Dominion Theatre

This is a fantastic Theatre as both a film palace and legitimate theatre. In 1975 I saw the film :The Wind and the Lion". In 2000 I saw the stage musical "The Beauty and The Beast. brucec

This place is simply beautiful and looks to be unmodified in any way as far as I could tell from its original design. I went there to see the musical 'We Will Rock You', a story about the rock group Queen, here and the musical was so good and the theatre so nice, I went back to see it again 3 days later! Check it out if you can.

The Dominion is a good example for fine preservation. Different from the mostly destroyed cinemas at Leicester Square or in the West End it looks like cinemas once were! Sadly it does not show movies anymore.
When it opened in 1930 it seated 2.835 patrons. When they used it for 70mm-presentation ("South Pacific") and the upper circle was closed.
When I visited it first in the end of the 80ies, it was a very dark place. Everything in the auditorium was painted black. The walls and the roof, even the proscenium was black. As I read, this was made for a musical called Time which used laser projection. When I saw it, it was a parttime cinema, and I saw - "Sign of the Times". The film was not to my liking and the seats neat and old. But even the lobby and a lot of interesting remains like the big circle impressed me much. I also saw that this very big cinema for around 2.000 people also had a second balcony which was closed by a wooden wall.
I visited the Dominion again in the Nineties, seeing a musical version of "Grand Hotel". Now the Dominion was painted new and looked very bright.
Albert Knapp, Frankurt/Germany

The Dominion Theatre opened on 3rd October 1931 as a live theatre, but after a couple of 'flops'(including a musical starring Maurice Chevalier) it showed its first film, the British premier of the Lon Chaney "Phantom of the Opera" with added talking sequences, sound effects and recorded music on 21st July 1930 (H.G. Wells attended the premier). Its 2nd film presentation was "City Lights" starring Charlie Chaplin, who attended the premier. A couple more live shows followed and then the owners of the Dominion 'went bust' in 1932. It was leased out as a full time cinema, first to United Artists for a few months, then on a long lease to a company who were part of Gaumont British Ltd and remained in their hands until it was sold by the company then known as The Rank Organisation in 1987.

Apollo Leisure and the Nedlander Theatre circuit have since operated it as a major home of big scale stage musicals, with a current seating capaity of 2,172.

The original seating capacity of the Dominion was 2,835 (1,340 in the orchestra stalls, 818 in the dress circle and 677 in the upper circle). During the period when it was a 70mm Roadshow movie theatre, the upper circle was sealed off and remained unused, a projection box was built into the rear orchestra stalls area which gave a reduced seating capacity of 1,654 as several rows of front seating were also removed.

The former upper circle is currently used as offices for a Ticketmaster theatre ticket booking agency.

The address listed for The Dominion theater is 268 Tottenham Court Road.

Auditorium view of the Dominion Theatre. Note the rear dress circle seating section has been curtained off for the production that was being staged when the photo was taken. Note also at the top, above the dress circle is the now curtained wall of the former upper circle.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12494104@N00/38179144/in/pool-cinemasignage/

Exterior street scene of the Dominion Theatre here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fugo/43978585/in/pool-londinium/

A closer view of the exterior of the Dominion Theatre here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38885149@N00/37852956/in/pool-londinium/

A photograph I took of the Dominion in July 1963 on the evening of the European Premier of "Cleopatra":
http://photobucket.com/albums/y191/KenR-UK/?action=view¤t=DominionTottenhamCrt.jpg

The marque Dominion Theatre photographed recently at night:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/43633094@N00/117971761/

This is a recent 2006 photo of the Dominion Theater.

Another view of the foyer in August 2006 :-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12494104@N00/218471946/

I believe the Dominion holds the world record for the longest film run ever with SOUTH PACIFIC. Not counting midnight shows such as ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW)

South Pacific ran at the Dominion Cinema (Road-show performances) from 21st April 1958 until 30th September 1962. It was certainly a British record for a long run totalling 4 years - 22 weeks.

Samuel Goldwyn wanted to premier "Porgy and Bess" at the Dominion. but had to wait three years for "South Pacific" to end its run. "Porgy and Bess" was not such a great success and it was followed by "Cleopatra" in August 1963. This was followed by "The Sound of Music" (29th March 1965 to 31st June 1968) and then the theatre was re-decorated and opened on 18th July 1968 with "Star" which was not so succesful.

Four vintage photographs of the Dominion Theatre:
Playing the Gaumont release in September 1949:
http://www.mawgrim.sathosting.net/cavalcade/tottctdom3.jpg
Playing the Gaumont release in July 1955
http://www.mawgrim.sathosting.net/cavalcade/tottctdom.jpg
"South Pacific"-'Now in its 3rd Year' in 1961:
http://www.mawgrim.sathosting.net/cavalcade/tottctdom2.jpg
"South Pacific" - 'First Show in TODD-AO', night photograph from 1961.
http://www.mawgrim.sathosting.net/cavalcade/tottctdom1.jpg

That beats any New York run. I was told they only used two prints of SOUTH PACIFIC during that whole run!

This is a recent night view of the Dominion Theater.

Can the Dominion still run films? I've always thought that if marketed properly the occasional 70mm revival would be a success in the West End.

I worked at the Dominion in the mid 80s for 2 years. During this time a number of movies were shown such as the premier of 'Return Of The Jedi' and others. A very succuessful presentation over a space of 3 or 4 seasons was the 'Thames Silents'. These were screenings of famous silent movies with stars such as Charlie Chalin, Rudolph Valentino and Lillian Gish amongst others. Presented by Thames Television they were accompanied by a full orchestra who played specialy commisioned "sountracks' for these great movies with an orchestra of about 40 or 50- amazing to experience this in the Dominions surroundings.. Every performance was old out and was attended by a very high brow audience worthy of Covent garden. I remember the chief electrican at the time found it increasingly difficult to screen movies from the original projection rooms. When the Dominion held the premier run of 'Jedi' it was decided to install a tempary projection box under the circle in the middle of the stalls. This prevented at least the last 10 rows in the stalls to be sold and also the frst 10 rows due to the hight of the screen. Ray, the projectionist said then that it was a shame money wasnt spent on restoring the original projection box to show movies properly. During my time there they held a season of 70mm presentations of movie musicals. These included 'Fiddler On The Roof', 'South Pacific', 'The Sound Of Music', 'Calamity Jane' and i think also 'The King And I'. They were show with just the circle area for sale. Even then with a great promotion of the season i remember every night there not being more than 20 to 30 people there. There were many complaints regarding the bad screening presentation- focus, sound etc. The way the Dominion is handled now i can say almost definately that it will never show a movie again. But hey, its still there and looking fantastic.

During a recent visit to see WE WILL ROCK YOU (don't ask) I noticed the proscenium is badly tarnished (damaged?) by what appears to be the show's excessive use of dry ice special effects.

I understand that damaged may be caused by the wear and tear for the sake of art, but this ain't no STARLIGHT EXPRESS. And that tells you all you need to know about this show.

Incidentally, the mice running around on stage during intermission were captivating. The audience stayed in and applauded!

No change in 25 years then! I WILL ask why you went to see 'We Will Rock You' because im still asking myself the same question 2 years after i saw it in Barcelona!
It would be nice to watch a good movie in 70mm at the Dominion instead of 'Mice-The Musical"! Haha!
The Dominion has never had a fantastic reputation as a musical theatre house- most Broadway and West End shows that have played there disappear rather quickly (except, unfortunatly 'We Will Rock You')- but like i said at least its still there thank god!

an amazing victorian building next door to the Dominion has just been flattened, allowing this view of the side of the lobby block
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/1227107060/in/photostream/

Wow what a great photo! I want to go and investigate. I was always discovering unused parts of the theatre when i worked there in th early 80s. Like a child on a treasure hunt. LOL i think it was the Buger King or Boots they just demolished?

The now demolished building to the left of the Dominion Theatre was originally built in 1875 as the Horseshoe Hotel. Aparently the new building which will be built on the site will contain shops, restaurants and residential uses. It's a shame they could not retain even the facade!

Here is another recent photo of the Dominion Theater.

In the last photo posted here you can see, behind the 3 grills, where the garden cafe used to be. This was only open for a few years in the mid/late 30s. Closed permanently for the war and never reopened. In the time i worked there i saw some incredible areas that had not been seen in decades, a lot closed off due to asbestos. The public walking around see only about 50% of what is the real Dominion. Before Ticketmaster took the Upper Circle for its sales office there was a set of office like rooms built onto the back walkway of the Upper Circle that Rank used only briefly. The seating was still there but the whole area was in a very bad state of repair after 40 years of being closed off. I think i remember being told that the last time the Upper Circle was open was for a 5 concert booking of Judy Garland concerts. Working there for that period i often wondered how fantastic the place would look with the whole auditorium opened up. In the 80s it was a very worn out place to work in but still had a special grandness about it.

The Dominion organ was a 3/13 Compton.

The dominion with major building works exposing rear of auditorium and old terrace cafe.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/curtians/2302962143/

Another great shot of the 'Exposed ' Dominion Theatre
http://www.flickr.com/photos/curtians/2303759628/

Another 1963 photo can be seen here.

Here are new links for the photos posted on Aug 23, 2006 at 8:00am.

Photo1

Photo2

Photo3

Photo4

An April 2009 photo here:-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stagedoor/3453367559/

photo of the world premiere of STAR at the Dominion in 1968
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/3970278570/