State Theatre
Nineteen twenties movie palace with a crystal chandelier and a Wurlitzer organ that speaks through the floor.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Sydney's State Theatre opens in 1969, when a wrecking crew and developers had all but signed off on demolishing the 'tacky old' movie palace for an office tower. You'll hear why Sydney once had around twenty-eight grand theatres to rival the West End and Broadway, and how nearly all of them vanished in that same demolition wave. The guide follows the Koh-i-Noor chandelier overhead, the Wurlitzer organ hidden beneath the stage since 1929, and the pink, butterfly-covered powder room upstairs. Look up as you walk in — the chandelier is the first clue to what almost wasn't here.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Capitol Theatre
Restored atmospheric theatre with a painted starlit ceiling, built inside a circus hippodrome.
Sydney Theatre Company
Converted timber wool shed on a working wharf, home to a leading theatre company since the nineteen eighties.
Queen Victoria Building
Romanesque former market hall of copper domes, nearly demolished before its grand restoration.
Sydney Town Hall
Victorian Second Empire civic hall built atop a colonial burial ground, with a mighty pipe organ.
Sydney Opera House
Billowing white shell roofs over a harbourside performing arts venue, engineered from slices of one giant sphere.
Pier 2, Walsh Bay
Timber wool wharf on a rat-proof concrete seawall, reborn as a heritage theatre and orchestra venue.