The Theatre Royal, is one of the most elegant of English provincial theatres, loved by actors and playgoers alike.  Theatre came first to Brightholmston in the 1750s in converted barns in the Old Steine, and later in purpose-built halls in North Street and Duke Street.

The present theatre was built in 1807 on land sold by the Prince Regent.  He had bought public gardens so that he could extend the Pavilion Estate and build a riding house and stables (now the Dome and Corn Exchange).

In return for being allowed to close the part of East Street that went past the Royal Pavilion, the Prince gave the town a new road (still known as New Road) down the west side of the estate.  He sold one of the plots off New Rod to the man who had owned the Duke Street Theatre, Hewitt Cobb.  The architect of the original theatre isn't known.  It was a three-storey building on classic lines with a colonnade across the front of the theatre.  It opened under the management of John Brunton Senior on 5th June 1807, with a performance of Hamlet, with Charles Kemble in the title role.

In the Theatre's early years, Sarah Siddons, Charles Matthews and Edmund Kean all acted there, as well as the famous eccentric Romeo Coates, who was said to have worn jewellery worth thousands of pounds while appearing on stage.  Until the middle of the century the Theatre - now with the Royal tag - was run by a series of managers with varying degrees of success and honesty. 

 

It was one of the theatre's to have gas lighting and it always attracted the top performers, as it does to this day.  In 1866 the Theatre was bought from the Cobb family by one of the great managers, Henry Nye Chart, who had the Theatre enlarged and rebuilt to the designs of Charles Phipps, one of the great theatre-builders of the day.  Phipps designed no less than eleven London theatre's including the Savoy, the Lyric, Sadler's Wells and Her Majesty's.

 

The rebuilt Theatre, opened within days of completion of the West Pier, was to become an important part of Brighton life.  After Nye Chart's death, his widow, Ellen Elizabeth Nye Chart, took over.  Under her the Theatre became known and respected nationally.  The greatest names in the land came to the Royal, among them Madge Kendal, Lily Langtree and Henry Irving.  The Theatre thrived and became prosperous.

 

During the first half of the present century Lawson Lambert and then the actor-manager J.Baxter Somerville, J.B., were the dominant figures at the Royal.  The Theatre flourished in the early years, but there were difficult times with the coming of the movies, the Depression and later the Second World War.  J.B.'s repertory company saw the Theatre over the worst years, and after the war it continued with his policy of presenting pre-London and top class touring productions.  After J.B.'s retirement in 1963, the Theatre was run until his death by Melville Gillam, formerly at the Connaught Theatre, Worthing.  From 1971 until his death ten years later the Theatre was part of the Louis Michaels group.  Louis Michaels had interests in other south coast theatres and the famous Theatre Royal, Haymarket.  During his time the interior of the Theatre was completely refurbished.

 

The Theatre Royal was purchased in 1984 by David Land, the well known London agent and entrepreneur, and is now privately owned, and non-subsidised, as it always has been during its long and illustrious history.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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