Kia Ora from the Theatre Manager
The Waikato Regional Theatre project continues to move steadily toward realisation, with the major construction milestones all now behind us and the opening phase fast approaching.
Over the past few months significant progress has been made across both physical works and operational readiness - kilometres of cabling is snaking through the complex, bleachers are being floored, walls are being lined, and the outer skin is being sealed.
What was a building site is increasingly looking and feeling like an actual entertainment venue.
Attention is now on how the Theatre will function as a live venue – how audiences will move through it, how shows will be delivered, and excitingly what its opening programme will look like.
This transition period is essential, but pretty boring to look at for casual observers – it’s where the Theatre moves from being dark and skeletal to being living responsive cultural infrastructure. Lots of progress, but none of it as visually striking as the unveiling of the heritage façade reported on below!
Live Nation is actively involved as we shape the venue’s long-term role in its community, which is a complex process, balancing commercial realities with public outcomes. But the energy around the project is only growing, and the focus is now firmly on completing this great building and launching its world-beating entertainment program.
The Sun sets on the Share the Stage fundraising campaign
The Waikato Regional Theatre from the KPMG building today.
The Share the Stage fundraising campaign has been a story of taking generous people, from all walks of life and places, on a journey from when the Theatre was still just a vision, to today when it is a reality.
We here at Momentum Waikato are proud to have brought together people who share a common dream of creating a vibrant gathering place for performers to excitedly take to the stage, and for audiences to experience a range of amazing live shows.
Thanks to the Take a Seat appeal and other elements of the Share the Stage fundraising effort over the last three years, more than 500 seats in the Theatre’s auditorium will bear the names of donors who have backed the project.
“It has been humbling to receive every single donation, especially when we know there are a lot of other choices for donating,” says Janice Lapwood of Momentum Waikato.
“I am grateful that a movement of community-minded people have come in behind the campaign and together created a place that we can all be proud of. We sincerely thank all of you.”
Momentum Waikato’s fundraising for the Waikato Regional Theatre ended with the close of the ‘Take A Seat’ appeal on Monday 31 March. Future fundraising and sponsorship for the building will now be carried out directly and as needed by the Waikato Regional Property Trust, the Theatre’s owner.
Share the Stage communications will continue via these email newsletters, the StS website and Momentum’s social media until Live Nation, as the Theatre’s operator, are ready to take over later in the year.
Again, an enormous Thank You to everyone who has supported the Share the Stage fundraising campaign. Together, we have shown the world what we can do!
Theatre site from the air in April 2025
The Waikato Regional Theatre site from the air on Tuesday 1 April 2025, just before the central section of the restored Hamilton Hotel façade was revealed. The building shape is now fully formed, with just the roof of the Fly Tower still be sealed, which is now done. Photos by Foster Group.
See more of these latest drone shots of the Theatre site.
Waikato Times: Theatre façade gets the tick
By Madeleine Powers, Friday 4 April 2025.
Passersby on Hamilton’s Victoria Street got the first look at another section of the Regional Theatre’s new façade after scaffolding was removed on Wednesday.
The appearance of a fresh section of the restored plaster façade of the old hotel frontage is another visible milestone for locals and visitors in the ongoing construction of the 1300-seat theatre that promises to revolutionise entertainment in the city.
The decision to preserve the building’s neoclassical façade is getting the tick from people seeing it for the first time, who say it blends old and new.
Hamilton man Dale Thompson said it was “definitely” a good idea idea to preserve the building’s façade.
Waikato Times: Keeping the Hamilton Hotel façade for Waikato Regional Theatre - Token gesture or triumph?
By Dr Richard Swainson, Saturday 12 April 2025.
OPINION: The headline read Theatre façade gets the tick (above). A Waikato Times vox pop recorded reactions to progress on the edifice that dominates the south end of Hamilton's Victoria St. After what has seemed an interminable period of building behind scaffolding the Waikato Regional Theatre, like a debutante's décolletage at a more liberal coming out ball, has revealed an enticing smattering of plaster. What remains of the old Hamilton Hotel, spruced up to a standard that would challenge living memory to accurately recall, has again seen the light of day.
As the article reveals, without recourse to innuendo or an obvious drug gag, the restoration process rejoices in the moniker of "crack injection". Masonry has been stabilised, original flaws retained, the climactic reveal truly a seminal moment in the aesthetics of the city, albeit with further cracks to be injected around the corner, on the Sapper Moore-Jones Place side.
Waikato Times: The 'Three Waikatos' take a seat at new theatre
By Mike Mather, Monday 17 March 2025.
Three organisations dedicated to improving the lives of the region’s residents - Creative Waikato, Sport Waikato and Community Waikato - are formally backing Hamilton’s new theatre.
And it is a case of “the three Waikatos” backing the theatre in a very literal fashion, with the names of the three community trusts soon to be adorning a plaque attached to three chairs in the 1300-seat facility.
Now nearing the end of its construction phase in the southern end of Victoria St, the $80 million facility - which will be managed by international entertainment giant Live Nation - is due to open its doors later this year.
Sport Waikato chief executive Matthew Cooper, Creative Waikato chief executive Dr Jeremy Mayall and Community Waikato said they had chosen a united approach to supporting the theatre via the Take a Seat campaign.
Waikato Times: ‘Big and fabulous’: arts crowd gears up for theatre
By Richard Walker, Saturday 15 March 2025.
Auditions are over and rehearsals will soon begin for Cats, this year’s big Hamilton Operatic show. There’s a lot to do before the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical opens a two-week winter run at Clarence St Theatre. Sets to be built, lines to be learned, costumes to be sewn, dance routines to be practised.
But it will no doubt be all right on opening night, July 26. And, with a 500-seat theatre capacity, Hamilton Operatic can reasonably expect the show will be seen by thousands, parting with their hard-earned cash to be transported to another world for a couple of hours.
Nothing beats the live experience, says board chair Victoria Munro. She thinks back to her first Hamilton Operatic experience in 2017, working backstage on Mary Poppins, and becomes emotional at the memory.
“I couldn't believe it, the breadth and the depth of talent was something I had never seen,” she says. “It's extraordinary, extraordinary talent.”
Munro was hooked. She did another show backstage, and soon joined the board. Last year, she was elected chair. “I'm really excited about being here at this time,” she says.
But the 500-seat Clarence Street venue is not Founders, where Hamilton Operatic used to stage its big musicals before the venue closed in 2016, and nor is it the Waikato Regional Theatre, due to open late this year.
Munro, talking to the Waikato Times in Hamilton Operatic’s sprawling, crammed, colourful wardrobe department behind Clarence St Theatre, is enthusiastic about the city’s newest live venue.
She’s not counting her chickens, but there is obviously the possibility next year’s production could be staged at the Victoria St site overlooking Waikato River.
If so, it will be “something big and fabulous”, she says.
Waikato Times: Veteran Hamilton events manager to lead team at Waikato Regional Theatre
By Mike Mather, Monday 10 March 2025.
The new venue manager at the Waikato Regional Theatre has plenty of experience of managing events for Hamilton crowds to call on in his new job.
Michael Gilling is currently has the title of “event delivery manager” at H3 Group, the division of Hamilton City Council responsible for the running of FMG Stadium Waikato, Seddon Park, Globox Arena, Claudelands Conference & Exhibition Centre and The Grandstand.
He is also formerly the event manager at Claudelands Arena from its opening in 2011 until early 2022, and prior to that the resident “theatre tech” at the now-demolished Founders Theatre for 19 years, from 1992.
Other roles he has held over the years include pre-match co-ordinator for the Waikato Rugby Union, managing pre-game entertainment for both Chiefs, Waikato rugby and All Blacks test matches at Rugby Park (later FMG Stadium Waikato); and as a director and producer at Smashed Productions, an educational show about drink-driving that toured New Zealand schools and prisons.