musical.today Belfast, United Kingdom
Grand Opera House Belfast
1,058 seats
The Theatres Trust rates its auditorium as probably the best surviving example in the UK of theatre architecture in the oriental style. Frank Matcham opened it two days before Christmas in 1895; it closed in 1972, came back in 1980, and was restored again in 2020 at a cost of £12.2 million.
The building
It opened as the New Grand Opera House and Cirque, spent five years from 1904 as the Palace of Varieties, and took its present name in 1909. Charlie Chaplin played here in 1908. Nellie Melba, Sarah Bernhardt and Gracie Fields were regulars.
It became a repertory theatre during the Second World War, and Eisenhower, Montgomery and Alanbrooke came to the gala performances marking its end. Laurel and Hardy, Orson Welles and Pavarotti — making his British debut — all appeared afterwards.
Opening dates, capacities and architects on this page come from the theatre's own history pages and from Wikipedia.