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Live Performance Australia (LPA) has called on the NSW Government to urgently resolve the future of the shuttered Theatre Royal in central Sydney.

While welcoming the opportunity for a new live performance venue as part of the Powerhouse Museum site redevelopment, the peak industry body highlighted how Australia’s largest city is still falling behind its Australian and international peers when it comes to venue capacity.

LPA Chief Executive Evelyn Richardson advised “this theatre is a very valuable part of our live performance infrastructure and to have it dark for more than two years now is severely limiting opportunities for our producers, performers and audiences.”

Richardson said the potential to develop a new Broadway-style Lyric theatre at the Powerhouse was good news but noted it would still be a number of years before the venue was open to audiences.

She added “Sydney has fallen way behind Melbourne when it comes to live performance venue capacity which is not only bad for Sydney but also impacts on audiences around the rest of the country.

“The NSW Government cannot idly stand by and allow the demolition or downgrading of existing infrastructure.

“The loss of the Theatre Royal has materially impacted the opportunity for Sydney to host major productions, depriving local performers and industry workers of jobs, limiting choice for audiences, and short-changing the visitor economy through lost visitation and economic activity generated by live performance.”

LPA is calling on the NSW Government to bring together the owners of the Theatre Royal site, the City of Sydney and industry leaders to secure the future of the venue.

Richardson concluded “Sydney is a vital part of a national touring schedule particularly for international productions. If a show can’t be booked into Sydney, that can affect the touring prospects for other Australian cities. Australian audiences are missing out on seeing great shows because there are not enough venues in Sydney to make presenting these productions viable.

“It doesn’t make any sense to have a perfectly good venue in the heart of the CBD sitting unused. Every day the Theatre Royal is closed is another missed opportunity for Sydney’s live performance industry and audiences and the Government should make reactivation of the site an immediate strategic priority for live performance in NSW.” 

Image show the interior of the Theatre Royal Sydney.

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