Broadway comes to Parramatta: New $188 million theatre for western Sydney
By Linda Morris
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 City of Parramatta wants to attract major touring musicals, productions by leading theatre companies from around Australia, and new works to its western Sydney heartland.
Winning design of the new $188 million Riverside Theatres.Credit: Cox Architecture with 3XN Architects, Aileen Sage, Turf Design Studio and Bangawarra
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.
Theatre producer Rodney Rigby said: “Right now in my pipeline, as of today, I have three musicals that could play here in Parramatta, but there is no venue to accommodate them. The building of this theatre will allow producers like me to play shows after 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.
Inside the new 1500-seat capacity lyric theatre to open in 2028.
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 2780 seats, and some 400,000 people are expected to visit the theatre complex each year when opened in 2028.
Riverside Theatre director Craig McMaster said: “We don’t talk about the building ageing, but it’s a venue that’s probably past its capacity more than anything.”
“One of the joys and problems we have with the Riverside at the moment is that we’re fully occupied most of the time. We have so much demand for bookings here that we can’t service.”
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 existing 760-seat Riverside Playhouse Theatre is to be refurbished.
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.
“Look, I think the treasurer would be very, very upset if I announced the budget here this morning,” he said.
The massive rebuilding project comes just days after the City of Parramatta outlined its vision for the “capital” of western Sydney, Australia’s most populous region. In its new strategic vision, The City of Parramatta will become a global city of five connected “districts” by 2050.
Riverside Theatres sits within Parramatta’s CBD and surrounds, designated as the “business heart of Global Parramatta” and home to nightlife, arts, shopping, food and festivals.
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