Though he acknowledges that the Royal George Theatre is a valuable, beloved asset of the Shaw Festival, CEO and executive director Tim Jennings says the “Frankensteined-together building” must be replaced.
To that end, following the final performance of A Christmas Carol on Dec. 21, 2025 the doors to the former vaudeville theatre originally built in 1915 will be closed permanently.
Theatre fans near and far need not fret, though, as plans are afoot to bring to life a new version of the Royal George that will be bigger, better, and most importantly, fully accessible to all.
The George’s closure is long overdue. When Jennings was hired to oversee the Niagara-on-the-Lake theatre company 10 years ago there was a 10-year-old engineering report about the building on his desk. The gist of that report: the theatre would need to be replaced within the next decade.
“It was built originally as a temporary lecture hall and training centre building for World War I officers,” Jennings told The Local. “It was designed to last only about 25 years, built out of clay speed tiles, a fast technique to put up buildings quickly.”
Over the years it was used as a movie theatre, a vaudeville house and at one time was the home of the Canadian Mime Theatre, which purchased it in its derelict condition in 1971, restored its former name as the Royal George and carried out an expensive renovation over the next four years.
Shaw purchased the building in 1981, said Jennings, and carried out its own renovation, transforming it from a Spanish-inspired building to its faux-Edwardian style of today.
“People are surprised when I tell them what it looked like,” Jennings laughed. “They assume it always looked like it does now. But no, it would have been totally incongruous on Queen Street now.”
The most recent renovation undertaken by Shaw was in 2017 when the floor was replaced and new seating installed. But Jennings points out that the main structure of the foundation has continued to crumble over the ensuing time.
“Every time it rains water pours through the walls,” he lamented. “It’s gotten to the point where we lose tens of thousands of dollars every time because we are forced to cancel shows.”
Jennings backed that up by sending photos of the flooded basement to The Local.
The porous foundation is not the only problem, however. Even if there was an easy fix to it, the building is not accessible and does not meet modern requirements.
Previous administrations of the Shaw Festival were also aware of these problems. Jennings adds that when Tim Carroll replaced Jackie Maxwell as artistic director in 2017, Maxwell informed her replacement about the need for a new medium-sized theatre, just as her predecessor Christopher Newton had told her in 2002.
For several years the plan was to vacate the Queen Street space for the site of the old Anchorage on Ricardo Street, but the duo of Jennings and Carroll wanted to fix the building and stay put.
To that end, the Shaw board of directors approved the sale of the Ricardo Street property and the purchase of two buildings on Victoria Street — the former site of Pieza Pizza at 188 Victoria and the former home of Angie and Hartley Strauss at 178.
“That, and our ticket office/wardrobe shop next door give us the footprint to rebuild on a bigger space,” Jennings explained. “If we took the current theatre down we would have to meet modern accessibility requirements, and we couldn’t do that with the current footprint. It’s too small.”
The lobby is only eight feet deep, there is no true wheelchair seating in the building and the only accessible washroom is out of the building and down an alley. Today’s building codes would not allow any of that.
With the additional buildings now owned by Shaw, Jennings said the plan is to rebuild the George while keeping the facades to maintain the style of a Georgian theatre on the main street, and improving the experience by meeting Rick Hansen Foundation Gold Accessibility standards. The plan also includes installing geothermal wells and a photovoltaic roof to make the Royal George Canada’s first carbon-neutral theatre.
Of course, all of that will require a lot of money. Jennings and the board are working with both the federal and provincial governments to move the plans forward.
“Both have said they know how important it is not just to the economy of the Shaw but also to the economy of Niagara,” said Jennings. “Millions of people have seen shows in the Royal George since we bought it in 1981. We want to restore it and we want it to look very similar to how it looks now.”
The George itself is not a heritage building, though having a theatre on the main street is a key element of the heritage district plan. There are, however, no specifics on what that theatre has to look like. But Jennings and Carroll are both adamant that the new Royal George will maintain its current character and help define downtown NOTL for the 21st century.
So 2025 will be the last season in the current Royal George, with the plays Tons of Money, Major Barbara, Murder-on-the-Lake and finally, A Christmas Carol as its swan song.
As Shaw waits for funding announcements from the governments, in the interim, they are considering options to continue offering the number of performances that theatregoers expect from the festival between 2026 and 2029, when it might be feasible to open the new Royal George.
That could include a move back into the old Court House, though that would also require retrofitting. There’s also the popular Spiegeltent, which could accommodate more performances than it currently does.
“It all depends on what and when we hear from both governments,” Jennings said. “We’re very budget-dependent. We have to be careful how we use our resources. We may have to offer slightly skinnier seasons for a couple of years. But we are hopeful.”
The budget for the new building has not been released yet. Jennings added that there will be some kind of fundraising drive for the construction once the details have been ironed out.
“It’s been 10 years since we’ve been fighting this war of attrition,” Jennings concluded. “We need to give everyone a chance to say goodbye to the building as we give it its final chance next year. It’s just not okay anymore.”
