Dominion Theatre

Dominion Theatre, West End theatre, situated in Tottenham Court Road, London. The Dominion was designed by the architects William and T. R. Millburn and built on two sites: the entrance hall and café on the site of the former Court Cinema, and the auditorium and stage on a site previously occupied by a brewery. The grand foyer was designed in the form of an ocean liner with a wide double staircase leading to the seats in the circles. The auditorium is decorated in burgundy and gold with grand boxes. The theatre seats 2,182, making it one of the largest venues in the West End. The Dominion opened on October 3, 1929, with an American musical on golf, Follow Through, and was converted into a cinema in 1930. During World War II it closed for a short time at the height of the Blitz.

The Dominion served as a cinema, screening South Pacific (1958; directed by Joshua Logan) and The Sound of Music (1965; Robert Wise) for a number of years, as well as hosting pop concerts and short seasons of dance and theatre, until Dave Clarke's Time (1986), starring Cliff Richard, confirmed the theatre as a successful venue for musicals. Subsequent shows have included Grease (1993), Scrooge (1996), Disney's Beauty and the Beast (1997), and Notre-Dame de Paris (2000), based on the novel by Victor Hugo.