 The building was designed by the architects Jacques-Ignace Hittorff and Alphonse Cusin, with an 1800-seat auditorium decorated by Félix Jobbé-Duval.Concentrating on operettas, it also became known as the Gaîté-Lyrique and was at its height during the Second French Empire.Jacques Offenbach was its director from 1873 to 1874,

After the Second World War, the theatre enjoyed success under its directors Henri Montjoye and his wife Germaine Roger.