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HISTORY

Located on Orwell Street just a few confident steps off Macleay, from the moment the Metro-Minerva Theatre opened it became the jewel in the crown of the Kings Cross and Potts Point area that was already buzzing with galleries, cinemas, nightclubs, revues, coffee shops and fine dining establishments.

The Minerva Theatre was the brainchild of renowned theatre impresario David N Martin of the Tivoli Circuit fame. One of three buildings which made up the “Minerva Centre” his vision and enterprise created an integrated suite of three buildings all of which are intact 

Producers JC Williamson and Whitehall Productions kept the theatre buzzing with a constant stream of live shows until 1950 when MGM converted it into the Metro Theatre cinema to showcase the new Cinemascope technology accompanied by a state of the art sound system.

 

It took the energy and vision of entrepreneur Harry M Miller to bring the theatre to life again in 1969 when he installed the Australian production of Hair, that ran for a record breaking two years.

The early seventies saw the emergence of Australian cinema and once more the Metro was at the forefront when it became home to Kennedy Miller Productions who made Mad Max, The Dismissal, Bodyline, Babe and Happy Feet from the premises.

 

After 37 years of the theatre being lost to a live audience and the community, with Kennedy Miller’s sale in 2019 to Abacus Group ,The Metro-Minerva Action Group see a window of opportunity to Make the Metro-Minerva live again!

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