Edinburgh Playhouse

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 non-sporting 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.Building historyThe 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:At the time of its opening, it was the largest cinema in Scotland and the fourth 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.PerformancesIn recent years, The Playhouse has played host to a wide variety of artists and shows.It also caters to the youth of the surrounding area who are involved in stage experience projects and youth musicals projects in which children as young as 10, and young adults as old as 21, can take part in shows on the world-famous stage.It is used as a venue for both the Edinburgh International Festival and Edinburgh Festival Fringe each August.