The ''Teatro Maria Vitória'' is a theatre in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

, capital of

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

. It is located in the theatre district of Parque Mayer. Dedicated primarily to

revue A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatre, theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketch comedy, sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural pre ...

s, which are known in Portugal as ''Teatro de Revista'', the ''Teatro Maria Vitória'' opened on 1 July 1922 in the Parque Mayer (Mayer Park) district of Lisbon, which was at one time known as the “

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street ** Broadway Theatre (53rd Stre ...

” of Lisbon. The theatre was named in honour of a

fado Fado (; "destiny, fate") is a music genre which can be traced to the 1820s in Lisbon, Portugal, but probably has much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar Rui Vieira Nery states that "the only reliable information on the history of fado ...

singer, Maria Vitória, who had died at a young age in 1915. It started life as a wooden building. The playwrights, Ernesto Rodrigues, Félix Bermudes and João Bastos, played an important role in the theatre's early performances, working under the pseudonym of the “Troianos”. It was the first of the four theatres in the area, the others being the '' Teatro Variedades'' and the '' Teatro Capitólio'', which both still exist, and the '' Teatro ABC'', which was demolished in 2015. Teatro Maria Vitória suffered a fire on 10 May 1986, which destroyed the entire building and contents, forcing the performing company to temporarily transfer to the ''

Teatro Maria Matos The Maria Matos Theatre () is a theatre located in the Freguesia (Portugal), civil parish of Alvalade, in the Concelho, municipality and Portugal, Portuguese capital of Lisbon. History Originally, the building was designed by the architect Fernan ...

''. In 1940, the

singer

Amália Rodrigues Amália da Piedade Rebordão Rodrigues (23 July 1920 – 6 October 1999), known as simply Amália Rodrigues () or popularly as Amália, was a Portuguese fado singer (''fadista''). Dubbed ''Rainha do Fado'' ("Queen of Fado"), she was instrumen ...

made her debut as an actress at the ''Maria Vitória''. Shows also featured international attractions, such as the Brazilian Bibi Ferreira, who drew large crowds to the theatre. The 1960s were particularly fruitful, with the Portuguese actor Raul Solnado starring in two shows that would mark his career: ''A guerra de 1908'' (The war of 1908) and ''História da minha vida'' (The story of my life). After the

Carnation Revolution The Carnation Revolution (), code-named Operation Historic Turn (), also known as the 25 April (), was a military coup by military officers that overthrew the Estado Novo government on 25 April 1974 in Portugal. The coup produced major socia ...

of 25 April 1974, which overthrew the '' Estado Novo'' dictatorship, the theatre quickly changed the name of the revue being performed from "See, listen ... and shut up" to "See, hear ... and speak", assuming a turning point had been reached in the creative freedom and expression for theatrical writers. For much of its life the theatre has been used by the impresario, Hélder Freire Costa, who celebrated 50 years of promoting shows at the ''Maria Vitória'' in 2014. It was Costa who, together with Vasco Morgado Júnior, was responsible for rebuilding the theatre after the 1986 fire, with the reopening taking place in 1990. Until the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, when it closed its doors temporarily in 2020, the Maria Vitória was the only theatre in Lisbon still presenting revues on a regular basis. This is despite the fact that Costa has stated that it is too small to be profitable for revues that require a large cast.

References

{{stack, {{Portal, Portugal Theatres in Lisbon Theatres completed in 1922

See also

References