Princess of Wales Theatre

The Princess of Wales Theatre is a new, 2000-seat playhouse built by the father and son producing team of David and Ed Mirvish, just a block away from their historic Royal Alexandra Theatre. The Princess of Wales is the first privately owned and financed theatre built in Canada since 1907 - and the first anywhere in North America in over 30 years. Construction began on August 6, 1991, and the building opened to the public with the musical Miss Saigon on May 26, 1993. The theatre was built with maximum flexibility in mind. Its stage is one of the widest and deepest in North America - large enough to accommodate the most spectacular theatrical productions - and its technical facilities are state-of-the-art. The auditorium represents a happy marriage of the best ideas in theatre design from this century and the last. Architect Peter Smith, a winner of the Governor-General's Award for his theatre designs, accepted the challenge of building a large, modern theatre - with a huge stage and fly tower - that would somehow seat 2000, in exceptional comfort, while preserving the elegance and intimacy of a traditional, nineteenth century theatre - and doing it all on a small downtown plot of land.