Footloose tonight at The Playhouse

Had a great evening at The Playhouse tonight watching Footloose with Steven Pinder (Brookside) and Matt Willis (Busted and I'm a Celebrity). Such a great, fun show which includes songs such as Hero, Let's hear it for the boy and Footloose (of course).

Here is a bit of history:

The Edinburgh Playhouse is a former cinema in Edinburgh, Scotland which now hosts touring musicals and music concerts. Its capacity is 3,059, (Stalls: 1,519, Balcony: 860 and Circle: 680) making it the UK's largest working theatre in terms of audience capacity. (The Hammersmith Apollo, which is a similar building, has more seats, but it is only used for concerts, not for musicals). The theatre is owned by Ambassador Theatre Group.

The theatre opened in 1929 as a super-cinema, and was modelled on the Roxy Cinema in New York. It was designed by the specialist cinema architect John Fairweather, most famous for his Green's Playhouse cinema in Glasgow. The original colour scheme was described on opening as follows:

"Tones of ivory and stone predominate on the walls, and the roof is decorated with bands of pale green leaves intersected with gold at intervals. The seats in the different parts of the house have been upholstered to harmonise with the general scheme of the decoration. The organ fronts are in Venetian style, and the clock settings, which are square, are neat and attractive."

At the time of its opening, it was the second largest cinema in Scotland, and the 4th largest in the UK. The building was originally listed Category B in 1974, and this was upgraded by Historic Scotland to Category A in 2008.