Souvenir Brochure 1939-2014

“Dedicated with gratitude to the many thousands of Theatregoers who,

through their encouragement and support, have made possible the creation,

and existence, of both the ‘Little’ and ‘New’ Theatres

in this great city and county of Kingston Upon Hull.”

Peppino Santangelo - 21 Years of Management, Commemorative Brochure 1954.

A Message from Councillor Geraghty

As Portfolio Holder for Culture, Leisure, Events and Public Wellbeing I am very proud that this October celebrates 75 glorious years of our prestigious Hull New Theatre.

From the opening performance in 1939 to the current date, the theatre continues to provide a diverse programme of high quality events which offer something for everyone.

These are exciting times for Hull as we look forward to becoming City of Culture in 2017 and there is no doubt that Hull New Theatre will play a very important part in the programme of events and the legacy that follows.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our valued patrons for your support over the years and look forward to welcoming you and a new generation to enjoy another successful 75 years of first class entertainment.

Councillor Geraghty Portfolio Holder - Culture, Leisure, Events and Public Wellbeing

Did you know…

When Peppino Santangelo took over the Little Theatre in 1933 it had no telephone, no advance booking facilities, no Box Office, no bars or cloakrooms!

In 1937 Santangelo purchased the Assembly Rooms next door to the Little Theatre, which is now the New Theatre.

Electrician Robert Carr designed the elaborate stage switchboard and scenic artist and stage manager Bert Linton designed the lofty stage grid and spacious scenic studio. The New Theatre, Hull officially opened on Saturday October 16th 1939 with a production of Noel Gay’s Me and My Girl.

Performances continued throughout the war and the Spanish bar was used as a bomb shelter.

Programmes contained the encouraging words ‘the theatre is a safer place than your own home’!

The theatre received a direct hit during the holocaust of 7th and 8th May 1941 During the week of 28th July 1941 rain poured in through the bomb wrecked scene dock, flooding the dressing rooms, but the show went on! The theatre was purchased by Whitehall Theatres Ltd in 1951.

Peppino Santangelo retired in 1958 and William Sharpe took over as manager. In 1961 Hull City Council purchased the theatre, with help from Alderman Frederick Holmes and Councillor Lionel Rosen, and saved it from being turned into a bingo hall!

In 1968 £30,000 was spent on improvements, including the re-seating of the auditorium and enlargement of the orchestra pit. The improved facilities made the theatre a leading venue in the national touring circuit and attracted international artists such as the Yugoslav National Dance Company.

The theatre was renamed Hull New Theatre in 1985 following a massive refurbishment. A Royal Gala attended by Princess Anne took place featuring performances from Opera North, and the English Philharmonic Orchestra.

The theatre’s story began in 1924 with the formation of the Hull Repertory Theatre Company, who performed at a lecture hall next to the current premises, known as the Little Theatre.

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In 1989 the Theatre celebrated its 50th anniversary with a special week long production of the Secret of Sherlock Holmes, starring Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke from the ITV series. In 1994/95 the exterior of the building underwent further restoration and improved access with the installation of a lift from street level to foyer and foyer to stalls bar. The stage type is ‘flat’, ‘proscenium’ with ‘apron’.

The orchestra pit is flexible, holding 7-10 people, in two sections.

There are 15 dressing rooms at the theatre, 13 of which are at basement level and 2 of which are located upstairs.

There are 1159 seats in the auditorium: 680 in stalls, 185 on the dress circle, 282 on the upper circle and 6 in each of the two boxes which are positioned either side of the stage. Weekly shows normally open on a Monday or a Tuesday evening and opening night is usually press night.

Matinees usually take place at 2.30pm on a Thursday and a Saturday.

An interval usually lasts 20 minutes and takes place approximately halfway through a performance. Ballets and operas sometimes have two intervals.

Management ‘open the house’ approximately half an hour before the performance begins, this means that patrons are able to take their seats in the auditorium.

The auditorium is raked and slopes from row K to row Z.

The theatre has two licensed bars; the stalls bar, which can be accessed via the spiral staircase in the foyer, and the circle bar on the upper floor.

The ‘get in’ usually takes place the day before the show opens for a weekly run; this is when the set is installed on the stage.

There are usually two shows per day six days a week during pantomime, with the exception of Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.

Margot Fonteyn performed with the Vic Wells Ballet Company shortly after the theatre’s opening in December 1939 and again in February 1940, returning in February 1976 with a one woman show. In 1968 the Czechoslovakian State Dance Company visited the theatre at the time that Russia had occupied their country. The dancers spent much of their time off-stage listening anxiously to radio broadcasts. Prior to the introduction of computerised ticketing systems all tickets had to be written in longhand as they were sold and each night a list of seats sold in advance was given to the usherettes who placed ‘reserved’ notices on them. When the theatre opened in 1939 World War II was already underway and the day of the official opening on October 16th was also the day of the first German air raid on the UK. The theatre shares its birthday with playwright Oscar Wilde (1854 – 1900) and has staged many of his greatest works, the first of which was Lady Windermere’s Fan in 1947.

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The founder of the theatre was called Peppino Santangelo.

Hull New Theatre is a receiving theatre and hosts various touring productions throughout the year.

Hull New Theatre joined twitter in 2012. Follow us at @newtheatrehull

Customers can purchase tickets online at www.hullcc.gov.uk/hullnewtheatre and can select their seats from a virtual seating plan.

A Gold Card Membership scheme is available offering discounts and special offers. Touring companies often sign the back of the safety curtain after performing (not visible to the public) The staircase for Sunset Boulevard in 2001 would not fit through the usual get in doors so a larger entrance had to be built backstage.

Me and My Girl was first performed in 1939 and has been performed numerous times over the years and was last performed here in 2013 by local theatre company One Off Productions.

The most successful pantomime so far is Cinderella in 2011 - 2012 starring The Chuckle Brothers. The longest serving current member of staff is Stage Manager Allan Green who has worked here for 34 years.

Hull New Theatre is a Grade II listed building.

Pantomime traditionally started on Boxing day, moving to start at the beginning of December in the late 1970’s.

Macbeth has been performed a number of times over the years, however it is unlucky to say ‘Macbeth’ in a theatre and is usually referred to as ‘The Scottish Play’

There are an average of 14 front of house staff, 10 bar staff, 10 technical staff, 2 box office staff working at each performance. Hull New Theatre is rumoured to be haunted by a ghost called Charlie. During a performance of La Rondine by Opera North in 2000, there was a technical hitch on stage and the performance was finished from one of the boxes.

There is a blue plaque on the side of the theatre stating ‘In this building in 1859 and 1860 the novelist Charles Dickens (1812 - 1870) gave selected readings from many of his works.’

The fastest selling show in recent years was Michael McIntyre on 17 June 2012, which sold out within a couple of hours.

During the floods in 2007 the dressing rooms at basement level were flooded and 4 performances of Starlight Express had to be cancelled until the performers could replace their specialist roller skates.

Over 70,000 ice-creams are sold on average each year. Over the last 12 years more than a million people have been to see the pantomime at Hull New Theatre.

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The performance on our 75th birthday will be Horrible Histories: Barmy Britain from the Birmingham Stage Company.

More than 170,000 people visit the theatre in an average year.

It is said to be unlucky to whistle backstage in the theatre.

Chitty Bang Bang was one of the biggest productions to date, there were 30 backstage staff during the show including dressers, hair and make-up, fly men, sound / lighting and stage movers.

In the 80’s the musical comedy version of A Christmas Carol was being performed when the fire alarm went off and the performance was completed in Kingston Square, luckily it was a false alarm!

Hull New Theatre can be hired for performances, events, conferences and parties

The Hull New Theatre café bar serves pre show snacks and opens 2 hours prior to each performance.

David Whitfield performed at Hull New Theatre twice during his illustrious career and there is a statue dedicated to his memory in Kingston Square.

Lost property found over the years includes false teeth, hearing aids, underwear, numerous pairs of glasses and the most popular items to be left are umbrellas.

Actress Sheridan Smith trained locally at Northern Academy of Performing Acts and appeared at Hull New Theatre in ‘Annie’ as a child.

The Blue plaque outside the theatre reads: Built as the Assembly Rooms in 1830 (design by R. H. Sharp under the direction of Charles Mountain, Arch.) this building became the New Theatre in 1939 and is now owned and run by Hull City Council.

The official Facebook Page is www.facebook.com/hullnewtheatre.

Tickets for pantomime are on sale 365 days a year. We go on sale with next years pantomime on the opening day of the current pantomime.

One of the last public performances by Laurel and Hardy was at Hull New Theatre.

In 1989 Russ Abbot came with his show and the set was designed for TV so wouldn’t fit into the theatre. Crew were forced to call a welder early one Sunday morning who cut the set in half in the middle of Jarrett Street.

Up to 12 tonnes of scenery can be hung from the fly bars

For some of the larger shows it can take up to 3 days for a show to be set up on stage, and up to 50 staff to empty 10 x 40ft artics of scenery and lighting.

There are three warning bells at 1 minute intervals starting 3 minutes prior to the show to warn customers that the performance is about to commence. Once all customers are in the auditorium the Front of House Manager gives clearance to the Stage Manager that the performance is able to commence.

There is a secret entrance from one of the dressing rooms directly into the orchestra pit.

During the major refurbishments in 1985 a large part of the front wall of the theatre was removed and replaced by glass

One of the most performed productions is Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat which has appeared at least 20 times since 1978. The show is usually here for a week with often more than 1 performance a day which would mean it has been performed around 250 times!

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History of Hull New Theatre

Building work commenced and proceeded as planned until the declaration of war in September 1939. At that time the new building was still without a roof and was minus equipment and decorations, but thanks to the determination and vision of Santangelo the New Theatre, Hull officially opened on Saturday 16th October that year when the curtain rose on a production of Noel Gay’s Me and My Girl.

Performances continued throughout the war, although air attacks increased in intensity, leading to the theatre bar being reinforced as an air raid shelter. Producing managements, suffering terrible effects during the Blitz,

began to tour West End productions to ‘slightly less hazardous’ provincial theatres.

Hull was badly bombed during the war but the theatre itself only received one direct hit: during the holocaust of 7th and 8th May 1941 the scenic studio was hit, killing several firemen. The bomb also caused significant damage to the theatre, demolishing the stage lantern, two auditorium doors, the front row of the stalls and all the props and costumes of the Sadler’s Wells Opera Company.

Following the war the theatre continued to prosper as a repertory theatre and in 1951 was purchased by Whitehall Theatre Ltd. Audiences declined due to the increasing

The story of Hull New Theatre began in 1924 with the formation of the Hull Repertory Theatre Company, which performed in a converted lecture theatre on the site of the Central Fire Station, known as the Little Theatre. In 1933 Peppino Santangelo, himself an experienced repertory pioneer, stepped in to turn around the company’s fortunes, purchasing the Assembly Rooms next door.

popularity of television, leading to the introduction of a new policy in which touring shows would take place for half of the year, interspersed with repertory productions. In 1958, almost 20 years after his dream was realised, Peppino Santangelo retired, handing over the reins to William Sharpe. Audiences continued to decline and in 1961 Sharpe introduced experimental bingo sessions. The sessions proved so popular (over 1000 people queued around the building, keen to try their luck) that for a time it looked as if the

theatre would be turned into a bingo hall permanently. Hull City Council called an emergency meeting and decided to buy the New Theatre to prevent this from happening, and audiences remained steady throughout the 1960s. In 1968 the auditorium was re-seated, the orchestra pit enlarged, the stage deepened, new dressing room toilets and showers added and a new improved lighting board installed.

Throughout its 75 years, Hull New Theatre has faced challenges and uncertainty, yet it has remained true to the purpose for which it was intended. Peppino Santangelo’s dream was to create a tradition of

‘playing for the people’, which continues to this day, with 170,000 patrons visiting the theatre each year.

In 1985 the theatre underwent a massive refurbishment and re-opened as Hull New Theatre at a glittering Royal Gala attended by Princess Anne. In 1995, further improvements and alterations were made, namely the improvement of access for patrons via a lift from Jarrett Street to the Foyer and a lift from the foyer to the lounge bar.

Famous names who have performed at Hull New Theatre

Soap Stars Eastenders June Brown, Hilda Braid, Gretchen Franklin, Bill Treacher, Barbara Windsor, Letitia Dean, Shaun Williamson.

Coronation Street Amanda Barrie, Johnny Briggs, Brian Capron, Craig Charles, Mark Eden, Les Dennis, Kevin Kennedy, Sue Nicholls, Pat Phoenix, Julie Goodyear, William Roach.

Emmerdale Lorraine Chase, Shirley Stelfox, Gaynor Faye, Patrick Mower, Verity Rushworth.

Film StarsDame Eileen Atkins, Sir Richard Attenborough, Jim Broadbent, Sean Connery, Tom Courtenay, Diana Dors, Colin Farrell, Bob Hoskins, Kate Beckinsale, Chico Marx, Laurel and Hardy, Sir Ian McKellen, Dame Maggie Smith, Catherine Zeta - Jones, Michael Sheen, Sheila Hancock, Tara Fitzgerald.

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Comedy StarsTommy Cooper, Les Dawson, Frances de la Tour, Rodney Bewes, Dick Emery, George Formby, Larry Grayson, Hughie Green, Tony Hancock, Frankie Howerd, John Le Mesurier, Spike Milligan, Morecambe and Wise, Victoria Wood, Norman Wisdom, Rik Mayall, French and Saunders, David Jason, Ken Dodd, June Whitfield, Michael McIntyre, Lee Evans, Billy Connolly.

Pop StarsJason Donovan, Marti Pellow, Will Young, Joe Longthorne, The Nolans, The Osmonds, David Essex.

Children’s CharactersSooty, Orville and Cuddles, The Chuckle Brothers, Noddy, Postman Pat.

What’s on

BarnumTuesday 21 - Saturday 25 October Tickets £19.00 - £ 40.50

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Tuesday 13 - Saturday 17 January £19.00 - £29.50

King and I Tuesday 4 - Saturday 8 November£12.00 - £18.00

Russian BalletCoppélia Tuesday 3 FebruaryLa Fille mal gardée Wednesday, 4 FebruarySwan Lake Thursday 5 - Friday 6 FebruaryThe Nutcracker Saturday, 7 FebruaryTickets £18.50 - £35.00

Jersey Boys Tuesday 11 November - Saturday 22 November£19.00 - £48.50

Opera Verdi RIGOLETTOThursday 26 FebruaryVerdi LA TRAVIATAFriday 27 FebruaryPuccini MADAMA BUTTERFLYSaturday 28 FebruaryTickets £15.00 - £32.00

Aladdin Thursday 4 December - Sunday 4 January£17.50 - £24.50

History BoysMonday 16 - Saturday 21 FebruaryTickets £22.50 - £27.50

For full listings please visit www.hullcc.gov.uk/hullnewtheatre

Dreamboats and Miniskirts Monday 2 - Saturday 7 March Tickets £12.00 - £31.00

Dance til DawnMonday 27 April - Saturday 2 MayTickets £12.50 - £36.00

Anything Goes Monday 9 March - Saturday 14 MarchTickets £20.00 - £39.00

Calamity JaneTuesday 7 - Saturday 11 JulyTickets £17.00 - £37.00

Sister ActTuesday 17 - Saturday 21 MarchTickets £10.00 - £18.00

Derren BrownMonday 20 - Saturday 25 JulyTickets £37.50 - £45.00

The Sound of MusicMonday 13 - Saturday 25 AprilTickets £20.00 - £39.50

Horrible Histories - Groovy Greeks and Incredible InvadersTuesday 10 - Saturday 14 NovemberTickets Adults £12.50, Children £8.50

Box Office: 01482 300 300

For more information contact 01482 613819

HULL ARENA, HULL CITY HALL, HULL NEW THEATRE

Three prestigious & versatile venues hosting some of the top international names in live music, comedy, sport and theatre.

Featuring a dedicated and professional staff team including technical, catering, marketing, front of house and box office support

VENUE CAPACITIESHull Arena - 3750 standing / seated, 3150 seated onlyHull City Hall - 1800 standing / seated, 1200 seated onlyHull New Theatre - 1159 seated.

Enjoy the benefits of Gold Card membership

Box Office: 01482 300 300

Terms and conditions

*Please note discounts are available on selected performances only. Post show event tickets are limited and must be booked at the time of buying your show tickets at the box office. Check with the Box Office for available discounts before booking and always show your valid membership card to obtain tickets and meal discounts.

• Your Gold Card membership will be valid for one year beginning from the 1st of the month in which you pay.

Corporate Gold Card With just one annual payment of £100, your company can take advantage of up to 24 discounted tickets per week, as well as receiving all the usual Gold Card benefits.

• Superb money saving discounts.

• 15% off main meals in the theatre Café Bar on production of your valid members card.

• Exclusive post show events with the cast, (you will require a ticket in advance).

• Bi-monthly newsletter about the forthcoming shows.

• Membership now includes selected Hull City Hall events.

All this for as little as £38.00 a year for 2 discounts or £48.00 for 6 discounts!

Hull New Theatre, Hull City Council, Kingston Square, Hull HU1 3HFTel: 01482 300 300

With thanks to all staff and patrons of Hull New Theatre past and present