Engineers eventually had to saw the building in two - the fix for a design decision made in 1962. The Queen Elizabeth Theatre at 630 Hamilton Street in downtown Vancouver opened on 5 July 1959 as a 2,800-seat opera and ballet hall, the winning entry of an international design competition and the first project of the Montreal partnership of Affleck, Desbarats, Dimakopoulos, Lebensold, Michaud and Sise - the firm that went on to build Place des Arts and the National Arts Centre. Queen Elizabeth II attended a gala concert at the grand opening led by Sir Ernest MacMillan and Nicholas Goldschmidt. The theatre became home to the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra until the restored Orpheum took that role in 1977; today the 2,765-seat auditorium houses Vancouver Opera and Ballet BC and hosts touring concerts, comedy and Broadway runs year-round. The 668-seat Vancouver Playhouse was added in 1962, rigidly attached along a shared stage wall - creating a structure-borne sound path that became untenable once touring amplification grew from van-sized to tractor-trailer-sized. The radical remedy, executed during the long renovation program: cutting the two buildings structurally apart with saws and core drills so both rooms could run simultaneously. That surgery capped a 15-year, six-phase modernization completed in 2010 under Proscenium Architecture, which rebuilt the audience chamber and acoustics, added elevators and new lobbies, reworked the plaza and won a shelf of heritage awards for updating the modernist landmark without erasing it. The stage itself runs 70 feet wide by 40 feet deep, sized for grand opera and full-scale touring productions, and the venue operates within the four-facility Vancouver Civic Theatres group owned by the city. Musical history has passed through steadily - Bob Marley, Bruce Springsteen and Jeff Beck in the 1970s through Ed Sheeran-era pop - putting the hall alongside the Orpheum as downtown Vancouver's twin anchors for seated shows.

Type: Theater / Concert Hall

Address: 630 Hamilton Street, Vancouver, Canada, V6B 5N7

Website: https://vancouvercivictheatres.com

Cover Charge: 1

Capacity: 2765

Opening Date: 05/07/1959

Accessible