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The Gaiety (1871 – 1971) Part 1

by John Healy on Nov 19th, 2025 - 236 Views - No Comments

The Gaiety Theatre, King St South, Dublin, Co. Dublin, Ireland

Located in Dublin at the top of Grafton Street, opposite Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre on South King Street stands the Gaiety Theatre. For more than a hundred years it has presented entertainments from all categories: pantomimes, musicals, comedians, drama, opera, dance festivals and concerts.

Called by some ’The Grand Old Lady of South King Street’ it opened in 1871 and is one of Dublin’s longest established theatres.

Once occupied by shops that included a grocer and bakers the site for the theatre on South King Street had been chosen by two brothers John and Michael Gunn to build the theatre. They were the sons of a Scottish piano tuner (also named Michael) himself turned business man who ran a successful shop at 61 Grafton Street. Called Gunn, M. & Sons, the shop retailed sheet music, harmoniums and pianofortes. Unfortunately he lost his life in a tram accident in 1861. Ten years later the brothers would obtain a twenty-one year licence to the site on South King Street and on April 21st 1871 the Letters Patent Office granted the brothers permission to establish ‘a well regulated theatre and therein and at all times publicly to act, represent or perform any interlude, tragedy, comedy, prelude, opera, burletta, play, farce or pantomime…’ The brothers wasted no time in getting to work on the theatre. They hired architect Charles John Phipps who went on to design and oversee more than forty theatres including in the UK The Royal Hippodrome, The Lyceum, The Lyric Theatre, Wolverhampton Grand Theatre and The Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham, to name a few. The Gaiety opened in record time completed in 28 weeks at a cost of £26,000. The site was 17 metres wide and 42 metres deep. It originally held an audience of 2,000 divided over four floors; parterre, dress circle, grand circle and gallery (sometimes referred to as the gods). This capacity reduced with successive refurbishments. By the time of the Gaiety’s 75th anniversary the capacity reduced to 1,439 people. The seating capacity of the theatre today stands at a little over half the original available seats but retains one of C.J. Phipp’s innovations; the tip-up seat. Using Burma Teak, Russian Oak and cast-iron from Britain the interior measurements were: curtain line to back of pit 58 feet; footlights to back wall of stage 51 feet; the stage width 54 feet; the proscenium (an arch to see the performance as if looking through the fourth wall, 37 feet high and 23 feet wide with the height of house (from pit floor to centre of ceiling) 46 feet. The proscenium arch had a series of footlights. Each light contained a gas burner. The flame of the footlights would jet downwards meaning that performers could approach the flames (mostly) without getting burnt. Smoke from the said footlights was captured and carried away by an iron cylinder that ran parallel to the front of the stage.

While much has survived over the years some of the original decorative scheme has not, such as the frescoes adorned over the proscenium boxes. Another now disappeared original feature is a line of glass-filled arches that ran along the back of the dress circle. In 1955 these arches were filled in as part of a major renovation including the removal of the steep top gallery. The refurbishments were a part of a new design to address structural safety concerns. The work started in January, was completed in November and the Gaiety was up and running again.

What set the Gaiety Theatre apart from the local opposition in 1871 was the owners’ early adoption of a policy which more or less has been followed since. The theatre would act as a receiving house. This meant that, unlike other theatres in Dublin, the Gaiety did not have a resident company nor create its own productions. Theatre management offered the premises for rental to those in search of a well run venue.The theatre had no scene or costume-making departments. It did not need such facilities as visiting companies brought their own sets and costumes and took them away when the run was finished.

The Gaiety was the venue for the first performance of an opera written on an Irish theme by an Irish composer in the Irish Language. Written by Robert O’Dwyer (1862-1949) ’Eithne’ opened for its debut on 16th May 1910. The story follows Ceart, son of the High-King of Ireland, who enters the realm of Tír na nÓg to break a curse on the Princess Eithne who is trapped in the form of a mystical bird. Unfortunately it failed to make much of an impact.

In 1909 the Gaiety was sold to the management of the Theatre Royal who then established a business named The Gaiety Theatre (Dublin) Company Ltd. A wide range of alterations were planned for the theatre. The idea was to replace more than half of the building and a new facade being the first changes of a major refurbishment programme. All changed though with the outbreak of war across Europe in 1914 as did the Easter Rising of 1916.

In September 1916 the Gaiety was temporarily transformed into a cinema! The theatre had been hired to show the famous and one of the most talked about films in early motion picture history, DW Griffith’s ‘The Birth Of A Nation’. All the existing Dublin cinemas at the time did not have the capacity to keep up with the demand for tickets and the movie ended up being shown 32 times at the Gaiety. The theatre was used in the same capacity on several occasions over the next few years. The First World War ended in November 1918 and Britain (including Ireland) held elections the following year. Sinn Fein the Irish republican party won 73 constituencies, all refusing to take their seats in the House of Commons in London. The party organised its own parliament in Dublin and Dáil Éireann was declared January 21st 1919. After the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in December 1921 the island fell into a bitter civil war between the Republicans and The Irish Free State which lasted until May 1923, leading to devastating losses of life on both sides.

Somehow the Gaiety remained open offering an escape from the destruction and upheavals happening at the time. During the 1920s musical comedies over from the UK and Broadway-style presentations became very popular. In April 1926 American actress Lucille La Verne featured in a play ’Sun-Up’ now all but forgotten. Lucille La Verne would fair much better and go on to world fame when in 1937 her voice was used for that of the wicked Queen in Disney’s ‘Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs.’

Local involvement in musical comedies and operas presented in the Gaiety was greatly enhanced in 1928 by the creation of the Dublin Operatic Society. Although the group lasted until the 1950s The society moved most of its productions from the Gaiety to the OlympiaTheatre in the 1940s. There was still plenty of other companies who travelled from the UK who were enthusiastic to hire the Gaiety for their short runs in the theatre. Although certain parts of the Gaiety’s programme continued to be popular with audiences in the mid 1930s the box office was not doing so well as it had in previous decades. The taste of the public had changed with audiences no longer appreciating serious drama. Light musical entertainers and their repertoire were all hugely popular. In 1935 after the final night of the pantomime ‘Robinson Crusoe’ the theatre management decided to run twice-nightly variety entertainment shows.

Gilbert and Sullivan’s ‘Pirates Of Penzance would be heard in the theatre time and again in the years between the world wars, much as they had been in previous times but with one new development. Now they were sung more often than not by local performers in local home grown productions. Many of these were sponsored by Louis Elliman. In early 1936 there was a newly formed syndicate that included Louis and his father Maurice. The father ran a theatre seating business in Camden Street in Dublin. Louis, known as ‘Mr Louis’, was a highly successful entrepreneur and held the Irish Agency for First National Films later becoming Managing Director of Odeon (Ireland) Ltd. In 1958 he along with Major-General Emmet Dalton created Ardmore Film Studios just outside Bray in County Wicklow. Mr Louis was as much interested in screen as well as being associated with two of Dublin’s popular theatres, The Royal and The Gaiety.

In 1946 the Gaiety celebrated its 75th anniversary. A commemorative book was published for the celebration featuring tributes from a number of well-known names such as Noel Coward and Dame Sybil Thorndike who had performed at the theatre many times. In November 1946 British actor-manager Andrew ‘Anew’ McMaster directed a special production of Oliver Goldsmith’s ’She Stoops To Conquer’ the very first play ever presented at the Gaiety.

Dance became very prominent during the 1950s and in late February 1952 Britain’s Festival Ballet arrived at the Gaiety for a week. In June of the same year the theatre hosted a three-week international Festival Of Ballet. Throughout the 1950s European dance companies were often hosted in the Gaiety even as late as 1958 with the Festival Ballet hosted by the theatre for two weeks.

One of the most important drama productions at the theatre in 1953 was Playboy of the Western World by Irish playwright/poet John Millington Synge. The play had been first presented at The Abbey Theatre in 1907. At the time causing uproar and riots at the portrayal of Ireland and it’s natives. Years later famous Irish Actor and one time manager at the Gaiety, Cyril Cusack, who had formed his own acting company in 1944, presented the play’s first major revival. The controversial event opened to a large opening night audience with a curtain call for Cusack in which he denounced the play’s critics and detractors. The production was well received having huge success with critics and audiences alike, completing a very successful run of three weeks at the Gaiety. Since then Playboy of the Western World has proven to be an audience favourite worldwide. The last production of the play in The Gaiety was in 2019.

1962 and Gaiety audiences had the chance for the first time to see Luciano Pavarotti’s early international performances as the Duke Of Mantua in Rigoletto. As his fame increased he returned to The Gaiety to sing Rodolfo in 1964 and he gave two concerts for The Dublin Grand Opera Society. 1965 was an important year in the theatre’s long history. It was the final year in which Mr Louis remained in charge of The Gaiety. He had seen the theatre through the hard years of World War Two and new forms of entertainment outlets such as the dawn of Raidió Teilifís Éireann first broadcast on New Year’s Eve in 1961. Elliman (Mr Louis) aware of the threat from the new media believed venues like The Gaiety could continue to find audiences once they supplied a good mix of music, drama and comedy. He had made the theatre available every summer and Christmas to legendary Jimmy O’Dea and his company eventually becoming synonymous with the theatre. Jimmy O’Dea died early in January 1965. In a further blow to The Gaiety Louis Elliman died suddenly in November of the same year. His widow and family continued to keep the theatre going but their enthusiasm for theatre life was not the same.

In 1966 the premises were sold to Irish building contractor Joseph Murphy who had bought the site without viewing the premises in person. Only realising later that he now owned a theatre he leased the premises to a cartel headed by a well known figure of the time Eamonn Andrews (a television star for almost forty years he is probably best known for his presentation show ‘This Is Your Life’ which first aired in 1955 on British TV). Before his Gaiety involvement he had been appointed Chairman of RTE in 1960, a position he held for six years. Even before he got involved with The Gaiety he set up his own media production company, the Eamonn Andrew Studios which ran a dance hall (The TV Club) in Harcourt Street. Despite the changes in ownership and management audiences were given plenty of assurance that some of the theatre’s favourites would not be lost. Familiar characters and faces would still be found in the cast of that year’s pantomime, Cinderella. The great Maureen Potter, Milo O’Shea, Hal Roach and Cecil Sheridan. Micheal Mac Liammóir would return with another run of The Importance of being Oscar in the spring of 1966. In the summer of the same year Eamonn Andrews Productions presented Sean O’Casey’s Juno with a cast headed by Peter O’Toole and Siobhan McKenna. O’Toole would be back in The Gaiety three years later in George Bernard Shaw’s Man and Superman, along with John Hurt, Susannah York and Donal McCann. Originally written as a radio play The Golden Years (a musical about the life of Irish Songwriter, poet, author, painter and performer Percy French) was revised in 1967 and first performed in the Gaiety with Ray McAnally in the role of Percy French and Milo O’shea as Phil The Fluther. Eamonn Andrew Studios presented Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Wolfe (with Ray McAnally and Maureen Toal) in 1969.

Stars who appeared at the theatre include Gaiety favourite and homegrown star Jimmy O’Dea, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Yahudi Menuin and Jack Benny. Maureen Potter would lead a cast of Gaiety regulars in the annual Christmas pantomime at the venue including Danny Cummins and Vernon Hayden.

Another hugely successful was an annual variety show Gaels Of Laughter (devised by Fred O’Donovan with Fred’s brother coining the presentation’s name).Directed by Ursula Doyle the show was led by Maureen Potter with variety of great acts. The theatre was now approaching its 100 year anniversary and was set on playing to its biggest and greatest audience yet when the theatre hosted the 1971 Eurovison Song Contest.

The previous year Irish singer Dana won the international contest and where better to host the event in 1971 than The Gaiety. In a single week the interior of the building was transformed. Extensive modifications were made for the transmission with extra facilities for the International press, a specially constructed stage arena and 24 commentary positions housed within the auditorium. This was also RTE’s first indoor colour transmission. The show was hosted by Bernadette Ní Ghallchóir and it was the first year that broadcaster Terry Wogan provided commentary for British viewers. The rules of the contest were also changed for the year’s show. A new voting system was introduced where each participation country appointed two jurors, one between the ages of 16 and 25, another between 26 and sixty. They were to award points to every song except of course to their own. The jurors could each award 1 to 5 points for each title. This new voting system was designed to produce a clear winner and prevent any country from receiving zero points! They also raised the number of performers on stage for each song to a maximum of six, a significant change as it now meant that groups could participate in performances. The show was broadcast from the theatre to an International audience of more that 400 million viewers including as far away as Uganda and Thailand. The winning title was ‘Un Banc, Un Arbre, Un Rue performed by singer Severine for Monaco.

Later in the year the theatre temporarily closed for refurbishment. It would reopen with a gala show called Night Of 100 Stars and televised live by RTE with compere Gay Byrne. The cast included Mike Murphy, Pat Kenny, Peter O’Toole, Siobhan McKenna, Maureen Potter, Jacinta White, Frank Paterson, Tony Kenny as well as The Billy Barry Kids, The Dublin Grand Opera Society Rathmines and Rathgar Musical Society, Dublin City Ballet and Butch Moore &The Capital Showband. The Grand Old Lady of South King Street had come through its first 100 years.

Sources:

Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre The Grand Old Lady of South King Street by Robert O’Byrne (published by the Gaiety Theatre 2007)

https://www.gaietytheatre.ie

https://eurovisionworld.com/eurovision/1971