The Prince of Wales was a theatre in

Castlereagh Street, Sydney Castlereagh Street is a major street located in the Sydney central business district in New South Wales, Australia. The street runs north-to-south, in a one way direction only. Description Castlereagh Street's northern terminus is at the junc ...

, New South Wales. It was destroyed by fire and rebuilt twice; the second time as the Theatre Royal.

History

The theatre, near the corner of

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and Castlereagh streets, was built for Joseph Wyatt, who had earlier built the

Royal Victoria Theatre The Old Vic is a 1,000-seat, nonprofit producing theatre in Waterloo, London, England. It was established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, and renamed in 1833 the Royal Victoria Theatre. In 1871 it was rebuilt and reopened as the Royal ...

in Pitt Street, and opened on 12 March 1855 with William Dind his co-manager. It was designed to accommodate around 3,000 patrons: 1500 in the pit (stalls), 500 in the dress circle; gallery 500 and upper boxes 750. The first lessee was J. Gordon Griffiths, and the first production was Knowles' '' The Hunchback'', starring Mr and Mrs Waller. As the second large theatre in Sydney it could not attract entrepreneurs and it became, briefly, a

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in 1856. Wyatt was forced to sell the theatre in 1858; he was declared insolvent and died 19 July 1860. The theatre was destroyed by fire on the morning of 3 October 1860. It started at Holmes's bakery adjoining; three people died as a result of a wall of the burning theatre collapsing. It was rebuilt as the Prince of Wales Opera House by

Robert Fitzgerald Robert Stuart Fitzgerald (12 October 1910 – 16 January 1985) was an American poet, literary critic and translator whose renderings of the Greek classics "became standard works for a generation of scholars and students".Mitgang, Herbert (Januar ...

and opened on 23 May 1863 with

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's ''

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'', played by Lyster's Opera Company. Robertson died in 1865 and ownership of the theatre passed to his children by his first wife. David Crabb lost money as lessee; Edgar Ray followed in 1867, and despite spending a fortune on improvements and a high-class production of Leman Rede's ''Our Village'', theatre-goers stayed away and he too was driven to insolvency. By 15 November 1867

George Coppin George Selth Coppin (8 April 1819 – 14 March 1906) was a comic actor, a theatrical entrepreneur, a politician and a philanthropist, active in Australia.Sally O'Neill,Coppin, George Selth (1819–1906), ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', ...

had taken over as lessee, with J. R. Greville as stage manager; William Dind succeeded Coppin in 1868. The theatre was destroyed by fire on the morning of 6 January 1872. Two firemen were killed when a wall of the burning theatre collapsed and another died of injuries. Their names were James Coates, Henry Vaughan, and Charles Tost. The last performance at the theatre was the pantomime ''The House that Jack Built'' which had been losing money. The theatre manager William Dind, who was uninsured, lost heavily and quit the business. It was rebuilt for

Samuel Lazar Samuel Lazar (1838 – 14 November 1883) was an Australian theatre manager, producer of pantomimes and operas, and occasional actor. History Lazar was a son of theatre manager John Lazar, and as a child frequently appeared on stage in his father ...

as the Theatre Royal, which opened on 11 December 1875 with

H. J. Byron Henry James Byron (8 January 1835 – 11 April 1884) was a prolific English dramatist, as well as an editor, journalist, director, theatre manager, novelist and actor. After an abortive start at a medical career, Byron struggled as a provincia ...

's '' Daisy Farm'', Adelaide Bowring and W. J. Holloway in the leading roles.

Notes and references

{{coord missing, New South Wales Former theatres in Sydney 1856 establishments in Australia 1872 disestablishments in Australia