It was a continued collaboration between Crewe and theatre magnate Thomas Barrasford, following the Liverpool Royal Hippodrome and Newcastle Pavilion. His theatres competed with his rivals by offering twice nightly music variety shows, a tradition that continued in Glasgow.

During this time of music and melodrama, many famous names from the early 20th Century graced the stage, including an appearance by a young Charlie Chaplin, and in its history has played host to performers such as Lulu, Sheena Easton and Billy Connolly. It is also allegedly haunted by no less than five ghosts, including that of Scottish comedian Tommy Morgan, whose management scattered his ashes on the roof of the theatre as per instructions in his will.

The present-day Pavilion is the only privately run theatre not only in Glasgow but all of Scotland, and only a handful of those unsubsidised in the whole of the UK. In more recent years it has been rebranded the Scottish National Theatre of Variety,