The Edinburgh Playhouse is a theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland which plays host to numerous touring musicals as well as many touring bands. Its capacity is 3059, making it the UK's largest theatre in terms of audience capacity. The theatre is owned by Live Nation. In recent years, it has played host to artists such as: Ross Noble, Girls Aloud, French and Saunders, Tracey Chapman, Alice Cooper, Journey, McFly, Crosby Stills & Nash, Bottom Live , Michael Ball, Riverdance , Chitty Chitty Bang Bang , Roy Chubby Brown, Lee Evans, The Sinceros, Hall & Oates, and Tom Waits. There are many bars and restaurants nearby that frequently serve the audiences of the theatre. The theatre now benefits from a lift to bring up 45' trailers and tractor units up to stage level, which is three floors below street level at the rear of the theatre. The front of house sound position is somewhat unusually located at the rear of the Dress Circle. Another oddity is the motor hanging points for the advance truss, which are not parallel with the line of the front of stage. The Auditorium Left point is about 500 mm further into the auditorium than the centre and house right. Towards the rear of the stalls, there is 41 mm unistrut fixed to the ceiling to facilitate the hanging delay speakers. In the Gallery there is also a winch bar across the full width of the auditorium to again facilitate the hanging of delay speakers. One of the many mottos to come out of the Playhouse is "Early Doors".

EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE TICKETS EVENT DATE AVAILABILITY Kraftwerk Tickets 6/9 Jun 09, 2026 Tue, 7:00 PM David Byrne Tickets 7/21 Jul 21, 2026 Tue, 7:00 PM David Byrne Tickets 7/22 Jul 22, 2026 Wed, 7:00 PM Sigur Ros Tickets 8/31 Aug 31, 2026 Mon, 7:00 PM Kevin Bridges - Comedian Tickets 9/23 Sep 23, 2026 Wed, 8:00 PM

Building History

The theatre opened as a super-cinema (modelled on the Roxy Cinema in New York ^[1]) in 1929 ^[2], 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: "Tones of ivory and stone predominate on the walls, and the roof is decorated with bands of pale green leaves intersected with gold at intervals. The seats in the different parts of the house have been upholstered to harmonise with the general scheme of the decoration. The organ fronts are in Venetian style, and the clock settings, which are square, are neat and attractive." ^[3]

At the time of its opening, it was the second largest cinema in Scotland, and the 4th largest in the UK.

The building was listed Category B by Historic Scotland in 1974, and this was upgraded to Category A in 2008.

Notes

1. The Scotsman - 10th August 1929
2. Scottish Cinemas - Edinburgh Playhouse
3. Kine Weekly, August 1929