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Her Majesty's Theatre

Location 199-219 Exhibition Street,, MELBOURNE VIC 3000 - Property No B5110 File Number B5110 Level State

[1/1] B5110 Her Majesty's Theatre

Statement of Significance

This Moderne styled theatre, housed in an altered 19th century shell designed by Nahum Barnet, is the second known large-scale use of this European style surviving as an Australian interior and the earliest surviving example to utilise most of the style's eventual palette of finishes and forms.
As such it heralded the countless Moderne styled cinemas which proliferated in the late 1930s. Complementary to the new cherubless decor were the technological innovations announced at its 1934 opening. It was the first theatre to employ an acoustic consultant (H. Vivian Taylor) and reflected this in its good acoustics and through the extensive use of veneered ply wall cladding. It appears to be the first to provide air conditioning (heating, cooling and humidity control) for a large interior in Victoria and the first in the state to achieve magical lighting effects on a cyclorama from a new compact control board (now dismantled), which was made by Siemens but developed by J. C. Williamson's engineer. The architects were C. N. Hollinshead and Albion Walkley, leading Austtralian theatre specialists. This was the J.C.Williamson national flagship for nearly 40 years. Within three years of the 1934 opening the theatre had successfully staged musical comedy, grand opera, Gilbert & Sullivan opera and ballet. It was to become the Melbourne home of the Borovansky Company for 17 years and was also used for the early seasons of the Australian Ballet and the Elizabethan Trust Opera Company (now the Australian Opera). It is however as a musical comedy venue that Her Majesty's has been most successful: more than 100 musicals have played there since 1934, from "White Horse Inn" to "Song and Dance" via "Oklahoma!", "My Fair Lady", "Camelot" and " Chorus Line" -a lineup probably unequalled in any other theatre in the world.
Classified: 20/02/1986