THE restoration of a theatre which played host to the Beatles on the night JFK was assassinated will be complete a decade after work began and costing millions more to the public purse than originally planned.

But Stockton’s Globe Theatre is to be run by a major West End operator and will attract the biggest names in music, comedy and variety, which Stockton Borough Council claims will bring £18m into the local economy each year.

The Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG), which owns 12 West End theatres and two Broadway venues, will run the Globe, which is now to feature a six-storey extension to the rear to allow entertainment companies to load and unload sets quickly.

Council leader Bob Cook said it had become clear that the venue needed a proper upgrade to make it commercially viable, and the council has now agreed to pump in £10.5m of the £15m needed.

Originally, the venue owner Jomast was restoring it at a joint cost of £4m with the council investing about £1m. However, the council took over as lead partner on the project last year and took on the building on a long-term lease after work had ground to a halt. Cllr Cook would not be drawn on the value of the lease.

The council and ATG will run the theatre on a profit sharing scheme, but Cllr Cook said the details were commercially sensitive.

A Heritage Lottery Grant of £4.5m will top up the council’s investment to the full £15m.

Once restored, by 2019 at the latest – ten years after the scheme was announced – the neglected Grade II-listed Art Deco Globe will have a capacity of 3,000, making it the largest venue between Newcastle and Leeds, creating more than 250 jobs.

Mark Cornell, Group CEO of ATG, said: “With our producer and promoter relationships, we believe we can bring real value to the Globe and will aim to attract top artists from around the world in order to firmly establish the venue as a primary destination on the UK touring circuit.”

Cllr Cook said the original project, and the scheme as it now looked, were “massively different”, but he was confident it would transform Stockton town centre when it opens in the winter of 2018 or spring of 2019.