Capitol Theatre, Singapore

Overview

Capitol Theatre

former names	Kyo-Ei Gekijo (1942–1944)
pushpin map	Singapore
pushpin map caption	Location in Singapore
address	17 Stamford Road, Singapore 178907
location	Singapore
coordinates	1.29347°N, 103.85119°W
type	Theatre
built	July 1929
opened	May 22, 1930
renovated	1939–1940 1948–1951 1989 2011–2015
reopened	1942 March 31, 1951 May 19, 2015
closed	December 1, 1941 1944 December 30, 1998
owner	Mirza Mohamed Ali Namazie (former) Shaw Organisation (former) Singapore Tourism Board (former) Perennial Real Estate Holdings‡R1R‡
operator	Capitol Theatres Ltd (former) Shaw Organisation (former) Capitol Singapore Golden Village
architect	Keys & Dowdeswell
builder	Messrs Brossard and Mopin
project manager	Keys & Dowdeswell
structural engineer	Messrs Brossard and Mopin
services engineer	Messrs Sherwin-Williams Paint Co. Messrs Lohmann and Co.
capacity	977‡R2R‡
website	http://www.capitolsingapore.com/capitol-theatre

Capitol Theatre is a historic cinema and theatre located in Singapore. It was adjoined to four-storey building known as the Capitol Building. The Capitol Theatre was considered one of Singapore's finest theatres in the 1930s during that time.

History

In 1929, Mirza Mohamed Ali Namazie, a Persian businessman of the Namazie family, commissioned the theatre to be built in Singapore, with S. A. H. Shirazee, an Indian-Muslim merchant and community leader, and the South African brothers Joe and Julius Fisher from First National Pictures, joined in to form Capitol Theatres Ltd as its operator. Namazie would serve as the theatre company's chairman with Shirazee as director, Joe Fisher as managing director and his brother Julius Fisher as the publicity manager.[3]

Architecture and equipment

Joe Fisher travelled overseas to acquire the materials for the theatre's furnishings, decorations and design. The Capitol Theatre was designed neoclassical architecture by British architects

Operations under Shaw Organisation

After the war in 1945, Capitol Theatre and Namazie Mansions had since put under mortgage by the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.[16] Later in 1946, Shaw bought over the buildings for $3 million and made the Capitol Theatre as its flagship cinema and renamed its adjoined Mansions as Shaws Building. In the late 1948, renovation of the buildings started which included repairing the damaged structure and new ballroom and restaurant known as Capitol Ballroom & Restaurant with a function room named Capitol Blue Room on the first floor.[17]

Its supposed reopening of the theatre on 30 March 1951 was delayed for 24 hours, due to the late arrival of the equipment needed for the Scandinavian Ice Revue to install the ice rink in the theatre. The theatre was officially reopened on 31 March 1951 at 9.15 pm to host the first ice show in Singapore.[18]

On 23 December 1952, the Capitol Chinese Restaurant was opened in the Capitol Blue Room in the evening, which specialised in Shanghai and Sichuan food prepared by cooks from China.[19]

From the 1951 to the 1960s, the theatre was also the venue for hosting Miss Singapore and Miss Malaya beauty pageants.[20] The Variety show Musical Express[21] and Singaporean musical group The Quests[22] were held at the Capitol from the 1960s onwards.

In 1978, Shaw Organisation put up Capitol Theatre and Shaws Building for sale, however no deal had been reached.[23] Shaw Organisation later revealed plans to acquire the land of nearby Capitol Shopping Centre and to demolish Capitol Theatre and Shaws Building and redevelop the site into a shopping complex and a multiscreen cinema with commercial and residential apartments. However, under the Control of Rent Act 1953 of Singapore penal code, the Shaw Organisation had to provide compensation to its current tenants which proved a challenge to them.[24]

In February 1984, the Singapore Government gazetted the two buildings for redevelopment and later acquired the buildings from Shaw in 1987, for which the Shaw Organisation became the lessee for the use of the theatre and the building.[25]

In 1989, the theatre closed for a two-week renovation with the cost of S$700,000 with rewiring, reequipped with the new sound system and projectors and painting of the cinema hall and reopened 26 October 1989 with Lethal Weapon 2. The Shaws Building also underwent renovations and was relaunched on 30 April 1992 as the Capitol Building for commercial purposes.[26]

On 29 December 1998, the Capitol Theatre screened its last film Soldier, and was officially closed on the following day.[27]

Redevelopment

In 2000, the Singapore Tourism Board took over the two buildings to explore alternative uses for it, but plans to turn it into a home for an arts group was languished and the cost of refurbishment was exorbitant and was commercially unfeasible.[29][30]

On 3 April 2008, plans of redeveloping the Capitol Theatre, Capitol Building, Capitol Centre and Stamford House as a single integrated site was first publicised in a news report carried by The Straits Times.[31] By redeveloping the 4 developments as one, it would allow for the Theatre to run as a "loss leader" among the other 3 commercial developments.[30] The 4 adjoining developments had a total area of about 1.45 ha with a total of 250 tenants, including offices and retail outlets.[31] With most of the tenants moving out by May 2009, Singapore Land Authority would inform the tenants of the need to move when details of the development of the site had been finalised.[31] Other than the Capitol Centre, the other three buildings were gazetted for conservation on 16 July 2007,[32] meaning that these buildings' facades must be maintained.[31]

In November 2011, Shimizu Corporation was awarded the redevelopment project to develop into a large scale mixed use complex called "Capitol Development". With Grant Associates working closely with the project's lead architect, Richard Meir and Partners Architects, the project consists of Singapore's largest cinema cum theatre complex, 6 stars luxury hotel & retail shops, with an approximate Gross Floor Area (GFA) of 21000 m2,[33] and on the site of the former Capital Centre, a shopping mall, Capitol Piazza and residential tower, Eden Residences Capitol, with an approximate GFA of 29000 m2.[34][33] As it was common to jaywalk on the roads between the St Andrew's Cathedral and the Capitol Centre prior to the redevelopment, the new development was connected to the nearby City Hall MRT station via an underpass stretching towards the Capitol Piazza.[34]

Having been left vacant for more than 10 years, the Theatre was infested with rats, its plaster was falling, ornaments were missing, and water had seeped into its floors.[30][35] During the restoration process, original design details were uncovered such as "the gilding on the plaster mouldings, and the fine features of the two ‘Pegasus’ reliefs" that were painted over multiple times.[36] Additionally, the original Persian Zodiac ceiling mural was not salvageable, so was recreated instead.[36][35] The original fly tower was taken down, and a whole new basement was excavated as well, while having to maintain the structural integrity of the building and the surrounding building.[30]

New technology was incorporated into the Theatre to modernise it. An automated, rotational seating system was installed, allowing the Theatre to turn into a multi-functional venue to accommodate a large variety of events.[30][35] The system would allow for up to 800 seats with 452 seats transformable.[37] Additionally, half of the season would be used by Golden Village (GV) to screen movie blockbuster premieres, and it had also installed servers and projectors in the venue, allowing the venue to host red carpet events as well.[30] The other half of the season would be dedicated to local performing arts groups.[38]

Reopening

The redevelopment of the Capitol Singapore complex had since completed and its topping out ceremony was held on 3 April 2014.[39] The Capitol Theatre was reopened on 19 May 2015 after the 17 years hiatus with the world premiere of Singapura: The Musical.[40]

Capitol Theatre, Singapore

History

Architecture and equipment

Official Opening

Operations under the Namazies

Operations under the Japanese

Operations under Shaw Organisation

Operations under The Capitol Kempinski Hotel Singapore

Redevelopment

Reopening

Gallery

References