Toronto's oldest continuously operating legitimate theatre
The Royal Alexandra Theatre
Opened in 1907 and named for Queen Alexandra, the Royal Alex faced demolition by the 1960s before Ed Mirvish bought and restored it, making it Toronto's oldest working theatre.
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The Royal Alexandra Theatre opened on King Street West in 1907, built by industrialist Cawthra Mulock and named for Queen Alexandra, wife of the reigning King Edward VII. Designed in a lavish Beaux-Arts style, it was built to host the touring Broadway and West End productions that regularly stopped in Toronto in the early 20th century, and for decades it served as the city's primary large commercial theatre.
Saved from demolition
By the early 1960s, changing entertainment habits and the theatre's aging condition had put the Royal Alex's future in doubt, with demolition a real possibility, until Ed Mirvish purchased and restored the building in 1963. That restoration preserved what is now recognized as Toronto's oldest continuously operating legitimate theatre, still hosting major touring productions more than a century after it first opened.
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