10
Notable North-West Theatres
The North-West has long enjoyed a reputation for putting on a good show and can boast of some of the finest entertainment venues in the country.
T
o celebrate the return of the traditional pantomime season, here is a list of ten of the region’s most iconic theatres.
BY MARGARET BRECKNELL
Today the Grand Theatre is owned by the Lancaster Footlights and is used as a venue for amateur drama productions, as well as playing host to touring comedians and music acts. An exciting project to build an impressive new foyer has recently been announced.
LANCASTER GRAND THEATRE Credit: Peter Bond/CC BY-SA 2.0
GRAND THEATRE, LANCASTER Lancaster’s historic Grand Theatre has been in near continuous use ever since it first opened its doors way back in 1782, making it the third oldest theatre in Britain. Originally known simply as “The Theatre, Lancaster”, the venue was the brainchild of 18th-century theatre impresarios, Joseph Austin and Charles Edward Whitlock. Whitlock was related by marriage to the day’s leading star, Sarah Siddons, and she performed on several occasions at the theatre, most notably, in 1795, in the role of Lady Macbeth. The Grand is one of several theatres across the country which is reputed to be haunted by Siddons’ ghost. In 1897 the legendary Victorian theatre designer, Frank Matcham, was asked to redesign the entire stage and auditorium, but sadly his work was destroyed by a catastrophic fire in 1908. The renamed Grand Theatre reopened the following year with a completely new interior, although some traces of the original Georgian exterior survive to this day.
BLACKPOOL GRAND THEATRE Credit: Tony Hisgett/CC BY 2.0
GRAND THEATRE, BLACKPOOL Frank Matcham’s work on Lancaster’s Grand Theatre has been sadly lost, but his design for Blackpool’s Grand Theatre survives to this day. In late 1893 local entrepreneur, Thomas Sergenson, commissioned Matcham to design a new theatre in
