Shows for the next week at Derby’s Assembly Rooms have been postponed after a huge fire broke out late on Friday afternoon.
It took 75 firefighters more than two hours to bring the blaze under control. The fire destroyed a plant room on the tenth floor of the venue’s car park.
The plant room supplied lighting, electricity and air conditioning to the Assembly Rooms. The building itself was damaged by smoke. No one was injured.
An investigation has started to find out what caused the fire and to establish how long the building will be out of action.
Dancer Anton du Beke’s Friday show Ballroom to Broadway was called off, as was Saturday’s performance of Beyond the Barricade.
Now the city council which runs the building has had to postpone shows for the coming week which include appearances by comic Sarah Millican, musician Paul Carrack and An Evening of Burlesque.
The Assembly Rooms has two auditoria, the biggest being the Great Hall which can seat 1,200 for concerts.
Derby Shakespeare Theatre Company’s presentation of Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband in the nearby Guildhall Theatre was not affected.