A BANK of green fold-down seats – 6,500 of them – stretches steeply up the side of a natural slope.

Sit at the top and look down, and there’s a great view out over a natural amphitheatre to the stage at the bottom.

Today, admittedly, it still looks like a building site. A thin layer of sticky mud covers the ground, the stage is bare concrete, and everywhere you look there are workmen in hard hats and high-visibility yellow jackets. In front of the stage is a deep pit that one day soon will be filled with water to create a lake.

Come July, however, the eyes of the world will be on this stage.

Scarborough’s open-air theatre, closed since 1986, is undergoing a £3.5 million revamp. And on July 23, two of the world’s most revered classical singers – Jose Carreras of ‘the three tenors’ fame and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa – will take to the stage in what is already being billed in Scarborough as the “opera event of the year”.

That opening show will be followed a week later on July 31 by a second spectacular – a 1980s event featuring a host of Eighties pop legends, including Boy George, Kid Creole & The Coconuts and Paul Young.

Theatre and tourism bosses can barely contain their excitement.

“Our challenge is going to be to fill the open-air theatre,” said Gary Verity, speaking on the day journalists were invited to see progress on the theatre. “Having great events such as Carreras and Te Kanawa really will put us on the map, big time. It will be a sell-out, I’m convinced.”

The theatre – still today Europe’s largest open air theatre – is being restored using £3.5 million of investment from Scarborough Borough Council: money that has come from profits on the ongoing The Sands leisure and holiday complex overlooking North Bay.

The aim is to try to recapture the theatre’s glory days, when it regularly attracted thousands of people to local opera productions, and the much-loved It’s A Knockout every Wednesday.

Scarborough’s Mayor Bill Chatt remembers going to watch It’s A Knockout at the theatre as a lad.

“We used to come down with some tomato soup to watch,” he said. “It was pure entertainment. You could come down, hire a cushion to sit on, and have a great night out.

“It has been very painful for me as a Scarborough man to see what happened to the theatre. It is great to see it coming back.”

The theatre was built by the Scarborough Corporation in 1932 and opened by, of all people, the Lord Mayor of London.

According to the borough council’s strategic director of operations David Archer, the idea for the theatre “apparently came about when some golfers noticed the excellent natural acoustics”.

Famously, the banked seating looked out across a lake to the stage, which was itself on a natural island. There was fixed seating for nearly 6,000 people, but deck chairs could be pressed into use to increase the numbers.

The official attendance record was 8,893 people, in August, 1952. But unofficially, 11,000 turned out for a free recording of It’s A Knockout in the 1960s.

In its heyday, the theatre had a national reputation for mounting lavish musicals with mainly amateur casts of up to 200. During the three month long summer season there were often two performances a week. It’s A Knockout games were staged here for 11 years.

But musicals ceased in 1968 after West Side Story, and the last concert here was James Last, in 1986.

That copcert was produced by Apollo and, appropriately enough, it is Apollo Resorts and Leisure that will run the theatre once it re-opens.

Apollo chairman Paul Gregg recalled visiting the theatre before it closed. “I remember thousands of people coming for Scarborough Opera Society,” he said. “It didn’t matter whether it was rain or shine, you’d see the buses lined up every day.”

Hopefully, they soon will be again.

• Jose Carreras and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa will sing at the re-opening of the Open Air Theatre on Friday July 23, with the 80s Rewind Festival, featuring the likes of Boy George, Kid Creole & The Coconuts and Paul Young a week later, on Saturday July 31. Details of other events throughout the summer will be revealed soon. This could include “World Of Sport” events in July during which giant LED screens will be used to show the football World Cup, Wimbledon and F1 racing.

• Tickets are available from Ticket line on 0871 424 4444, online at ticketline.co.uk or in person from North Bay Railway Station Building, Burniston Road.

Resort town on the rise again

THE re-opening of Scarborough’s open air theatre is just part of a wider renaissance of the town. By the end of the 1990s, Britain’s first seaside resort was in serious decline. Traditional industries had died, tourism had slumped as Britons went on holiday abroad, and there was little private investment.

In 2002, however, Scarborough was identified as one of Yorkshire and the Humber’s six urban renaissance areas. A £30 million investment package was put together by the borough council, Yorkshire Forward, the Heritage Lottery Fund and other organisations.

This has, since then, led to a further £200 million of private investment into the town.

The ongoing regeneration of Scarborough, of which the open air theatre is a part, has so far included, amongst other things:

*A new 83 acre business park
*60 new berths at the Scarborough marina
*The refurbishment of the Spa complex into a modern conference and entertainment venue
*Restoration and extension of the Rotunda museum
*The £200 million Sands holiday and leisure development
*New hotels
*The introduction of high capacity broadband

Last year, the number of tourists was up 10 per cent, making Scarborough the third most popular tourist destination in the UK, according to the borough council, with 5.5 million viewers. The town also won the Grand Jury Prize in the European Enterprise Awards 2008/2009.