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Bombay’s first theatre was called the Bombay Amateur Theatre, it came to existence in 1776. During the days of the old Bombay Gujarati, Parsi and Urdu plays, there was a phenomenon of the times; an long tin board in front of the rows of the pit class which would be stamped on by the audience to create a din, this was the audience’s way of demanding an encore.

Bangwadi
the famous theatre off Princess
Street incorporated dwellings of performers and a company kitchen. The atmosphere was of a labyrinth of lanes leading up to the auditorium. Then there were soft sounds of music, theatre books for sale. All this added to the experience of seeing a play.

Some of Mumbai’s, grand old theatres like the Royal Opera House and Capitol Cinema (today) have survived as building today through the vagaries of time, trend and fad and real estate prices. These theatres began by staging plays and musical-dramas but switched to films once cinema became a crowd puller. A few theatres which were once drama or play-houses still exist in the city, and they are a nostalgic memory of the past through their quaint architecture, frescoes, stage prosceniums and the fading velvet curtains. In the vicinity of Falkland Road there are half a dozen theatres or movie halls, which were once the stage for plays. They stand within the radius of roughly half a kilometer, forming an unusual cluster in the city’s infamous red light district. Some of the locals call it Pilla House, a distortion of Play House. Some of the movie houses even today can stage a play.

Balcony theatres required the actor on stage to look upwards or at least provide the illusion of doing so. Or else the audience in the balcony would feel left out.
Tata Theatre, NCPA brought to Mumbai’s theatre a sense of the monumental ambience and a ceremonious outlook. Tejpal theatre has served as a bastion for both, the mainstream and the offbeat theatre. It is creditable for its acoustics and the sense of intimacy it engendered. Even today, most Gujarati plays stage their premier shows, here. For which there is a special invited audiences of regular premier-wallahs.

Convex and irregular surfaces aid sound diffusion. Domes, vaults and other large surfaces may cause acoustic problems. Higher ceiling for longer reverberation time as required for concerts; typical hall volume: 20.5 m3 – 35 m3 / audience seat. Lower ceiling for shorter reverberation time as required for drama, speech; typical hall volume: 7.5 m3 –14 m3 / audience seat. In halls used for concerts, the stage and audience seating is treated as one volume.

Theatres
with one balcony give better sight lines than multiple balconies. The balcony overhang proportion of depth: Height recommended for concerts is 1:1, for opera & drama it is 2:1

Basic
List of Theatres in Mumbai