Elie Aramouny

Today’s Time Machine takes us back to the 1960s, when theatre and music lovers would queue at the entrance of the newly built Piccadilly Theatre in vibrant, radiant Beirut.

Run by the Mamiche & Itani company, it soon established itself as (much like London’s West End) the stage for the latest musicals, plays, and concerts, accommodating around 700 crimson seats that shimmered under its soft lights.

Designed in 1965 by architect William Sednaoui, the nine-floor building—with its theatre, retail, and office spaces—rapidly rose as one of Hamra’s most glamorous landmarks. Inside, its velvet curtains and refined modernist details set the mood for nights of magic.

On its stage, Fairouz enchanted with her timeless voice, while Sabah lit up the crowd with her golden presence. Cairo’s brightest stars, Souad Hosni and Omar Sharif, brought Egyptian allure, while international icons like Dalida and Julio Iglesias further cemented Beirut’s place on the global cultural map.

Later, Ziad Rahbani would use its stage for his unforgettable plays on Lebanon’s wars and society, weaving satire and truth into unforgettable performances.

But the theatre’s fate mirrored Beirut’s own turmoil. During the civil war, the Piccadilly opened and closed with the tides of conflict—at one point even serving as an office for Yasser Arafat. By the late 1980s, audiences dwindled, and though it flickered back to life in the early 1990s with plays by Marwan Najjar, the curtains soon fell again. In 2000, a fire consumed what remained, extinguishing its brilliance.

Even in recent years, there were whispers of hope. In 2022, efforts were made to restore and revive the Piccadilly, to bring back its stage and spirit—but those plans, like so many dreams in Beirut, fell through.

Today, the Piccadilly lives only in memory and in faded photographs: crimson seats, velvet drapes, and the echo of applause that once gave Beirut its golden nights. Its absence is more than the loss of a theatre—it is a reminder of a city that once believed in the magic of art and culture, and how fragile that magic can be.

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