Palace Theatre Melbourne

Theatre in Bourke Street, opened 6 April 1912 as Brennan's Amphitheatre, seating c.2000. Renamed National Amphitheatre 1912. Redesigned by Henry E. White and reopened 4 November 1916 as Palace Theatre, seating 1700. Interior redecorated by White 1923. Became cinema as Apollo Theatre c.1929. Redecorated and renamed St James Theatre, November 1940. Renamed Metro Theatre. Returned to live musical theatre in early 1970s. Renamed Palace Theatre 1973. Became church. Metro Nightclub in late 1980s

When Brennan's Amphitheatre opened on Easter Saturday 1912 the auditorium was a plain white room with a single rake of seating with a 'balcony' at the rear. The theatre 'could seat 2000 people any night they care to pay the price of admission', said the Bulletin on 2 May. “The cost of the land and the building is set down at £32 000 and none of the money was wasted on interior decoration.’ Fullers’ obtained a controlling interest in the Brennan Vaudeville Circuit shortly after the theatre opened and renamed it the National Amphitheatre. In 1916 Fullers' employed their architect, Henry E. White, to redesign the interior as a three-level auditorium, similar to theatres he had designed or redesigned for them in Sydney (the Adelphi), Brisbane (the Tivoli) and Wellington, New Zealand. Renamed the Palace Theatre, it opened for vaudeville, revue and musicals but became the home of Fullers' melodrama companies. In 1923 Fullers' commissioned White to redesign the plaster decoration of the auditorium in the more elegant Adam style he had just used in the nearby Princess Theatre. 

With the onset of the Great Depression Fullers' turned their theatres over to talking pictures. The Palace became the Apollo Theatre. Snider and Dean showed films there from March 1936 until 1940, when Fullers' Theatres renamed it the St James Theatre. Then Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer bought the theatre and renamed it the Metro. Under this name it briefly returned to live performance with the rock musical Hair. A new owner renamed it the Palace Theatre in 1973. In 1978 it was bought by a revivalist Christian organisation, which moved out in 1986. Then it was turned into a technologically elaborate disco nightclub, still with White's 1923 interior decor.