Crewe’s first theatre, which was built on the same site as the present Lyceum Theatre was the creation of the professional actor Henry Taylor of Manchester. Mr Taylor was a co-founder of the society known now as the Crewe Amateur Musicals Society, who staged their productions at the local Town Hall and the success of these productions led Mr Taylor to think about starting a permanent theatre in the town.

A disused Roman Catholic chapel previously built for the Irish Railway immigrants in 1852, was chosen as the site for the new theatre. An old well from the chapel is still in existence under the current stage.

On December 26th 1881 the original Lyceum Theatre came into existence. The balcony used by the catholic choir has been transformed into a circle and a stage was built at the eastern end. The first show at the Roman Catholic Chapel building was a production of “A Wonderful Woman” followed by the pantomime “Aladdin”

On February 21^st 1885 Mr Taylor joined with local businessmen to form the “Crewe Lyceum Theatre Buildings Company (Ltd)” who took over the running of the theatre and the challenge of building a new 1500 seat theatre designed by the prominent architect Alfred Darbyshire.

The New Lyceum Theatre

On November 21^st 1887 the New Lyceum Theatre opened with "In the Ranks" by Tickets started at 6d and went up to 3 shillings.

Between 1906 and 1907 two future silent movie stars made an early appearance at the Lyceum: in 1906 Charlie Chaplin appeared in Sherlock Holmes as Billy the Page Boy, and Stan Laurel (known then as Stanley Jefferson) appeared in Sleeping Beauty alongside Wee Georgie Wood, the world’s smallest comedian.

In 1908 Henry Taylor sold his shares in the theatre, and the building was re-named The New Opera House. Unfortunately on March 11^th 1910 a fire started in the theatre soon after the audience had left at the end of the pantomime “Dick Whittington and his Cat”. The origin of the fire which completely destroyed Henry Taylor’s pride and joy was never discovered, but a dropped cigarette in one of the dressing rooms was suspected.

Thankfully, the gutted theatre was rebuilt to the design of a Scottish architect Mr Albert Winstanley. The new building was called the New Theatre and was opened on September 4th 1911 by Mr Edward Compton, a very famous actor and friend of the original owner of the Lyceum, Mr Henry Taylor.

The first production in this Theatre as it stands was ‘All For Her’, based upon Charles Dickens novel, ‘A Tale of Two Cities’.

Throughout the late 1950’s and early 1960’s the Theatre had several changes of ownership, failures and even closures, and in 1955 the theatre was bought by Crewe Municipal Borough, to be let out to other managements. The Crewe Theatre Trust was formed with Councillor James Golding as the first chairman and the Lyceum hosted everything from the amateur shows, wrestling to Circus’s. In 1978 the theatre’s name reverted to Lyceum

A number of short term companies took over the running of the theatre until January 1991 when Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council took the decision to run the theatre on a permanent basis.

In 1994 a new extension was added to the replace the front of house facilities, The Gallery previously, had been re-seated and the backstage area improved to a cost of approximately £1.5 million. It was re-opened on November 20^th 1994 with a Gala Show and on November 12^th 1996 HRH Princess Margaret officially opened the new building.

Some Interesting facts:

• Crewe Lyceum has the only working Sun Burner (An old fashioned form of air conditioning) in England
• The rake on the stage is 1:18 making it one of the most sloped stages in the country.
• The building celebrates its 100th Anniversary in 2011
• Crewe Lyceum is the only Edwardian Theatre in Cheshire East.