I love the theater and have been lucky enough to visit and see productions in some of the most beautiful theaters in the world. This is a coffee table book featuring wonderful photographs from the interior and exteriors of theaters, opera houses, and concert halls from around the world. I was pleased to find that many of the theaters I have been to were featured in this book and it has given me a list of many more I would like to visit. The book has 190 large full-color photographs showcasing 150 theaters. Each photograph has an accompanying caption providing an insight on why the building is significant. This is by no means a history of the theaters, nor does it claim to be one. The photo are roughly divided by continent with New York and London having their own section. I have always enjoyed the details of the historical theaters I have visited, but I liked that that this book also included more modern structures and made me want to appreciate them more as well. Thank you to Amber Books and NetGalley for the ARC.

Book: Amazing Theatres of the World
Theatres, Arts Centres and Opera Houses


Author: Dominic Connolly


Pub Info: 14 April 2022,Amber Books Ltd, Amber Books


Genres: Arts & Photographs, Travel, Entertainment, The Arts, Theatre, Hobby

I received an electronic copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for honest feedback. Thank you to the author, photographers, publisher, and NG.

This book is separated into continental sections that dive into the great theaters of the world. I haven’t been to most of these, so it was cool to see what the world has to offer. The book is broken down into ancient remains, art deco, Baroque classics, modern theaters, etc. There are so many different types to read about. In terms of what the book’s content is like, it is mostly photos alongside small, to-the-point facts based caption. The photographs are the bulk of the content. They are high quality, some are full page, and all are full color. In total, there are 150+ stunning theaters and opera houses. There are different angles, some from aerial, some with people inside for example. The one that was my favorite, an absolutely stunning photograph collection, was the Bolshoi in Moscow Russia.

This book is good as a springboard for learning more. The “info” content is not the substantial component, the content relies heavily on the photographs. That being said, it would be a great gift or read for a theater fanatic and/or a good foundation for visually looking at what the world has to offer and follow up with what interests you.

Such a gorgeous book! As.a theater lover it was so much fun to see so many amazing theaters round the world. I loved that we got to learn a little bit about the history and design of many of them as well. I never realized just how many gorgeous theaters there are the world and this book has made me realize I have so many more I want to visit. Loved it!

A book about theatres around the world is exactly What I was needing for I dream away of knowing at least one of these beautiful places one day. While I wait on that day is come, I keep appreciating the book guides as a glimpse of a tremenduous work of art that are some of these places. I love that kind of content, So for me, this title was an amazing adveture between the pages

Amazing Theatres of the World is a book sure to appeal to theatre fans. It contains numerous wonderful photos of theatres and performance spaces around the world, and each picture was accompanied by a brief text about the theatre. This is a book you would flick through, rather than read per se, but it's a lovely coffee-table work. I had only two small niggles: one, that I found some of the photos (in terms of what was shown/angles) a little odd, and two, that while the book did cover 'the world', it was heavy on Europe and America and lighter on Asia and Africa. There have been so many books like this already concentrating on London theatres that I found that section had nothing new to offer and I, personally, would have welcomed seeing more images from other countries, showcasing theatres I didn't know so much about. Even so, it is, as I said, a work sure to please theatre lovers, and I am giving it four stars.

One of the joys of going to the theatre is the atmosphere and the architecture. This stunning book showcases this to great effect with a clear format and photographs displaying the best and quirkiest theatres in the world. It inspired me to add several to my list of places I want to visit and gave me a greater insight into these buildings. It would make a beautiful gift for theatre lovers or those who appreciate exquisite buildings. I can't wait to see a physical copy to get the full reading experience.

Wow! This book is stunning!!!
I adored looking at the gorgeous photos!
I am a huge theatre go-er in London, but now I want to go and visit the most beautiful theatres in all these other countries. The theatres in South America are absolutely amazing!!
A must for any theatre fan - and a great reminder to keep these amazing theatres going after everything that has been thrown at the industry throughout the pandemic.

Ah, home.

Oh, you want more of a review? Well, as a performer I've not exactly been on the boards of many of these places at all, but the atmosphere they convey, the ethos they represent and the spirits of the joys and all other emotions that have seeped into them are also, to some tiny extent, in my blood. No place can call itself a town without a theatre, no country can be said to have a culture without some Euro-pudding of architecture for fat women to go a-wailing in the Hof-Opera-Haus or its equivalent, and so on. I'd have gobbled this simple pictorial look at them all up most avidly even before the sniffles and lockdowns and suchlike.

It's not the most complex book – short, snappy sentences about the "real" pleasure palaces, and photographs showing their architecture, in or out – and some of those are on the ageing side, as adverts for the 2010 Tony winners testify. Still, 2011 and Hugh Jackman on Broadway meets whenever it was Bruce Springsteen did his residency, and either way no theatre really needs to change much to be notable – it just needs to be working. Or become a bookshop. Or, as kind of happened at one of these venues, holding an indoors cricket match.

We soon leave the familiar sights of Broadway and London behind, for the glitz of mainland Europe, combining in striking ways with a Tenerife opera house looking like Razer out of "Robot Wars". What's notable is the problem you have with second-guessing what's next – Taormina? Not here. That grandiloquent area of Baku they held Eurovision in? Replaced by Chinese efforts, mostly actually in China. All told, the old and new here were both well worth my appreciation; the picture selection isn't flawless but the subject still more than worthy of the fan worship it gets. I've really liked the pictorial books from this publishing house, even when not strictly in line with my interests. Here it and I combined, and I got a serious case of itchy feet as a result. These boards and the thought of who trod them will bore no-one.