Option to buy Theatre Royal asserted, denied

Press, 14 April 1978, Page 1

Option to buy Theatre Royal asserted, denied

The future of the Theatre Roya' is still in doubt, although the owner, J. C. Williamson Theatres, Ltd, says that a Christchurch society has an option. The society’s chairman has denied this.

According to Mr R. Vance, a director of the J. C. Williamson group, the Christchurch Operatic Society has an option to buy the theatre for $150,000. But yesterday the chairman of the Operatic Society (Mr B. J. Sutton) emphatically denied that the society held any option.

Any such suggestion was nonsense, he said. “No society such as ours could afford to buy the Theatre Royal.”

'Mr Sutton said that if anybody went to J. C. Williamson Theatres with $160,000 the firm would sell.

The Theatre Royal has been up for sale since early in 1976, for $200,000. Mr Vance said yesterday that the Operatic Society had expressed interest in the theatre at various stages last year. It had held an option to buy but that was dropped. Then J. C. Williamson, Ltd, offered another option to Mr James Collins, president of the society.

Mr Vance said that an option was in the hands of Mr Collins, who could not be reached as he was at present on business in Australia.

The Operatic Society owns a hall in Sydenham on a valuable site. Last August the society asked for a feasibility study on the Theatre Royal. This was financed by a Government grant of $l5OO from its cultural facilities scheme.

The report found that the theatre was structurally sound and that it could be brought up to a moderate earthquake safety standard for about $llO,OOO. A cost of $20,000 for a new sound system quoted by the architects, Warren and Mahoney, was “unrealistic,” said Mr Vance. “For this they would want gold-plated microphones.” In their reports, the ar-

chitects said that the lack of proper sound-amplifica-tion facilities could, on occasion, prove a drawback to the use of the theatre by Christchurch groups, but not to touring shows.

They said that although a good sound system would be most advantageous, the theatre could be run without one. J. C. Williamson Theatres plans to keep the building on the market until it is sold, but while it does this maintenance and running costs have to be paid. The report by the architects said that in about 13 ways the building did not comply with the New Zealand standard of “fire-re-

sisting construction and means of egress ”

Warren and Mahoney reported that the most important work required was to provide better exits from dressing rooms and the stage, and to separate the dressing-rooms from the stage with a smokestop lobby. Mr Vance said yesterday that the drop in price could mean that the theatre was now at a figure where a commercial firm could buy it. The Operatic Society had an option because J. C. Williamson’s wanted the theatre to be maintained as such at a cost the arts could afford, Mr Vance said.

Since the theatre went on sale in May, 1976, interest in buying it has revived spasmodically. A record producer and ■ publisher from Nashville, Mr ;Audie Ashworth, wanted in 1976 to turn the theatre into a country and western music hall but that fell through. When it was announced in 1976 that the J. C. Williamson group had been losing money for three years on its I three theatres at Auckland, I Wellington, and ChristI church, Mr F. K. Moloney, a former film projectionist and I director of Cinema EnterI prises, said that his firm had ■ an option on the theatre if it 'could get a film licence. That lapsed, and by April [last year chances for an I early sale still looked dim I after bids at an auction of !the theatre did not meet the | reserve price, and another [auction lapsed. [ The Arts Council has said jin the past that it could do [nothing to help with finance Ito save the theatre, but Mr ; Hamish Keith has said that lit would be an “appalling catastrophe" to lose the [theatres owned by J. C. Wiljliamson Theatres, Ltd, in ■ New Zealand. ; The Acting City Planner .(Mr W. T. Williams) said I that now the Town Planning Act had been revised, the preservation list which concerned the Theatre Royal had limited effect.

Mr Williams said that the theatre had been discussed at council meetings but the subject seemed to go round in circles. If the Government backed the theatre financially it would probably be a liability because it ran at a loss.

Mr J. R. Allison, of the Historic Places Trust, suggested this week that a public appeal might finance the theatre. Three years ago the trust had resolved to support saving the theatre but it was not said that this would be financial support.

Mr Allison said the I

theatre posed an economic problem, but it would be extremely regrettable if it were pulled down.

Money would need to come from a group like State Insurance, which bought the Wellington Opera House and the Trinity Church in Christchurch.

“At present we are paying off the Christchurch Town Hall, Queen Elizabeth II Park, and paying for such things as the Christchurch Cathedral restoration; and [then there is the Arts Centre,” he said.