Newcastle Civic Theatre Newcastle Civic Theatre The Newcastle Civic Theatre, also known as The Civic, is a heritage-listed building located on Hunter Street, Newcastle in the Hunter region, in New South Wales, Australia. Opened in 1929 as a cinema, the 1520-seat venue is now the venue for a wide range of musicals, plays, concerts and dance events each year and is the city's oldest surviving theatre. Together with the Newcastle City Hall, each site is, individually, of state heritage significance, and they are listed jointly on the New South Wales State Heritage Register as the Newcastle City Hall and Civic Theatre Precinct. Built
Newcastle City Hall (Australia) public and staff facilities were seen as shabby and inadequate. Writing to the Newcastle Morning Herald in 4 May 1966 "Hostess" captured the concerns of the public for their city's reputation, writing "Most visitors to Newcastle go to the City Hall which is in a sense our "lounge room" so how about a brighter welcome?" The pressure was finally relieved with the construction of the Civic Administration Centre in 1977, and the relocation of all administrative functions out of the City Hall. The City Hall itself was to remain the focus of civic life, and after half a century of