NEW LONDON THEATRE.

Waikato Times, Volume 103, Issue 17367, 31 March 1928, Page 17 (Supplement)

NEW LONDON THEATRE.

THE DOMINION. A TREMENDOUS DEAL. A writer in a London paper says: —I have received from an official source the following' facts as to the important arrangements concerning Drury Lane, the London Hippodrome, and other theatres and their future productions: Arrangements arc virtually completed and the prospectus will shortly be issued of a new company formed to erect a large theatre at Hie corner of New Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road. The company will be under the auspices of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and Moss Empires Limited. Sir Alfred Butt, Mr B. H. Gillespie, Lord Lurgan Col. .1. J. Gillespie, and Captain Malone will be the directors. The theatre will have a seating capacity of nearly 2600 and will be the largest theatre in London and will be primarily devoted in the production of musical plays at popular prices. It is understood that the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and Moss Empires will enter into a far-reaching agreement under which in future they will co-operate and be closely allied in regard to the production of musical plays, not only at. this new theatre but also at Drury Lane, London Hippodrome, and elsewhere, and for this purpose they are forming an entirely new producing corporation. . The*new theatre will be known as the Dominion Theatre, and shareholders in the companies closely identified with Sir Alfred Butt and Mr R. 11. Gillespie—namely, Drury Lane. Moss Empires, Victoria Palace, and Glasgow Alhambra—will be given preferential opportunity of acquiring an interest.

Considerably more than £250,000 is being paid for the Astoria Cinema and Dance Hall, Charing Cross-road, London, which has been bought by a group with which Sir Walter Gibbons is closely associated.

This group has acquired 15 theatres, including the Palladium, and it is planned to buy between 70 and 80 theatres in different parts of the country.