The Shaw Festival will close its century-old Royal George Theatre after it hosts four shows in 2025

The Shaw Festival will soon bring down the curtain on one of its iconic venues. 
The Niagara-on-the-Lake repertory company confirmed Friday that the Royal George Theatre will shutter at the end of next season. The announcement, coming as the organization unveiled its upcoming slate of shows, marks the end of an era for the downtown playhouse, which began its life as a vaudeville theatre in 1915. 
“For decades, our beloved faux-Edwardian Royal George Theatre has needed a rebuild, due to its failing foundation, and that issue cannot be further mitigated,” said executive director Tim Jennings in a press release. “Working with governments, we hope to be able to rebuild this jewel box theatre with a future of access and sustainability in mind.”
The 305-seat theatre, which predates the Shaw Festival by nearly 50 years, stands on the site of a former blacksmith shop. It was initially an entertainment venue for troops stationed in town during the First World War, then served for years as a movie theatre. 
The Shaw Festival acquired the space in 1980, hosting dozens of productions in the decades since. But the venue has become a liability for the organization in recent years. Last season, a water leak in the building’s clay foundation forced the cancellation of several performances, contributing to the company’s multimillion-dollar deficit. 
The impending closure of the Royal George Theatre marks the second major Shaw Festival venue to shutter in the past decade. The company closed its Court House Theatre at the end of the 2017 season, citing accessibility concerns at the aging venue. 
Before it closes, the Royal George Theatre will host four productions next season. “Tons of Money,” the British farce by Will Evans and Arthur Valentine, will run from April to October in a new production helmed by Eda Holmes.
In June, Peter Hinton-Davis will direct Bernard Shaw’s “Major Barbara,” a social satire about a Salvation Army officer and her estranged father. The play is the sole Shavian offering programmed for the upcoming season. It’s followed by “Murder-on-the-Lake,” a new whodunit drama by Rebecca Northan and Bruce Horak that begins performances in July. 
Shaw Festival artistic director Tim Carroll will then close the Royal George Theatre with his production of “A Christmas Carol,” which has been revived annually since it premiered in 2017.
The Dickensian classic is one of two holiday offerings running at the festival in November and December. The Irving Berlin musical “White Christmas,” directed by Kate Hennig, will also run concurrently at the 856-seat Festival Theatre. 
The company’s 2025 season, featuring 11 productions, will officially kick off at that mainstage venue in April with “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” a new stage adaptation of C.S. Lewis’s beloved novel from “The Chronicles of Narnia” series. This production is the fourth novel from the series to be adapted and presented at the Shaw Festival — following “Prince Caspian” (2023), “The Horse and His Boy” (2019) and “The Magician Nephew” (2018) — and marks the culmination of the company’s “Narnia cycle.” 
This 63rd season will also be anchored by the Cole Porter high-seas musical “Anything Goes,” directed and choreographed by Kimberley Rampersad, the company’s associate artistic director. The revival is scheduled to open in May and run through October. 
The Festival Theatre’s final 2025 production is a new adaptation of “Wait Until Dark,” Frederick Knott’s 1966 thriller that was turned into a film starring Audrey Hepburn. Sanjay Talwar, currently starring in this season’s “Candida” and “Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of the Human Heart,” will direct. 
Meanwhile, the Jackie Maxwell Studio Theatre will host two productions next year: Will Eno’s “Gnit,” directed by Carroll, and the Canadian premiere of “Blues for an Alabama Sky,” directed by Rampersad. And the Spielgeltent, the smallest venue at the Shaw Festival, will host “Dear Liar,” a play adapted from the real-life correspondence between Shaw and Mrs. Patrick Campbell, his long-time muse, friend and lover. 
The Shaw Festival also announced Friday it will change its performance schedule in the new year. Starting next season, all shows will begin an hour earlier — at 1 p.m. for matinees and 7 p.m. for evening shows — compared to previous seasons. “This is in response to a lot of conversations and some quiet research,” Carroll said in the press release. 
Casting has yet to be announced for the upcoming programming. The Shaw Festival’s current season is set to run until December.