Dominion Theatre - History
The site of the theatre on Tottenham Court Road in the London borough of Camden was once a brewery in the late 1700s and early 1800s and also a leper colony as far back as the 1100s. The site was subsequently chosen for the theatre and building was to be carried out on two sites, including that of the brewery. The construction of the building itself took place in 1928 and continued into 1929, with design by William and T R Milburn. The plans included a Portland stone façade with a concave shape and a steel frame. It would contain a two tier balcony structure in the auditorium. The 1920s light fittings inside survive to this day.
The Dominion opened with the American musical De Sylvia Brown and Henderson’s Follow Through in 1929 (a comedy dealing with world of golf); this was followed with more musicals and Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights. The 1930s brought with them the age of the depression and thus a large demand for films. As a result it became a cinema in 1930, leading to its use for movie premieres and screenings. The Sound Of Music was screened at the theatre in the 60s for a total of eight years.
The theatre has since stopped being used for premieres and the 2,182-seater venue became the stage for live shows and concerts.
The theatre is well known as being the location for the recording of Tangerine Dream’s album Logos, which took place in 1982 and as a tribute they named a song ‘Dominion’. Then in the mid 1980s, the musical Time opened, meaning the theatre has to be reconstructed to make way for the groundbreaking effects required to make the show work. In 1988 the Rank Organisation and Apollo Leisure were in charge of the theatre, which continued until 1999
Modern History
The theatre was threatened with closure in the 1990s but managed to overcome this and since then the Dominion has hosted a number of productions included Jesus Christ Superstar, David Ian and Paul Nicholas’ version of Grease, Jackie Mason, Scrooge – The Musical, Disney’s Beauty & The Beast, Notre-Dame De Paris and many more. In 1999, co owner Apollo Leisure was taken over by SFX Entertainment, which itself was bought out by Clear Channel Entertainment in 2001, showing the diverse array of owners of the venue which today is Live Nation, a spin off organisation for Clear Channel.
Since Clear Channel took over in 2001, the theatre has been home to We Will Rock You (from 2003), which is a musical based on Queen songs and created by Brian May and Ben Elton. This has stayed until today, meaning it has now been running for seven years at the time of writing
