The St James Theatre is a heritage stage theatre and cinema located on Queen Street in Auckland, New Zealand. Built in 1928, it was a replacement for the older Fuller's Opera House and was originally designed for vaudeville acts. Its architect Henry Eli White also designed many other famous theatres in Australia and New Zealand including the St James Theatre in Wellington and the State Theatre in Sydney. It has been closed since 2007 after a fire raised concerns about safety and compliance. Purchased by Relianz Holdings in 2014, the theatre is being restored and apartments built on the adjacent site. The theatre foyer is open as a café.
The building is classified as a "Category I" ("places of special or outstanding historical or cultural heritage significance or value") historic place by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust.
Construction
The St James Theatre was commissioned by John Fuller and Sons Limited to replace Fuller's Opera House which burned down in 1926. The site on Queen Street opposite Civic Square was acquired for around £100,000, construction of the theatre was estimated to cost around £80,000. Construction was completed in 1928, and the theatre was originally targeted for the performance of vaudeville acts. Upon its completion, the eldest brother of the Fuller family, Sir Benjamin Fuller, pronounced St James to be "the theatre perfect". The theatre's grand opening was on July 5, 1928 with the London Musical Company performing Archie.
St James's Theatre (est. 1835) was a 1,200-seat theatre located in King Street, at Duke Street, St James's, London. The elaborate theatre was designed with a neo-classical exterior and a Louis XIV style interior by Samuel Beazley and built by the partnership of Peto & Grissell for the tenor and theatre director, John Braham. The interior was decorated by the Frederick Crace Company.
History
The theatre opened on 14 December 1835 with a mixed programme of an operatic burletta, Agnes Sorel, starring Braham, and two farces by Gilbert Abbott à Beckett. In 1840, it changed its name to "Prince's Theatre", but changed it back in 1841. The theatre was rebuilt several times: in 1869, 1879-80. It closed on 27 July 1957 and was demolished and rebuilt as an office building.
Early years at the theatre
Productions at the theatre included opera, Shakespearian readings, burlesques of opera, ballet, foreign plays, magicians, operetta and new plays. Braham's company struggled financially and after a few seasons he gave up. In 1842, John Mitchell took over the theatre, producing mostly French comedies and plays with the greatest stars of the French stage, and the theatre was a success and became fashionable for a dozen years, even being visited frequently by the Queen Victoria.
The St. James Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 246 W. 44th St. (between 7th & 8th Avenues) in New York City. It was built by Abraham L. Erlanger, theatrical producer and a founding member of the Theatrical Syndicate, on the site of the original Sardi's restaurant. It opened in 1927 as The Erlanger. Upon Erlanger's death in 1930, control of the venue was taken over by the Astor family, who owned the land on which the theatre stood. The Astors renamed it the St. James Theatre.
The theatre was taken over by the Shuberts in 1941. They were forced to sell it to William L. McKnight in 1957 following the loss of an antitrust case. McKnight renovated the St. James and reopened it in 1958. In 1970, McKnight then transferred the theatre to his daughter Virginia and her husband James H. Binger, who had formed Jujamcyn Theaters.
Notable productions with opening dates
Merry Malones (September 26, 1927) - Inaugural Production
The St. James Theatre, (previously known as His Majesty's Theatre, and the Westpac St. James Theatre from 1997–2007) (usually referred to simply as "The St. James") is a stage theatre located in the heart of New Zealand's capital city, Wellington. The present theatre was designed in 1912 by New Zealand theatre designer Henry Eli White. The theatre currently faces on to Courtenay Place, the main street of Wellington's entertainment district, opposite the Reading Cinema complex. The building is number 83.
The building is classified as a "Category I" ("places of special or outstanding historical or cultural heritage significance or value") historic place by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust.
History
The St. James has had a long history, with its success in its early years, a near demolition in the 1980s and to its return to the city's cultural light in the late 1990s.
The theatre's land had been used as a church and volunteer hall prior to it being bought by the famous entertainer John Fuller on 23 December 1899. The St. James was made famous by Fuller, who had also built over 60 other theatres in New Zealand. He revamped the hall in 1903 and named it "His Majesty's Theatre", or nicknamed "Fuller's". During its use, the hall was host to pantomimes and a Cleopatra act, which involved the first and last import of snakes into New Zealand. However, opera of any kind was seldom allowed by Fuller, who usually directed any opera show to Wellington's Opera House down the road. Fuller used the old hall until November 1911, when it was eventually declared a fire hazard and demolished.
Auckland (/ˈɔːklənd/AWK-lənd), in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country. Auckland has a population of 1,454,300, 32 percent of New Zealand's population. It is part of the wider Auckland Region, which includes the rural areas and towns north and south of the urban area, plus the islands of the Hauraki Gulf, resulting in a total population of 1,570,500 that is governed by the Auckland Council. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world. In Māori, Auckland's name is Tāmaki Makaurau and the transliterated version of Auckland is Ākarana.
The Auckland urban area (as defined by Statistics New Zealand) ranges to Waiwera in the north, Kumeu in the northwest, and Runciman in the south. It is not contiguous; the section from Waiwera to Whangaparaoa Peninsula is separate from its nearest neighbouring suburb of Long Bay. Auckland lies between the Hauraki Gulf of the Pacific Ocean to the east, the low Hunua Ranges to the south-east, the Manukau Harbour to the south-west, and the Waitakere Ranges and smaller ranges to the west and north-west. The central part of the urban area occupies a narrow isthmus between the Manukau Harbour on the Tasman Sea and the Waitemata Harbour on the Pacific Ocean. It is one of the few cities in the world to have two harbours on two separate major bodies of water.
Auckland (or, more formally, City of Auckland) was a New Zealand electorate. It covered the core of Auckland during the early days of New Zealand democracy, when the city was small enough to be covered by two or three seats.
Population centres
The City of Auckland electorate was one of the original electorates, and was used in the country's first elections. It covered a territory roughly corresponding to the central business district of the city today, and was surrounded by another electorate called Auckland Suburbs. As the city was growing rapidly, however, the electorate did not last long — in the 1860 elections, it was divided into Auckland East and Auckland West.
Well, I went down to Old Joe's Barroom Down on the corner by the square They were serving drinks as usual Oh, the usual crowd was there In the corner sat Big Joe McKenzie His eyes were blood shot red And as he turned to address the crowd around him These were the very words that he said: Well I went down to St James Infirmary To see my baby there She was laid out on that long white table So cold, so pale, so fair Let her go, let her go, God bless her Where ever she may be Let her search that whole wide world over Never find a man as sweet as me She'll never find a man as sweet as me When I die, won't you bury me in my high top Stetson hat Put a twenty dollar gold piece on my watch hand So the gang'll know I died standing pat I want six crapshooters for pallbearers Pretty gals sing me a song I want a jazz band on my hearse wagon To raise Hell as we roll 'long Won't you roll out that rubber tire hack Thirteen men go down to that old graveyard There's only twelve of them men coming back Now that you heard my story Have another shot of the booze Anything anybody should ask I got the St James Infirmary blues
"An incredible band to be able to witness.” ... “I was at the St James [Theatre in Auckland] looking like I was pregnant with twins,” said Kee, who works as the community development manager — kai whakawhanake hapori at Te Tuhi Mareikura Trust... .
SteveBielby of the Auckland Notable Properties Trust, which is involved in the restoration of the St JamesTheatre in central Auckland ... Bielby at the St James Theatre for Saturday's $15m announcement.
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