musical.today Sunderland, United Kingdom
Sunderland Empire
1,860 seats
Four tiers — stalls, dress circle, upper circle and gallery — which almost no British theatre still has, and room for 2,200 once the standing places are counted. Vesta Tilley laid the foundation stone in 1906 and came back to open it the following July.
The building
Richard Thornton built it on his own after his partnership with Edward Moss broke up, and called it the Empire Palace. The statue of Terpsichore on the revolving sphere at the top of the ninety-foot tower came down during the war, after a nearby bomb shook the building; the original now stands at the head of the main staircase and a replica is back on the dome.
Variety carried the theatre until the mid-1920s. A projection box went in during 1930 as touring declined. It is one of the largest venues in the north-east, which is what brings the big tours back to it.
Opening dates, capacities and architects on this page come from the theatre's own history pages and from Wikipedia.