Broadway comes to Parramatta: New $188 million theatre for western Sydney
may 23 smh
The curtain has risen on the design of a new 1500-seat theatre at Parramatta estimated to cost $188 million.
The new venue will aim to bring Broadway-quality shows to the Sydney’s second CBD for the first time.
The redevelopment of the 40-year-old theatre complex will be crowned by a new lyric theatre comparable in size to Sydney’s Theatre Royal,
the new performing arts venue in Brisbane, Her Majesty’s Theatre in Adelaide and Melbourne’s Princess Theatre.
The existing 760-seat Riverside Playhouse Theatre is to be refurbished and a new 420-seat black box theatre and rehearsal spaces built over the existing car park.
But patrons must wait until 2025 before work begins, with doors to open in early 2028.
The winning design by Cox Architecture, 3XN Architects, Aileen Sage, Turf Design studio and Bangawarra was selected from a shortlist of five architectural teams.
The handsome timber ribbed back building embraces the Parramatta River, and enhances public spaces providing a cafe, bar, cycleway and riverside community spaces. A different timber species is used in each of the four performance spaces. A rammed earth wall anchors the foyer space.
Cox’s design director Joe Agius said each space told a “a different story through the use of timber – “a story of country and the story of place”.
The capacity of the existing theatres will double to 2,780 seats and some 400,000 people are expected to visit the theatre complex each year when opened in 2028.
The cost of the ambitious project is at least 50 per cent more than what was originally conceived.
It is to be funded by $148 million from council, including the proceeds from the 2017 sale of a riverside car park for the Powerhouse museum’s
western Sydney HQ, now under construction across the river.
The NSW government has chipped in $40 million and, if short of money, Parramatta Lord Mayor Pierre Esber said he would not hesitate
to “tap [Prime Minister Anthony] Albanese as well”.
The announcement throws a spotlight on the future of the old picture palace, the Roxy Theatre, which
Labor has pledged to turn into an arts and culture venue.
The green light for the Riverside revamp makes it more likely the Roxy would be earmarked as a concert venue like the Enmore Theatre
if the State Government acquires the faded art deco gem from owner David Kingston who has plans of his own to turn it into a hotel venue with bars and restaurants.
Asked if the coming May budget will fund the Roxy Theatre, now subject of a business case, arts minister John Graham said the Roxy
was an important piece of the cultural jigsaw puzzle in Parramatta.
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