Teatro Infanta Isabel (Madrid)

The Infanta Isabel Theatre (formerly the Petit Palais cinema) is a theatre in Madrid, Community of Madrid, Spain, located on Calle del Barquillo in the Justicia neighbourhood, Centro district.

It was opened as a cinema hall in 1906, and was transformed into a theatre hall in 1914.

History

Based on a project by the architect Eladio Laredo y Carranza, the future theatre was opened as a cinema hall at the then number 27 Calle del Barquillo and under the name Cinema Nacional on 9 February 1907; a few months later it was transformed into the Petit Palais and began to alternate screenings with variety shows.

The venue was acquired and improved by the businessman Arturo Serrano, who hired the actor Ricardo Puga and his wife Celia Ortiz for a time, and later the Ernesto Vilches company. Both opened a new building in the spring of 1913, with architectural work by Eladio Laredo Carranza and the name of Teatro Infanta Isabel. The space housed theatre, cinema and variety shows until 1927.

After Serrano’s death in an accident in 1925, his son, also called Arturo Serrano, took over the business and ran the Infanta Isabel for the next 60 years, until his death in 1986. Serrano made his partner, Isabel Garcés, the leading figure in the company. For decades, the Infanta Isabel premiered works by authors such as Jacinto Benavente, Enrique Jardiel Poncela and Miguel Mihura, bringing to its stage “the cream of 20th-century Spanish theatre”.

After Serrano’s death, the theatre was renovated by the businessman Santiago Paredes and the architects Ana Achiaga and Antonio del Castillo, reopening its doors on 29 September 1987. Paredes sold his shares to Achiaga and del Castillo. Since then, the management has been the responsibility of Francisco Salinas, after his death in 1997, his widow Paloma Sánchez, and finally, at the beginning of the 21st century, the Smedia Group, owned by the businessman Enrique Salaberría, took over the management of the theatre.

It is no longer part of the Smedia Group.