Mansfield Palace Theatre The Mansfield Palace Theatre stands on Leeming Street in Mansfield. It has seen films, plays, pantos and concerts since 1910. Made finds out a little more...
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he grand opening of Mansfield Palace Theatre took place on December 13, 1910, on Leeming Street, which was described at the time as the town’s very own Broadway, as it had three theatres within just a 50-yard stretch. It took 22 weeks to build and when complete was the town’s first purpose-built cinema. The pit itself had 500 seats, the stalls 230 seats and the circle 120 seats – a total seating capacity of 850. Admission prices at the time were 3d lower pit, 4d Pit, 6d stalls and 1/- for the Grand Circle. The 1929 talking pictures had really taken off, but the Palace hadn’t really moved on with the times, instead promoting its ‘Perfect Pictures’, which basically meant no sound. Sound facilities were introduced in 1931 and the first show featured was ‘Love Comes Along’. Refurbishment work was carried out in 1937, when the ornate plaster frontage was replaced with plain rendering because bits had started to fall off onto pedestrians. The venue was transformed into a theatre in 1944 during the war and re-opened on July 3 and saw Tom E Bradley ‘your favourite comedian’ on stage. The theatre went on to attract other big names such as Larry Grayson, Danny La Rue, Hylda Baker. There was a move to look at converting the venue back into a cinema in around 1954, but that didn’t materialise, and the theatre closed in August. Within two years the building had fallen into disrepair. The Borough Council bought the theatre in 1956 for £11,500. It was restored and reopened in March the following year as the
Civic Hall and then in 1971 it received a new frontage and was renamed the Civic Theatre. By the mid 1980s a series of refurbishment projects had begun, including new dressing rooms, a second floor built above the Meeting Place; creation of a rehearsal room; backstage toilets and showers and the creation of the Groucho Bar. The theatre received National Lottery funding in 1996 and also funding from Mansfield District Council and in May the following year the theatre closed for major refurbishment. The old stage area was completely demolished, leaving a hole at the front of the auditorium. This led to a total rebuilding of the stage, which saw the height, width and depth increased, the fitting of a counterweight flying system and the installation of an orchestra pit lift. This allowed the front of the stage to be raised or lowered to form either an apron in the up position or a pit in the lowest position. Other refurbishment work included new offices and the front of house areas were revamped to create an attractive and welcoming area for theatregoers.The theatre reopened on Monday 15 December 1997 in time for the first performance of the pantomime Mother Goose. Work to keep the theatre looking at its best is a continual battle for the team behind the scenes, with every little detail taken care of, including the reupholstering of the theatre seats, which takes place with surprising regularity. Cultural services manager at the theatre, Andrew Tucker, explains: “We are constantly recovering seats as they get quite worn, particularly over Christmas and New Year. After a pantomime season, for example,
where we see around 30,000 people coming to our professional one with another 11,000 attending the two amateur pantos that follow, we end up doing some major refurbishing after that period. We have also just refurbished the Lounge Bar with a lovely art deco theme.” The Palace Theatre has gone from strength to strength, drawing its audiences from Mansfield and also well beyond the district’s boundaries. It celebrated its centenary in 2010 and since 2016 has enjoyed recordbreaking annual attendances, year on year. Just under 104,000 attended in 2018 with an average attendance of 75%. Andrew says a lot of time is taken to ensure the theatre puts on the right mixture of shows to suit its audience, so different genres are added to the annual programme. “Ballet is still very popular and we’ve continued with that programme, comic dramas do well where as the more serious ones don’t do that well. There is great demand for 50s music, the rock ‘n roll era and the 60s. People love this. “The greater majority of our shows are music and wherever possible we have original artists, if they’re touring. “We are gearing up to celebrate our 2 millionth customer since the refurbishment – something to be proud of!” For more details visit: www.mansfieldpalace.co.uk