Everything about Royal Court Theatre Liverpool totally explained
The
Royal Court Theatre is a
theatre at 1 Roe Street,
Liverpool,
England. It was built in
1938 in an
Art Deco style.
History
Built in the 12th Century, the site of the current Royal Court Theatre was originally a water well. The turning point was in 1826 when a circus owner, John Cooke, bought the site for his circus shows, plays, operas and concerts, and it became known as 'Cooke's Royal Amphitheatre of Arts'. In 1881, the building was redesigned by Henry Sumner as a regular theatre and it was re-opened as the Royal Court.
Unfortunately, A fire destroyed the building in 1933 during the opera and drama that Howard and Wyndhams Ltd were staging, After a small delay, construction works began in March
1938 to ensure the theatre was rebuilt and reopened in October of the same year.
The Royal Court Theatre we know now was opened on 17th October 1938. It had been totally rebuilt with a new Art Deco style, making it Liverpool's number one theatre with all its splendour and grandeur. The interior of the building holds a nautical theme, which is in line with Liverpool's seafaring traditions. The basement lounge has its design based on the Queen Mary Liner. There are three viewing levels within the main auditorium: the Stalls, the Grand Circle and the Balcony.
Although the Blitz of World War Two destroyed many of the buildings around it, The Royal Court itself remained intact. Throughout the war, many well-known artists performed in the Royal Court, including
Ivor Novello,
Margot Fonteyn,
John Gielgud and
Richard Burton who appeared in an
Emlyn Williams production. The 22-year old
Judi Dench made her professional stage debut here in September 1957, playing Ophelia in an
Old Vic production of
Hamlet
In
1980 two former
Liverpool taxi drivers took the Royal Court in a new direction, moving away from traditional plays and instead transferring the focus to rock and pop concerts. Their first year ended promisingly and proved to be a successful strategy for the venue, which went on to play host to artists as internationally famous as
R.E.M.,
David Bowie and
George Michael. In
1983, rock group
Slade performed their last live UK concert with the original lineup featuring
Noddy Holder.
In 1990, the building was listed as Grade II, highlighting the fact that it's a major part of Liverpool's heritage.
Present
The stalls are now set out in a three-tier cabaret-style arrangement with tables and chairs and a bar at the rear of the stalls. The current capacity is 1186 (Stalls 290 [cabaret,] Circle 403, Balcony 493)
Following two years of being the home to the
Rawhide Comedy Club, the Royal Court made a move back to producing theatre in the summer of 2007 with the sell-out re-run of
Brick up the Mersey Tunnels.
Technical
Flying
The
counterweight fly system has recently been refurbished. There were originally in excess of 70 fly lines, however this has been reduced to about half that number in order to increase the distance between bars.
The original brakes have now been removed. They screwed shut and could hinge open to completely release the rope.
Lighting
The
lighting was controlled by a 'Grandmaster' which was situated on a perch about 8 feet above the stage floor on Stage Right. This would have been operated by two people and was in operation until the 1980's. It was only disconnected from the power in June 2006.
The lighting is now controlled by a High End Systems Roadhog lighting desk and 3 Avolite Art 2000 48-way dimmers. It has an extensive lantern stock including
ETC Source Four 750's,
Strand Cantata
Fresnels and
Martin Mac 500's.
Rigging
FOH there's a 12 m A-type
truss hung from 2
lodestar 1-ton motors. This is used for most of the
FOH rigging. There are also
truss booms either side of the stage,
FOH.
Shows
Pantomime
With no
televisions and no
cinema,
Liverpool audiences of the late 19th Century flocked to the
theatre.
Liverpool possessed no less than 26 theatres and 38 music halls. The main theatres towards the end of the century were the Prince Of Wales in Clayton Square (opened 1861) the Shakespeare Theatre off London Road (opened 1866) and the Royal Court Theatre.
The site of the Royal Court had been a theatre for many years. As Cookes Royal Amphitheatre of Arts, up to 4,000 people would gather to attend plays, operas, concerts and circus. In 1881 as ownership of the theatre changed, it was rebuilt and renamed The Royal Court Theatre. Along with the three other theatres it presented an annual
pantomime.
The
Victorian pantomime wasn't only the template for today’s show, but very much a vehicle for music. The Poluskli Brothers hall stars. Combining a mixture of music hall, comic opera and a large chunk of spectacle, the pantomime appealed to all levels of society. The first Royal Court pantomime, or “annual” as it was known, was
Babes in the Wood. It isn't clear whether this was a success or not, but no further pantomime was produced at the Court for fourteen years, until 1895 with the presentation of
Dick Whittington.
Three years later, Arthur Lawrence was appointed the theatre manager. Starting with
Aladdin, it was Lawrence who put the Royal Court firmly in the centre of the panto map. The biggest music hall stars of the day would appear in the Court’s “annual”. George Robey, Harry Lauder, Little Hetty King as
Aladdin Tich, the Three Sisters Levey and the Poluski Brothers all helped to make the Royal Court’s
pantomime among the most famous in Britain. With the ownership of the theatre passing to Howard & Wyndhams Ltd at the turn of the century, the growth of
pantomime blossomed.
Arthur Lawrence quoted in The Liverpudlian, November 1938:
In 1906, in Aladdin, I'd Hetty King and [HappyFanny Fields], together with Malcolm Scott and Harry Tate-some combination. I produced at the Court, in twenty-six years, twenty pantomimes. The 1906 panto was the biggest success. We averaged takings of just under £2,000 a week, and that in a theatre supposed to hold no more than about £275 at full capacity. Our pantomimes would run elsewhere for about five years, so Liverpool was thus a pantomime manufacturing centre. 'Happy' Fanny Fields, They were all made here- scenery, dresses, jokes and music, and all. I may mention, also, that we'd a stage unsurpassed for its equipment. Every kind of trap ever known on a stage was in being
That
pantomime Aladdin was repeated, with almost the same cast, at the Adelphi Theatre in
London the following year. “A chorus of over 100 Voices” boasted the posters. A magazine was produced in Liverpool solely devoted to pantomimes.
[FannyFields] in AladdinBy the 1920’s the death of Music Hall was under way, and the Royal Court panto mirrored its decline. Hetty King Gone were the stars with their own personal songs to be replaced by “free” songs that anyone could sing. The Royal Court panto ended, replaced each Christmas by musical comedy, or a visit by the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company.
Upon re-opening some years after its fire in 1938, its first Panto was Humpty Dumpty, starring Gene Gerrard, Bobbie Comber, the Tiller Girls, and a cast “of Over 80”. The consecutive run of pantomime wasn't to be, With another World War the Howard and Wyndham's - Babes in the Wood spectacle of pantomime found itself replaced with the comedy The Eric Maschwitz revue, featuring a young Charles Hawtrey (of later Carry On Fame) performing female impersonations. The following year Vivienne Leigh appeared in The Doctor’s Dilemma.
It wasn't until 1943, with the arrival of A. Stewart Cruickshank as managing director that pantomime returned, again starting with Babes In The Wood. By the 1960’s television comedians and pop stars became the new stars of panto. In 1956, young heart throb Dickie Valentine took on the role of Aladdin. By the end of the fifties, facing stiff competition and dwindling audiences, the Royal Court Pantomime began a slow lingering death. In the Sixties occasional pantomimes (always Cinderella) were interspersed by Christmas shows by
Ken Dodd,
Dora Bryan,
Frankie Vaughan,
the Bachelors and the Black & White Minstrels.
Howard & Wyndham’s financial problems increased, and the Royal Court was offered to the City Council to purchase. They refused. An attempt to open the Court as a Bingo Hall in 1968 was abandoned after eight months. There was no Christmas show after
Aladdin in
1975. An attempt to revive panto in 1981 with Snow White wasn't successful, and pantomimes were no longer performed at the Royal Court.
In
1997 the
Neptune Theatre in Liverpool presented
Aladdin at the Court. Following on their success at the Neptune the previous year with Sonia in Dick Whittington, they presented Aladdin starring Julie Goodyear as
Mrs. Twankey, and Danny McCall as Aladdin. Since then the Royal Court pantomimes have been
Cinderella (
1998),
Babes in the Wood (
1999),
Aladdin (
2000) and
Dick Whittington (
2001).
Pantomime returned to the Royal Court in (
2006) with
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs starring
Hollyoaks' Christina Bailey as
Snow White.
Slappers and Slapheads
Brick up the Mersey Tunnels
2006, 2007 and 2008
Brick up the Mersey Tunnels a play with music written by Dave Kirby and Nicky Allt showed in the Royal Court from 3 August to 26 August 2006. This was a huge success and received 9/10 in a review in the Liverpool Echo.
Lost Soul
Performed between 31 August to 29 September 2007, Lost Soul is Dave Kirby's second play at the Royal Court.
Stags and Hens
2008 Stags and Hens by Willy RussellFurther Information
Get more info on 'Royal Court Theatre Liverpool'.
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