Royal Alexandra Theatre

Royal Alexandra Theatre

260 King St W, 

Toronto, ON 

M5V 1H9

The theatre opened on August 26, 1907. Its first presentation was a pantomime "spectacle" titled "Top O'Th' World", starring Anna Laughlin, heading a cast of 65. During its early years, the Royal Alex had great difficulty in booking acts for its stage. The theatre owners found themselves at odds with the powerful Theatrical Syndicate, the New York-based organisation headed by Charles Frohman, Al Hayman, Abe Erlanger, Mark Klaw, Samuel F. Nixon and Fred Zimmerman that not only exercised a near monopoly on touring theatre in North America, but also had a financial interest in the rival Princess Theatre, two blocks east of the Royal Alexandra.

The manager of the Alex, Lawrence "Lol" Solman, allied his theatre with the Syndicate's chief challengers, the Shubert brothers. For this impertinence, Solman later wrote, Abe Erlanger threatened to drive the Alex into bankruptcy and turn it into a stable for the horses of the carriage-trade patrons of the Princess.

The local rivalry with the Princess Theatre ended on the night of May 7, 1915, when a fire gutted that theatre, leaving the Royal Alex as Toronto's only first-class, legitimate playhouse. By coincidence, on that same evening, the British liner Lusitania sank in the Irish Sea after being struck by a torpedo. One of those killed in the disaster was Syndicate partner and creative head Charles Frohman.