Royal Alex is stretching its legs
Extensive upgrade at 109-year-old theatre will reduce seating to make it more comfortable
The grand old lady of the Toronto theatre scene, the Royal Alexandra, is getting a long-delayed makeover, and patrons are going to feel the difference where it counts: in their seats.
Expect the venue’s cramped seating to be a thing of the past by the time the next show, Come from Away, opens on Nov. 15.
The plush red chairs may look similar, but there’s a significant difference: there will be almost 300 fewer of them, allowing for wider seats with better legroom.
“We might as well be blunt. The truth is that the theatre was built in 1907 and the seats that were in the theatre until recently structurally were the same seats as 1907, which means that they were not as wide as seats are nowadays and it also means the legroom was not as generous as modern theatres,” said John Karastamatis, director of marketing and sales.
“More than100 years after the place was built, it was time to look at it.”
The seats had their last major makeover in 1963, the year the late Ed Mirvish acquired the Royal Alex, with new stuffing and upholstery. The new seats — custom-made and in colours identical to the old ones — will be wider, more comfortable, have more legroom and higher backs. For Mirvish Productions, it means sacrificing three rows — two in the balcony, one in the dress circle.
In 1963, the theatre had 1,497 seats. When Come From Away opens, there will be 1,214, although the theatre is able to adjust the number for different shows.
“We have been talking for several years about making the seating more comfortable,” said Ron Jacobson, general manager for all four Mirvish theatres, who believes the renovation was overdue. “A hundred years ago, people were shorter and thinner and we haven’t kept up with the times.”
He added that subscribers “under- standably became very wary of coming back to the Royal Alex, although they loved it, because the seating was not so comfortable.”
The biggest challenge was finding a five-month window of opportunity between shows to make the change.
“It’s rare that the Royal Alex is dark for that amount of time, which is almost never because, as a theatre producer, you don’t want dark theatres,” said Jacobson, who’s been working with design architect Athos Zaghi for the past two years on detailed plans.
In addition to the seat change, risers under the back10 rows of seats on the orchestra level are being removed and the level’s original slope is being restored, which means patrons no longer have to step up to get to their seats.
The second part of the refurbishment includes restoration of much of the decorative plaster, which involved retaining specialist David Hannivan, who did a fine job restoring the Elgin Theatre in the 1980s.
Because of the building’s age, the refurbishment is taking place under the watchful and approving eye of Toronto’s heritage preservation services staff, Jacobson said.
“We didn’t have enough time to do every square inch but we did the key stuff, which is all around the prosce- nium arch and all the side boxes, which have all this beautiful decorative plaster, and the fascia of the two balconies,” Jacobson said.
“Every square inch was cleaned with a brush and anything that was damaged was repaired and then restored to the original colours of cream and gold.”
A second phase, set for the near future — again, depending on the scheduling of productions — will complete the restoration of the building’s decorative features and includes a major upgrade of the airconditioning system.