Neptune Theatre
Encyclopedia
The Neptune Theatre, built in 1913, is one of many theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...

s in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It has been threatened with closure several times, and is currently not in use. The theatre seats 445 on its two levels.

History

The theatre originally opened in 1913 as Crane's Music Hall. The Crane Brothers' music store had been trading for several years when they opened the music hall above their store on Hanover Street in central Liverpool. Over the first few years, many amateur drama groups staged productions there, thus leading to its renaming as the Crane Theatre in 1938.

Little changed over the next twenty years, until in 1960 a bar was opened in the theatre's box office area. However, the theatre was threatened with closure in 1966. In 1967 the theatre was purchased from the Cranes by Liverpool Corporation, who decided that the theatre should be run by local people for local people. To reflect the city's maritime history the name of the theatre was changed again, this time to the Neptune Theatre, after Neptune, the Roman god of the seas and central character in Marc Lescarbot's "Theatre of Neptune in New France" (Canada's first European play, written and performed in 1606).

However, the future of the Neptune was not as secure as first seemed. A fall in the number of amateur drama groups led to a drop in shows. The corporation, by now named Liverpool City Council, suggested closure again in 1993. This caused a huge outcry around the city and many performers, including Dame Judi Dench
Judi Dench
Dame Judith Olivia "Judi" Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA is an English film, stage and television actress.Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo...

, were part of the campaign to keep the theatre open. In order to attract audiences, a professional pantomime
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...

 Snow White was staged in the theatre. This proved to be a huge success, with a professional panto then being held every year in the theatre.

Although he had nothing to do with the Neptune, the theatre was dedicated to the memory of Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

 manager Brian Epstein
Brian Epstein
Brian Samuel Epstein , was an English music entrepreneur, and is best known for being the manager of The Beatles up until his death. He also managed several other musical artists such as Gerry & the Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, Cilla Black, The Remo Four & The Cyrkle...

 by the city council in 1997, for his contributions to the city's cultural and musical scene. Local artist Tony Brown offered a portrait of Epstein on permanent loan to the theatre in 1999 and this now hangs in the bar.

The theatre was chosen for a special BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 filming of Steve Coogan
Steve Coogan
Stephen John "Steve" Coogan is a British comedian, actor, writer and producer. Born in Manchester, he began his career as a standup comedian and impressionist, working as a voice artist throughout the 1980s on satirical puppet show Spitting Image. In the early nineties, Coogan began creating...

's Paul & Pauline Calf's Cheese and Ham Sandwich programme and many a comedian has moved on from the Neptune to the Edinburgh Fringe
Edinburgh Fringe
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world’s largest arts festival. Established in 1947 as an alternative to the Edinburgh International Festival, it takes place annually in Scotland's capital, in the month of August...

comedy festival.

Its striking interior has often been used as a location for film and TV productions.

Future

In 2005 the theatre closed for refurbishment, with an estimated reopening date of September 2007. In 2007 Liverpool City Council, who lease the Theatre from Hanover Estate Management, commissioned an independent valuation of the Theatre's rental value, after months of negotiations with no progression on the terms of the new lease. The future of the theatre remains unclear.

External links

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