The Playbox Theatre was a theatre located at 53-55

Exhibition Street Exhibition Street is a major street in the Melbourne central business district, Australia. The street is named after the International Exhibition held at the Royal Exhibition Building in 1880, and was previously known as Stephen Street from 183 ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, Australia, from 1927 to 1984. It became the home of the

Playbox Theatre Company Playbox Theatre Company is a theatre company for children and young people based in Warwick, England. Playbox provide training for children and young people aged 3–25 in various different areas, including theatre training, musical theatre, cir ...

, previously Hoopla! and later Malthouse Theatre.

History

The theatre seating around 300 people was established by entrepreneurs

Kenn Brodziak Kenneth Leo Brodziak OBE (31 May 19133 June 1999), known early in his career as Richard R. Raymon and nicknamed "Mr Show Business", was an Australian entrepreneur, theatre and concert promoter, producer and artist manager. His career lasted fro ...

and Harry M. Miller, converted from the former Kelvin Hall built in 1927. It opened in June 1969 with the controversial play '' The Boys in the Band''. Plays and musicals at the theatre in the early 1970s included ''

Butterflies Are Free ''Butterflies Are Free'' is a 1972 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Milton Katselas from a screenplay by Leonard Gershe, based on Gershe's 1969 play. The film stars Goldie Hawn, Eileen Heckart, and Edward Albert. It follows ...

'', '' Juggler's Three'' and ''

Godspell ''Godspell'' is a musical in two acts with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by John-Michael Tebelak. The show is structured as a series of parables, primarily based on the Gospel of Matthew, interspersed with music mostly set t ...

''. The

Australian Film Institute The Australian Film Institute (AFI) was founded in 1958 as a non-profit organisation devoted to developing an active film culture in Australia and fostering engagement between the general public and the Cinema of Australia, Australian film indu ...

leased the theatre for two years from mid-1974 to mid-1976. In 1977, the Playbox Theatre became the home of theatre company Hoopla!, which changed its name to the Playbox Theatre Company. A second smaller 80-seat theatre, the Playbox Upstairs, was established in the building in 1978, with the original theatre called the Playbox Downstairs. The theatre was destroyed by a fire in February 1984. The building was later rebuilt as offices with the heritage stone facade retained.

References

{{Reflist Former theatres in Melbourne Theatres completed in 1969 1969 establishments in Australia