In 1958 a huge screen was installed and a new projection box to service it, and at the same time the Upper Circle was closed, never to open again, so far anyway.

The Dominion did play host to some live entertainment in the 50s and 60s but this was for concerts and not Theatre and was only an occasional slot in to the regular Cinema use.

Left - Programme Detail for 'The Maurice Chevalier Season' at the Dominion Theatre Monday December the 1st 1930.

I was at the Dominion myself on October 16th 1977 at 10.30 in the morning to witness the preview screening of the newest blockbuster to come out of Hollywood, 'Star Wars,' and the Theatre was the perfect place for it too. I remember being overwhelmed by that new invention in Cinema sound; Dolby Stereo.

Right - Advertisement for the forthcoming 'Aladdin' at the Dominion Theatre in 1930.

The Dominion was converted back to Theatre use in 1981 and has been staging large scale musicals ever since. Memorable shows since then have been Dave Clark's 'Time' in 1986 which was hugely technical but failed to entertain; 'Prisoner Cell Block H' in 1989, the musical rehash of the popular TV soap; 'Bernadette' in June 1990, the spectacular flop which ended the following month; 'Barnum' in 1992 which had previously been a major success at the Victoria Palace Theatre; 'Greese' in 1993 which ran for three years at the Dominion and then transfered to the Cambridge; 'Beauty and the Beast' in 1997, running for two and a half years; and of course 'We Will Rock You' which opened on the 14th of May 2002 and in 2006 is still there.