Princess Theatre, Launceston

Costing between £14,000 and £15,000, the Princess Theatre was built for Mr Marino Lucas, who was a a vaudeville entrepreneur from Hobart.

The theatre was built to comfortably seat 1,800. It originally consisted of two cloackrooms in the upstairs foyer, one for the ladies, and also one for men.

Over the years things have significantly changed. The Theatre is now licensed to now hold only 1087(including staff), although there are more facilities for members of the public.

While the auditorium hasn't been changed much since 1911 the front foyers and the façade were converted to art deco during extensive renovations in 1939.

Strangely on opening night in 1911 the backstage area was still to be completed so only silent films were shown. The theatre even operated as a cinema until 1970.

Also in the year 1970 the Launceston City Council sold the National Theatre and bought The Princess for the extremely cheap price of just $71,000. The Theatre then once again opened as a live venue (its original purpose)

Ever since 1970, the Princess has hosted a large range of performances that include include Circus Oz, The Rocky Horror Show, the Australian Ballet, the Sydney Dance Company, The Corrs, The Delltones, The Seekers, HI 5 and many more. Other famous actors and performers who have performed include; Jimmy Edwards, Peter Cook, Hattie Jacques, Dave Allen, Warren Mitchell, Dudley Moore, Geoffrey Parsons, Billy Connolly, Wilfred Bramble and Harry H Corbitt from "Steptoe and Son", and more recently, Australia´s Ruth Cracknell, Helen Morse, Barry Otto and Gary McDonald.

The Princess Theatre is also used for local events such as the Uni Revue, Launceston Competitions, Launceston Festival of Dance, school and college productions and end-of-year functions. The Launceston Musical Society, Three River Theatre and the Launceston Players regularly stage their productions there.

Over the past few years the Launceston City Council undertook minor venue upgrades, especially equipment upgrades..

During 1999 a computerised ticketing system was installed in the Princess Theatre foyer.