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     Dominion Theatre - Information & History
The Dominion Theatre is located on the Tottenham Court Road adjacent to the Tottenham Court Road Tube Station. It can be easily identified by the figurine of a male dancer towering over the entrance originally taken from the long running 'Saturday Night Fever' musical from the world famous movie starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton John.
The site of the Dominion Theatre was once the site for the St.Giles Leper Hospital which was founded in 1101 by Matilda the then Queen of Henry I. After the leper hospital was pulled down the site became home for brewery known as Meux's Brewery from 1809. This was eventually demolished in 1922 and the site remained vacant, levelled and temporarily used as a site for a fun fare known as 'Luna Park'.
The history of the Dominion Theatre goes right back to when it first opened its doors to theatre goers in 1929, but only one year later it was converted as a cinema to house the up and coming passion for the talking movies. Construction of the Dominion Theatre started in early 1928, designed by leading Architects Messrs William & T R Milburn, and was completed in late 1929 at a huge cost of £459,727.
The first production was an American Musical comedy called 'Follow Through' based on the growing fascination with the game of golf. After this, the Dominion Theatre was hired by Universal Studios for its movie the 'Phantom of the Opera', then was followed by Charlie Chaplin's 'City Lights', a silent movie opening in 1931, which contained synchronised music and sound effects but no speech. Charlie Chaplin made a personal appearance at the opening. Unfortunately the then owners of the Dominion fell into financial difficulties and, a year later, the official receiver was appointed and the company ceased trading with owed debts of around half a million pounds.
The Dominion Theatre is a large Theatre and the Dominion has been used as a Theatre and Cinema. It can still be used for cinema premieres as well as Opera and Variety performances and Rock Concerts. The Dominion Theatre has a very large seating capacity, originally over 2,800 which is virtually double the average seating capacity, but this has been reduced for logistic reasons to just over 2000 seats utilising the stalls and lower circle.
World Famous actors and actresses have trodden the boards of the Dominion Theatre, including Judy Garland [Liza Minnelli mother], Shirley Maclaine, Maurice Chevalier and Sophie Tucker to mention a few famous names.
The Dominion has hosted famous lengthy runs of musicals including 'South Pacific', 'The Sound of Music' during the 1950's and 60's, with other world famous productions such as 'Grease', which ran from 1993 to 1996, as well as Disney's 'Beauty & The Beast' and 'Notre Dam Du Paris'
More recent productions have included Cliff Richard's West End debut in 'Time' - a musical by David Clarke, and of course the production 'We Will Rock You' whose run finished at the Dominion in October 2006 to begin a tour of the UK. 'We Will Rock You' was co-written and produced with Ben Elton & Queen's guitarist Brian May.
Showing: We Will Rock You Dominion Theatre | Performances | Information | Directions | History
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