Tick Tick Boom! - Theatr Clwyd

Exciting news, but also a bit concerning that the pantomime appears to be the only thing on there between now and June. (It runs for ages, but still…)

I saw in the new issue of Musicals magazine that they’ve got five musicals in various stages of production.

Yes the whole building is going through a massive referb, that like all these things has seemingly overrun so I expected some planned programming was postponed until they get their bricks and mortar theatre back. It's not just the auditorium that is getting sorted out including the dressing rooms, the studio space is being turned into a proper theatre space (from its old state as more of a tv studio), all of front of house is being redone including kitchens put in, the scenic workshop and paintframe is being renovated, a shop selling local items is going in, I think the little cinema might be reopening too, and a decent FOH events space for weddings is being sorted. 

Possibly the panto is just too lucrative to miss, so the refurb has been scheduled around that production. Sheffield Crucible did the same to accommodate the snooker.

Hey Everyone,

I read this and was chatting to someone who lives near me (and works there) about it the other week so thought I'd jump in...

The theatre has had a massive refurbishment (£45m+) - it's a back-to-brick project, with everything ripped out and replaced - it was a 1970s building in disrepair so a chunky 'ol refurb. It's also a really big building - bigger than Sheffield Crucible, Leeds Playhouse and Liverpool Everyman - and with more performance venues than any of them (it's also got a cinema). They've done it in a phased way to maximise the amount of time they've got access to the main house so they don't lose regular audiences (so when Heathers was on, demolition was happening in a different part of the building) and minimise the amount of time they're operating in temporary facilities (the panto was in a 1,000 seater big top last and there was another pop up theatre producing work too). 

The phased approach in closing the building (i.e. Main House open while the rest of the building was worked on) is being repeated for the reopening. So the panto this year will be in the main house with a temporary foyer, while the rest of the building is finished - again to keep the regular audiences engaged.

The dark period from Jan to end of May is for a few reasons - firstly finishing the rest of the building outside of the main house (fitting kitchens, dressing rooms, cinema, commissioning kit etc...), sorting snagging in the theatre spaces, but also then testing both the auditoria and the theatres in combination with the front of house spaces, restaurant(s), cinema, health & wellbeing suites etc... to make sure the experience is amazing. There will be some large scale test events in April and May before it opens fully in June but I don't think they've announced these yet. It's all on time as far as I heard.

There's a couple of blog posts my mate sent me that showed how it's going - they sent me a pic of the seats going back in last week, but I can't seem to share them off my WhatsApp (weird file type).

www.theatrclwyd.com/blog-theatrereborn-buildinginprogress-mar24
www.theatrclwyd.com/blog-theatr-clwyds-redevelopment

Surely the sold out night is the press night?

Yes - saw this at the Duchess in 2009!

Worth seeing; would recommend.