It was originally built to designs of the architect Charles Garnier for the display of a panorama, which opened in 1883. The panorama was converted to the Théâtre Marigny in 1894 by the architect Édouard Niermans and became a home to operetta and other musical theatre.
An earlier theatre on the site, the Salle Lacaze, became known in 1855, as the home of Jacques Offenbach's Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens, where he first built his reputation as a theatre composer. In 1864 this became the Théâtre des Folies-Marigny, which was demolished in 1881, giving way to a panorama built by Charles Garnier. In 1885, dioramas on Paris through the ages by Theodor Josef Hubert Hoffbauer (1839–1922), and on Jerusalem on the day of the death of Christ, by Olivier Pichat, were displayed.
Share of the Etablissements Léon Volterra et Théâtre Marigny, issued 30 may 1927
In 1894, Édouard Niermans converted the venue into a theatre-in-the-round for summer musical spectacles.[3] The hall was enlarged and modernized in 1925 by Volterra, and in that form opened with a revival of Monsieur BeaucairebyAndré Messager. This success led the management to devote the venue mainly to operetta and other musical theatre until the 1930s. Thereafter the Marigny mounted boulevard shows and revivals (such as Jacques Offenbach's La Créole by in 1936).[4]
In 1946 the Théâtre Marigny welcomed a troupe from the Comédie-Française to form the Renaud-Barrault company, and in 1954, Barrault opened a smaller "Petit Marigny". The Grenier-Hussenot troupe followed and later the hall became a cinema. In 1965 the direction passed to Elvira Popescu; in 1978 she was succeeded by John Bodson.
In 2000 the theatre was acquired by the Artemis Group, owned by François Pinault,[1] who asked Robert Hossein to take over the theatre's direction. In 2008 Hossein retired and was replaced by Pierre Lescure.[5] On 28 September 2006 Pinault and his wife put the entire facility at the disposal of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for its 20th anniversary celebration.[6]
