Venue: Edinburgh Festival Theatre
Address: 13 Nicolson Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9FT, Scotland
Town: Edinburgh, GB
Capacity: 1,915

The Edinburgh Festival Theatre (originally Empire Palace Theatre and later shortened to Empire Theatre) is a performing arts venue located on Nicolson Street in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is used primarily for performances of opera and ballet, large-scale musical events, and touring groups. After its most recent renovation in 1994, it seats 1,915. It is one of the major venues of the annual summer Edinburgh International Festival and is the Edinburgh venue for the Scottish Opera and the Scottish Ballet. The present theatre's location is Edinburgh's longest continuous theatre site, for there has been a theatre in that location since 1830. From being Dunedin Hall, the Royal Amphitheatre, Alhambra Music Hall (1862), the Queen's Theatre, Pablo Fanque's Amphitheatre, and Newsome's Circus, the site became the Empire Palace Theatre, the first of the famous Moss Empires’ chain, opening on 7 November 1892. Designed by the great British theatre architect, Frank Matcham, (who built the London Coliseum, among others) its décor was lavish, with elephants with Nubian riders, nymphs and cherubs in abundance on the plasterwork, and it seated 3000 people on four levels. For the following twenty years all the top artists of the day played at the Empire Palace until, on 9 May 1911, there was a disastrous fire on stage. While all 3000 theatre goers escaped safely in about 2.5 minutes, there were nine backstage deaths, including illusionist Sigmund Neuberger, who was then taking his final bow as The Great Lafayette; his body double; and the lion from his act. Film of the aftermath of the fire is held by the National Library of Scotland. The theatre reopened three months after the fire to a rebuilt design, again by Thatcham. To complete with the growth of cinemas, the cinema was rebuilt in 1928 to plans by architects W. and T. R. Milburn reusing some of Matcham's original design concepts. The theatre reopened on 1 October 1928 with the first production, the musical Show Boat. Between 1928 a