After a major restoration, new theatre in east London announces opening programme with Sara Pascoe and Rosie Jones on the bill – plus panto and a new show by Bryony Kimmings. It opened as a Victorian music hall, had various incarnations as a picture house and hosted concerts by the Beatles, Dusty Springfield and James Brown. But for most of the 21st century, the site of the former Granada cinema in Walthamstow, east London, has remained shuttered.

Now, after a major restoration in partnership with the local council, the Grade II* listed building in Hoe Street is set to reopen as Soho Theatre Walthamstow, with a 960-seat main auditorium, three studio spaces and a generous four bars. It will be operated by Soho theatre, which has run a lively venue in Dean Street, central London, for 25 years. The sister site will present a similar mix of comedy, cabaret and theatre from May onwards.

The opening programme, announced on Tuesday, includes a monthly comedy lineup show, Neon Nights, with guests including Sara Pascoe, Rosie Jones and Sindhu Vee. Acclaimed autobiographical theatre-maker Bryony Kimmings has been commissioned to create a new show, Bog Witch, “about uncertain times and finding new ways to be happy”. There will also be a pantomime, Aladdin and the Magic Lamp, written and directed by Susie McKenna, who has an illustrious track record of creating pantos in Waltham Forest’s neighbouring borough at the Hackney Empire.

Billed as “a local theatre with a national profile”, it will offer 15,000 tickets priced at £15 in its first year, available to those who live, work or study in Waltham Forest. The rich film history of the borough where Alfred Hitchcock was born (in Leytonstone in 1899) will be celebrated in a festival organised by the local McGuffin Film Society, which ran a lengthy grassroots campaign to save the venue during a period when its heritage as an arts destination (dating back to 1887) looked bleak. In 2003, the building – then operating as a cinema – was purchased by the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God which planned to convert it into a place of worship, like Finsbury Park’s former Rainbow theatre which it had taken over in the 90s. But the plans stalled when the church was unable to receive planning permission. The disrepair to its interior was then made public after an illegal rave was held at the site in 2011; local MP Stella Creasy arrived and gained entrance, taking photos of the damage inside.