Westcliff's Palace Theatre's has bounced back - to reopen with its most successful show ever.

Jubilant Palace bosses have announced record audience figures for the rejuvenated theatre's first festive show, The Wizard of Oz.

The news comes at the end of turbulent times which saw the London Road theatre dark for more than a year as part of council cuts.

Figures just released show the classic family tale attracted just short of 19,000 people - compared to average audiences of about 8,000 for previous festive shows.

Palace Theatre Guild chairman Michael Heath, who campaigned for the re-opening of the theatre, said: "I'm absolutely delighted.

"It's been a magnificent response. We hope support for the theatre will continue through the year.

"The Palace belongs to the people of the town. Without their support, their theatre can't possibly live.

"If you don't get bums on seats, no theatre can live."

Chas Mumford, who now manages both the Palace and the Cliffs Pavilion said: "It was a great way to get the theatre reopened."

The Palace finally reopened in December and now comes under the wing of HQ Theatres, a new company appointed by Southend Council.

The Cliffs also enjoyed a successful Christmas season.

Audiences for its prestigious festive panto, Dick Whittington, were slightly smaller than for last year's production, Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs.

However, Cliffs bosses say the 53,000-odd tickets sold will still make it one of the three most successful pantos in the theatre's history.

Dick Whittington - starring Paul Nicholas and comics Cannon and Ball - sold 72 per cent of available seats, netting £800,000 at the box office.

The most successful Cliffs Christmas show ever was its 2000 production of Peter Pan starring Shane Ritchie and Jeremy Spake.

And the Cliffs panto appears set to go on from strength to strength - 7,000 tickets have already been sold for next year's Cliffs show, Cinderella, starring Joe Pasquale as Buttons, which opens on December 7.