The Garrick Theatre was a theatre and music hall at 79–83 Castlereagh Street[1] in Sydney from 1890 to 1929. The theatre was renamed the Tivoli Theatre in 1893 and operated as a popular vaudeville venue. It was destroyed by fire in 1899 and rebuilt. The theatre closed in 1929.
Location
The location of the Garrick Theatre on Castlereagh Street in Sydney had a history of use for entertainment venues including a circus (Olympic Circus 1851–1852), a theatre (including the Royal Marionette Theatre of Australia, and the Royal Albert Theatre, 1852–1854), a dance hall (Scandinavian Hall)[2] a variety house (Victoria Hall 1880s) and finally as the Academy of Music.[3] In 1887 the Colonial Architect forced the closure of the venue[3][4] and three years later in 1890 it was demolished to make way for the Garrick Theatre.[3]
History
Garrick Theatre
Garrick Theatre on Castlereagh Street looking north, Sydney, New South Wales, ca. 1890
The Garrick Theatre was designed by the architect E. Weitzel,[5][6] built by Messrs. Brown and Tapson[6] and the principal decorators were Messrs. H. H. Groth, Jun., and Co. and the ceiling murals were painted by Lorenzini.[6] The building was in the Federation Free Classical architectural style.[7]
The auditorium of the theatre was 45 ft x 55 ft and could seat approximately 1,000 people in the stalls, orchestra chairs, dress circle, family circle, and private boxes.[6]
The Garrick Theatre opened on 22 December 1890.[8]
Tivoli Theatre
In February 1893 Harry Rickards, the vaudeville showman, took over the lease of the Garrick Theatre renaming it the Tivoli Theatre.[8][9][10][11] He made some changes to the building, raising the orchestra pit and installing another sliding roof and opened on 18 February 1893.[3]
The building was destroyed by fire in 1899.[12][13] It was rebuilt after the fire with a new building behind the remaining facade of the former theatre[9] and reopened on 12 April 1900.[14] The new building was larger and could seat 1,200 people.[9] A collection of the Tivoli Theatre programs from 1893 to 1912 is held in the collections of the State Library of New South Wales.[15]
Following Rickards death the Tivoli Theatre continued to operate until J. C. Williamson's closed it down in 1929.[16][17]
^"The Theatres". The Daily Telegraph (Sydney). No. 11, 032. New South Wales, Australia. 1 October 1914. p. 5 (Supplement). Retrieved 3 October 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
^Thorne, Ross; University of Sydney. Architectural Research Foundation, Theatre buildings in Australia to 1905: from the time of the First Settlement to arrival of cinema, ISBN978-0-9500853-0-2
^Parsons, Philip; Chance, Victoria (1997), Concise companion to theatre in Australia (Revised and abridged from "Companion to theatre in Australia" ed.), Currency Press, ISBN978-0-86819-499-8
^Irvin, Eric (1985), Dictionary of the Australian theatre 1788-1914, Hale & Iremonger, ISBN978-0-86806-127-6
