Despite being one of the country’s pre-eminent theatres, practically since the settlement of Melbourne, (the original Princess Theatre and Opera House was built in 1852 and the New Princess Theatre, the current building in 1886), by the 1980’s the theatre had fallen into an almost terminal state of disrepair. David Marriner, encouraged by the beauty of the building, and the possibility it could prosper once again, dived head-long into an ambitious restoration fof the theatre. In 1989 the Princess Theatre reopened with Cameron Mackintosh’s production of Les Miserables which ran for 9 months and was followed shortly thereafter by the Australian premiere of The Phantom of the Opera. Phantom would go on to run for over two and a half years and break all previous Australian box office records.
