SYDNEYSIDE WITH JANET PARR Revival of old theatres

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34131, 19 April 1976, Page 6

SYDNEYSIDE WITH JANET PARR Revival of old theatres

It opened with “Flesh and the Devil” in 1928. Greta Garbo and John Gilbert plajed out that first silent celluloid drama, the first of many stars who sparkled from the “silver” screen for nearly half a century at the Regent Cinema in Sydney’s George Street.

Millions of patrons paid their money and in they went, under the chandeliers, drawn by such names as Va-

lentino and, rather later, lElton John. In the laterdays, however, there were none of the extras — like

the Wurlitzer organ, the ballet companies, the big bands that warmed up the audience before the big picture came on. Well, the Regent Cinema closed its doors in midFebruary and the workmen moved in ready to start dismantling. A familiar story? Perhaps. But not quite what you might expect, for the Regent Theatre has just opened a live theatre now at the end of a first stage in its restoration. When it is finished, in three to five years from now, we should see the Regent ‘‘as stunning as it was when it opened” according to its project manager. ‘‘DREAM PALACE” The Regent apparently was stunning when it first opened its doors in 1928 and let the first-nighters in to see Garbo and Gilbert play out their slient drama. It was one of the dream palaces of its day — they knew how to build dream palaces then — and it kept the quality all the way through. Now revamped, its screen gone, stage widened and deepened. dressing rooms fitted into an abutting building and a new sparkle on the old adornments (like the chandeliers) that captivated the customers. The Regent has become Sydney's largestlive theatre, with 2500 seats, and it is already solidly booked with shows that will keep it humming for all of its first year. The new look at the Regent is one more sign that things have changed, remarkably, on Sydney’s theatre scene. Two or three years ago the old theatres seemed to be tumbling to the developers at a rate that saddened theatre goers and the people who made their living from the theatre. The Opera House was still for the future and it seemed that soon theatre goers would find themselves with no theatres left to go to. RENAISSANCE But instead of a slow death there has been a renaissance. The new Theatre Royal is open in the complex built where the old Theatre Royal was. The new Her Majesty’s rose, like a phoenix, from the ashes of the old; the new Seymour Centre is keeping its three halls bustling; the Nimrod is now firmly established in its new theatre which has been imaginatively rejigged from an old sauce and salt factory. Big and little theatres seem to be on the move along with an increasing number of theatre restaurants. The Regent drew its second breath on a show that its black American star, Alaina Reed, described as “larger than life, like a three-ring circus, a dream when you’re a child.”

The show is “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band on the Road" based on a string of songs by Lennon and McCartney which are packaged into a story of a rock-and-roll singer tempted to sell his soul for fame and fortune by the Hammermen (Maxwell’s “Silver Hammer.”) In his progress he meets such girls as Strawberry Fields, Polythene Pam. Lovely Rita Meter Maid and Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds — Alaina Reed glittering ail over alongside a 30 foot high ‘prop,’ Lucy. It is hardly the same stuff as Garbo and Gilbert, but then neither was Maurice Chevalier, who in 1930, was first off at the Roxv Cinema in Paramatta in "his first Hollywood film “Innocents of Paris.” CLOSE SECOND The Roxy then could probably have given the Regent a close run. It was another of the dream palaces, Hollywood rococo, with forecourt, fountains, fishponds, chandeliers, wallhangings, nearly 2000 seats and a ceiling with a brilliant sunburst design and opaque ‘evening sky’ windows. Modelled on a theatre in Albuquerque, New Mexico, it was said to be the finest suburban cinema in the world and the customers flocked there. But like many of the old theatres, many of the old cinemas have "fallen foul of the developers. Not, the local film buffs have noted with some gratitude, the Roxy. In fact, during its conversion to a *three-in-one’ cinema, considered more suited to current filmgoing, it is being restored t,o what it was and some of the additions that have been made over the years are being swept away. All it will lose is its proscenium arch — and the National Trust is getting that.