IT was a case of let's go on with the show three times over as a theatre celebrated it's 166th birthday yesterday.

Newcastle's Theatre Royal announced it had booked summer musicals Summer Holiday (May 5 to 10), The Blues Brothers (June 30 to July 5) and My One And Only (July 29 to August 9), which is transferring from the West End.

General manager Peter Sarah cut a 3ft-square birthday cake in front of the theatre's supporters and said: "Our experience is that if we get good shows we attract good audiences, and our audiences are averaging 70 per cent and the national average is 50 per cent.

"I think it was Mark Little who said television makes you famous, film makes you rich but theatre makes you really great," he said.

One of the offerings in store for Tyneside theatre-goers include director Edward Hall's bringing his all-male Midsummer Night's Dream to Newcastle in the summer. His famous father, Peter, is currently negotiating to bring another major drama to the North-East.

The next Royal Shakespeare Company season, from late November to early December, will be announced in May.

On the question of whether there is another 166 years left in the building, Mr Sarah replied: "Definitely - the building's not sliding down the hill and we've got a wonderful lively audience and now we could programme the venue three times over each season because we have so many offers of productions."