By Sheila M.F. Johnston
"A interesting background of a superb outdated theatre."
- Hume Cronyn
In September of 1901 London's New Grand Opera apartment flung open its doorways. Boasting a gorgeous inside layout, and with the main sleek degree gear to be had, the theatre used to be sufficiently big to deal with over 1,700 buyers and the most important traveling exhibits of the time. With impresario Ambrose J. Small on the helm, a brand new period in theatrical leisure began.
Throughout the following hundred years, the Grand Theatre hosted every thing from inventory businesses to minstrel indicates, from vaudeville to star-studded productions. the distinguished novice theatre corporation, London Little Theatre, made The Grand its domestic for many years. As Canadian theatre got here into its personal within the Seventies, The Grand embraced specialist theatre prestige. all through a lot of these alterations The Grand has remained London's "Grand outdated girl of Richmond Street." mythical performers from the prior, together with the Marks Brothers, Anna Pavlova and John Gielgud have graced its mammoth degree, as have such modern degree stars as Hume Cronyn, William Hutt and Martha Henry.
This greatly researched e-book, lavishly illustrated, lovingly records the lifetime of The Grand. Theatre tales from each decade of The Grand's vibrant existence abound all through. To learn this publication is to come back to grasp London's Grand Theatre in all its architectural splendour and its legacy in Canadian theatre history.