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____________________________________________________________________________________________________ The Empire Theatre, Lime Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, L11JE Formerly the New Prince of Wales Theatre and Opera House / Royal Alexandra Theatre & Opera House / Alexandra Theatre / Empire Palace Theatre
Above - The Liverpool Empire Theatre in 2005 - Courtesy Tony Thompson, Theatre Trustee.
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'The Empire is owned by The Empire Theatre (Merseyside) Trust Ltd., a registered charity. A trust was set up by Merseyside County Council in 1979 when MCC rescued the theatre which was scheduled for closure by Moss Empires. The Council started with a programme of decoration and repair but found that the operational losses needed a substantial subsidy. After five years this annual subsidy had reached £600,000. In 1986, local government reorganisation ended the life of the County Council and the Trust, now independent, became the owner of the Empire Theatre. Right - Early Programme for the Empire Theatre, Liverpool - Courtesy Peter Charlton. Apollo Leisure was appointed as managers responsible for all commercial risks and for the maintenance of the property. This removed the need for public sector subsidy. In 1995 the building was in its 70th year and in need of major improvements. Apollo Leisure had brought life back to the theatre and increased audiences, but the larger touring shows and popular musicals could not be accommodated. |
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Above - Variety Programme for the Empire Palace Theatre for the week of November 27th 1905. On the Bill were George Lashwood, Will Evans, Hanid Alexander, The Wedburns, The Bandurrias, Pat Carey, Billy Farrell, Fred Clements, O. G. Seymour, and the American Bioscope.
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Left - Sketch of the Prince of Wales Theatre, Liverpool - From 'The Playgoer' of 1901 - Courtesy Iain Wotherspoon. The total capital project cost some £11 million which was inanced from an Arts Council Lottery Grant, Apollo Leisure, European 'Objective One' funding and many generous donors. The final project, the Atrium and Annexe, was completed in 2002. The theatre managers are now (2005) Clear Channel Entertainment. The capital improvements have proved to be a great success and the Empire Trust is looking forward to the theatre playing a big role in Liverpool's special Year of Culture in 2008.' The textual information in quotes above is courtesy Tony Thompson, Trustee - The Empire Theatre (Merseyside) Trust. The Theatre was bought by The Ambassador Theatre Group in November 2009. |
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Above - Postcard showing the New Empire Theatre, Liverpool |
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The Empire Theatre, Liverpool
Right - The Empire Theatre, Liverpool - From a postcard. Neil Brookes who went on to the London Palladium was manager there. He arrived at the theatre one morning to find himself locked out of his office by the auditors. There was a £100,000 missing from one of the theatres and they were not sure which one it was. It's no good looking here said Neil we have not taken £100,000 in the last year. The missing money was eventually traced to the London Palladium and Harry Claff the box office manager did a prison sentence for theft.The stage was below street level and a hydraulic lift used to take the scenery up and down during get in and get outs. It had an overflow that poured out gallons of water each time it was used. You had to do some nifty footwork in order not to get your feet soaked. There was also a lift to the upper floor dressing rooms that was always breaking down and causing the artistes to miss their entrances. The first thing I always did on arrival was to remove the fuses for it so that it could not be used. The lighting switchboard was in the scene dock on the O.P and was an old strand pattern preceding the grand master. It seemed to stretch for miles and required up to four men to work it.
Above - The Auditorium of the Liverpool Empire in 2008 - Courtesy Charlie Gracie Junior.
Tommy Trinder's brother Fred Dexter was the chief electrician. One week end during the last days of variety we were having trouble with the limes picking up people. At this time the theatre was closed three weeks out of four and stage staff was badly paid and hard to come by. Jimmy Edwards bollocked Fred about it one night. Fred said I breathe a sigh of relief every time the bloody lime comes on let alone picks up artistes. Left - Programme for 'Sunny' at the Liverpool Empire in October 1927. The production originally opened at the London Hippodrome on October the 7th 1926. Maurice Mclean was musical director with a fourteen piece
orchestra and lived in Stockport.
We used to go over to the press club after the show that was open late.
There was a train at one in the morning that went to Stockport and Maurice
used to catch this with quite a few drinks under his belt. After the
train arrived in Stockport it used to return empty to Liverpool
so it was in place in the morning. Maurice used to fall asleep on the
journey to Stockport and quite few times awoke to find himself back
in Liverpool and had to go and knock up the night watchman and sleep
in a dressing room for the rest of the night. Above text from Moss Empires Theatres in the Fifties written by Donald Auty for this site. Arthur Lloyd is known to have performed his two act play 'An Amateur Detective' at the Liverpool Empire in December 1899. |
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Charlie Gracie at the Liverpool Empire in 2008
Above - The Liverpool Empire in November 2008 with Charlie Gracie headlining the show 'American Heroes' - Courtesy Charlie Gracie Junior
Charlie Gracie Junior writes: 'Charlie received special honors as the U.S. Rocker who strongly influenced the Beatles; Paul McCartney and John Lennon who saw him play at this very theater in the late 50s. Charlie also did a special show at Pauls and John's first professional gig; the Club Moore Conservative - still in existence! The BBC featured exclusive tv / radio interviews with Charlie as he was given a special tour of the new Beatles Museum. McCartney covered Charlie's "Fabulous" a few years back! Charlie was the First solo U.S. Rocker after Billy Haley's Comets to bring rock 'n' roll to the U.K. and the European continent.' Right - Poster for 'American Idols' at the Liverpool Empire in November 2008 - Courtesy Charlie Gracie Junior. There is more information on Charlie Gracie on the site here. |
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Above - Charlie Gracie perfrorming at the Liverpool Empire in November 2008 - Courtesy Charlie Gracie Junior. |
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The
Empire Theatre was built by the 
The
Trust decided to completely refurbish the building and increase the
depth of the stage. Liverpool City Council was supportive in planning
terms and was interested in a theatre extension that is now on the site
of "The Legs of Man" a former public house. In July 1999 The
Queen came to Liverpool and reopened the main theatre building. 
This
theatre is a big one 2348 seats all on two levels. It was rebuilt by
The
resident stage manager was Jack.Roach who came from a long family line
of stage carpenters. He was a lazy bugger and used to make the excuse
for not doing work that he suffered from the same prostrate trouble
that the then Prime Minister Harold McMillan had. This gave a kind of
cachet to his idleness. I was sat in the crew room drinking tea with
the stage crew and Phil Hindin the agent one Monday morning during the
fit up break. Jack Roach pointed to the tea pot and said George Black
the late managing director of Moss Empires used to drink out of that.
Yes I can see his teeth marks on the spout replied Phil.
In
November 2008 