His Majesty's Theatre

His Majesty’s Theatre was opened on 3rd December 1906 with the pantomime “Little Red Riding Hood”. It was designed by noted theatre architect Frank Matcham in a Baroque style externally and an Italian Renaissance style internally. It had an original seating capacity for 2,300 in orchestra stalls, dress circle, upper circle and gallery. The proscenium is 30 feet wide, the stage 35 feet deep and had a revolve, and there were originally six dressing rooms.

In the early-1930’s, the theatre was equipped with a Western Electric sound system, and operated as a cine-variety theatre. At that time it was operating with 2,180 seats. By 1944, still a cine-variety theatre, the seating capacity had reduced to 1,809 with 944 seats in the orchestra stalls, 189 seats in the dress circle, 267 seats in the upper circle and 408 seats in the balcony. There were nineteen dressing rooms. Cine-variety continued into the mid-1960’s.

In 1982, His Majesty’s Theatre received a 3 million Pound refurbishment. In 2004, the theatre received an 8 million Pound refurbishment. It is a Grade A Listed building.

Recent comments (view all 3 comments)

CSWalczak on June 3, 2012 at 10:43 am

There is both an interior and an exterior photo of His Majesty’s Theatre in Aberdeen on this webpage; the pictures will enlarge if clicked upon. The webpage also claims that the theatre is haunted.

Mike_Blakemore on January 27, 2013 at 6:10 pm

A Theatre is not complete without its Ghost… :o)

davidcoppock on August 18, 2015 at 10:47 pm

His Majesty’s Theatre(Aberdeen, Scotland) is only one of two of His Majesty’s Theatre’s surviving in the World, the other His Majesty’s Theatre is in Perth, Western Australia, Australia, opened on 24/11/1904. His Majesty’s Theatre(Perth) is also listed on Cinema Treasures.