which was added in 1980 can be seen above the
façade.
Construction The theatre was erected in 1805, replacing the
Old Orchard Street Theatre which had obtained a royal patent by the
Bath Theatre Act 1768 (
8 Geo. 3. c. 10) enabling the use of the title 'Theatre Royal', the first to achieve this outside London. The Orchard Street site became a church and is now a Freemason's Hall. The new theatre was first proposed in 1802 at several sites in Bath until the current site was chosen in 1804; funding was raised by the use of a
tontine, an investment plan named after the
Neapolitan banker
Lorenzo de Tonti, who is credited with inventing it in
France in 1653. It combined features of a group
annuity and a
lottery. Each subscriber paid an agreed sum into the fund, and thereafter received an annuity. As members died, their shares devolved to the other participants, and so the value of each annuity increased. On the death of the last member, the scheme was wound up. Shares, which cost £200, were rapidly purchased, with the Prince Regent, who later became
George IV, and his brother
Prince Frederick among the subscribers. A similar scheme had previously been used for the construction of the
Bath Assembly Rooms. The exterior of the building, with arches,
pilasters, garlands and ornaments, which is visible from Beauford Square, was designed by
George Dance the Younger who also designed the decorative sections of the interior. The main fabric of the building was by
John Palmer, who supervised the construction. The ceiling was decorated with panels from
Fonthill Splendens, a mile from
Fonthill Abbey, which were painted by
Andrea Casali and donated to the theatre by
Paul Cobb Methuen. Because of the potential damage from the gas lights, which were installed in 1827, the paintings were moved by
William Blathwayt to
Dyrham Park. The opening night was on 12 October 1805 was a production of
Richard III, with an unknown actor in the lead. Though not a success, the theatre soon established a good reputation and thrived under the management of
William Wyatt Dimond. Early performances included appearances by the child actors
Master Betty and
Clara Fisher, with adult leads from prominent actors on the London stage including
Dorothea Jordan,
William Macready and
Edmund Kean. In addition to
Shakespeare and other serious drama, the productions included opera and comedy with
Joseph Grimaldi playing the clown in a
pantomime of
Mother Goose in November 1815. . First published in the
Illustrated London News Between the 1810s and 1850s there were a series of changes in ownership and management. These coincided with a
Puritan revival and a fall in Bath's popularity; reductions in receipts were compounded by rising payments for actors from London. As a result, the theatre underwent financial crises and fell into a period of decline. Fortunes began to improve when
James Henry Chute, who was the manager of the
Bath Assembly Rooms and the son-in-law of the owner Mrs Macready, took over as the manager of the theatre and once again audiences began to rise.
Fire and rebuilding On 18 April 1862 a major fire destroyed the interior of the building including the stage, scenery, wardrobe and library, leaving just the exterior walls still standing. A new company was formed to rebuild the theatre and a competition held for designs. The winner was
C.J. Phipps and rebuilding, which included the new entrance on Sawclose, quickly followed. The present main entrance to the Theatre Royal, in Sawclose, was built in 1720 by Thomas Greenway, and was previously at
Beau Nash's house.
Pevsner criticizes the mouldings of window-frames, frieze and volutes of the door-hood brackets as "characteristically overdone", and mentions
Wood citing its "profuse ornament" which was typical of a mason rather than an architect. Chute remained as manager and employed
Charles Kean and
Ellen Terry to play in ''
A Midsummer Night's Dream'' on the opening night, 3 March 1863. Initially the reopened theatre struggled to become profitable despite appearances by
Henry Irving among others. In 1885 William Lewis took over as the lessee and was followed, in 1892, by his son Egbert Lewis. They redecorated the theatre in 1892 and attracted larger regular audiences to performances of melodrama and comedy while starting to put on
Gilbert and Sullivan operas and other attractions.
20th century In 1902 the theatre closed for nine months to enable extensive building work to be carried out in accordance with the terms of the Royal Charter. This involved a new staircase, the installation of electric lighting, a new fire curtain and hot water radiators throughout the auditorium. In 1905, on the anniversary of the opening of the Theatre Royal, numerous
William Shakespeare's plays were performed by the company of actors led by
Frank Benson. In 1914 the theatre impresario Arthur Carlton, from
Worcester, took over the lease. As he was responsible for 14 theatres around the country at the time, he appointed Mrs D. Valantine Munro as the local manager. Performances were maintained during
World War I, and in 1916
Sarah Bernhardt portrayed a wounded male French soldier in ''Du Théâtre au Champ d'Honneur''. In the 1920s there were appearances by the Russian
ballerina Anna Pavlova and
Mrs. Patrick Campbell. During the
Great Depression of the 1930s the theatre was not profitable and closed completely for six months. In 1938 the lease was taken over by Reg Maddox, whose family were involved with the theatre for the next 40 years. During
World War II the theatre fared better, with appearances by prominent actors including
Donald Wolfit,
Irene Vanbrugh,
John Gielgud and
Sybil Thorndike. In the Post-War years, receipts suffered as audiences dwindled in the face of competition from cinema and television. Unsuccessful proposals were made for a trust to run the theatre in 1968, and in the 1970s, shares in the owning company were bought by the property developer Charles Ware, who sold to Charles Clarke, a solicitor from Bristol. Clarke was responsible for a redecoration of the building, but as profits were still small, in 1976 he sold it to Louis I. Michaels, who ran the
Haymarket Theatre in London. In March 1979, the dilapidated theatre was purchased by a trust headed by
Jeremy Fry for £155,000. The following year, an appeal was launched to raise money for renovations, including the complete rebuilding of the stage, installation of a steel grid to hold stage lighting and scenery and a higher
fly system, to allow major touring companies, including the
Royal National Theatre under
Peter Hall, to be booked to perform. The total projected cost was £3.5 million, of which £1.8 million was seen as being essential to reopening the theatre. Money and donations in kind were received from the city council,
Arts Council England,
Bath Preservation Trust, Leche Trust,
Historic buildings council,
Manifold Trust, South-West Stonecleaning and Restoration Company and many individuals. Work on the building started to designs by Dowton and Hurst. The £3million refurbishment, the most extensive programme of work since the theatre had been saved from virtual collapse by Fry almost 30 years before, included an expanded foyer, improved lift and disabled access to the stalls and royal circle levels, complete refurbishment of the bars and the creation of The Jeremy Fry Bar, in the former cellars of
The Garrick's Head pub, and redecoration of the auditorium. Technical improvements included the rebuilding of the Main House stage, and an extensive rewiring and lighting programme around the entire building, with new fire alarm systems, air-conditioning and lighting, all designed to improve the building's efficiency and reduce the carbon footprint by some 30%. A successful campaign, led by writer and novelist
Bel Mooney, who had been instrumental in previous fund-raising campaigns for the Theatre Royal Bath, saw almost a third of the money raised through donations and sponsorship, enabling work to begin away from public areas in March 2010. The theatre's Main House was closed in July 2010, to allow the work on the foyer, bars and auditorium to be completed. The official re-opening took place on Wednesday, 8 September 2010, just ten and a half months after the original campaign was launched, with the building work being completed on schedule. The ceremonial re-opening was performed on-stage by actors
Penelope Keith and
Peter Bowles, who were starring in the Theatre Royal's own production of
The Rivals,
Richard Brinsley Sheridan's classic Restoration comedy, set in and around 18th-century Bath. In 2011, the theatre won a
British Construction Industry Award Conservation Award. The theatre itself is said to be haunted by several ghosts including the Grey Lady, who was an actress centuries ago. She has been seen watching productions in the Grey Lady Box, and she leaves the distinctive scent of jasmine. She has purportedly been seen and scented in recent years. ==Architecture and features==