The chuckle Brothers have performed here, so has Peter Andre.... Says it all really. If you really want to watch a movie, don't go here, in fact don't go anywhere in Scaroborough, make the 30 minute drive to Brid. Or the 45 minute drive to York. The sound and seating are poor. read more

Futurist Theatre - Performing Arts Near Me - Scarborough, NYK

Tired, long past its best and in desperate need of renovation. The fact that Scarborough doesnt have a decent, modern venue for acts to come to, or even a decent, modern cinema screen, is just one of the reason why a once much loved resort is fast becoming the town that time forgot. I remember visiting Scarborough in the 80s to see acts like Russ Abbot and Cannon and Ball. Many years later, when we moved to the town, we visited again, albeit to see acts less in stature than the 80s acts were at the time, and found that the venue hadnt changed at all in the 20 years or so between visits. Its dusty, terribly old fashioned, and should've been mothballed years ago for renovation. A renovation that would now probably cost millions of pounds as theres so much which needs to be done. If this is the flagship venue in town, its not surprising it now only attracts lowbrow acts such as Roy Chubby Brown and Derek Acorah. It also doubles as a cinema screen. In a town in desperate need of a modern cinema, this place is possibly the last place on the planet to have an INTERVAL halfway through films. The last time I'd experienced this before going to see The Dark Knight at the Futurist was a James Bond film in 1982! Sadly, five years from now, anyone writing a review will be writing something similar. Either that, or the Futurist will have been bulldozed. Such a shame read more

Dilapidated, can get some good acts though. I have been there many times for both films, music and comedy. However, I've never know a place where so many people will get up through the performance and go to the bar or toilet and also talk over the performance. Almost all the way through the night people will be getting up and going out. It's very annoying. This even happened through Billy Connolly who I thought would have gotten more respect. read more

Four stars are for a huge and impressive cinema/theatre which, at over eighty years old, is in great need of restoration. Behind the ill-conceived 1969 cladding lies the original semi-classical facade, albeit minus the large, semi-circular window of the circle lounge, from which the Beatles once gazed out over hundreds of fans below, and the corresponding glazed and ornate canopy below it. Internally, a vast and sweeping auditorium encompasses the huge, rectangular proscenium (dating from the 1950s and therefore looking very modern for a venue which arrived on the eve of the talkies revolution). When, in the 1950s, films could no longer sustain such a big house in a town where the Odeon and Capitol cinemas had first call on the mainstream Rank and ABC releases, big summer variety shows were the salvation and the Futurist pulled out all the stops. Productions starring the big names of the day would transfer from West End theatres like the Palladium and Prince of Wales and pack the Futurist even with two performances nightly Monday to Saturday. As well as holidaymakers, coaches from far and wide would line Foreshore Road in the evenings to disgorge patrons. Frankie Vaughan, Al Read, Arthur Haynes, Cilla Black, Ken Dodd and Des O' Connor were just some of the stars presented there by producers like Bernard Delphont and Leslie Grade. The Theatre's zenith has to be The Black & White Minstrel Show whose popularity broke all record; during the 1960s, versions of this TV-generated show returned several times and the business it generated is the stuff of legend. Robert Luff, the show's impressario, acquired the Futurist and deepened the stage at the expense of the neighbouring Arcadia Theatre (once the Palladium Picture House) and gave the Futurist its first fly tower above the enlarged stage. Mr Luff invested heavily in his theatre and, along with undoubted technical improvements and additional dressing rooms, added the present facade and canopy which, to put it politely, have not aged well and give the theatre its deceptively dilapidated outward appearance. Sadly, times change and the staple diet of summer shows is no more (there are no longer any West End revues even the Palladium is now just another home for book musicals like the current The Wizard of Oz). One night stands and club acts alternating with blockbuster films are a poor diet for such a potentially fine theatre. Acts which might once have appeared there now play arenas and stadiums for far fewer shows and net huge revenue. The cost of truly restoring one of my favourite theatres would be frightening and attempts to protect the Futurist as one of the last big cine-variety houses have taken a blow with the government deciding that too many changes to the original design and fabric render it unworthy of statutory listing. Even without the current financial climate, the Futurist's future has never looked bleaker. One thing is certain, if this vast and beautiful theatre is eventually lost, we will never see its like again. read more