The Canberra Theatre was built as a 1200 seat lyric theatre originally intended to house national and international touring. The Canberra Theatre opened on Thursday June 24, 1965 with a gala performance by the Australian Ballet.
In the 40 years since then it has continued to be Canberra's home of large scale performing arts from international comedians such as Ross Noble, overseas touring acts like Stomp, iconic musicians such as Tommy Emmanuel and Paul Kelly and touring ballet and opera companies to name just a few.