Andrew Lloyd Webber calls on theatre industry to stay 'positive' as he plans safety tests for London Palladium

Lloyd Webber will trial safety measures at the London Palladium
Getty Images for Tony Awards Pro
John Dunne @jhdunne19 June 2020

Andrew Lloyd Webber has called on the theatre industry to be “positive” about its future amid the pandemic.

The 72-year-old plans to trial measures at The London Palladium after Phantom Of The Opera continued in South Korea with strict hygiene measures and no social distancing.

It has been “absolutely awful to see everything that I’ve loved in my life gone”, the theatre impresario said. “I want to prove that they can be open.”

The composer told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “What I hope to do is to be able to demonstrate to the Government what has happened in Korea, at The London Palladium, hopefully in the first week of July...

“We’re going to do a whole series of tests there to see whether or not it’s going to work,” said Lloyd Webber, who has ordered hygienic door handles and thermal imaging cameras.

“I really believe that we in theatre must be positive and use everything we can to demonstrate we can open. If having done that we fail, at least we’ve tried.”

He said he had spoken to Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden.

“I would love to say that I think that [the Government] understood a little more.

I sincerely hope that [a forthcoming report on the theatre] doesn’t contain some of the things I’ve seen in some of their advice, one of which was a brilliant one for musicals – that you’re not allowed to sing.”

His comments came after Les Miserables, Mary Poppins, Hamilton and The Phantom Of The Opera were pulled from the West End for the rest of the year.

Theatre owner and producer Sir Cameron Mackintosh blamed the decision to axe the popular musicals until 2021 on “continued uncertainty” over when the Government will completely withdraw social distancing measures.

Kwame Kwei-Armah, the artistic director of the Young Vic, also called for help after stars warned that the UK theatre industry stands “on the brink of ruin”.

He said that around “70% of theatres up and down the country…will run out of cash by December”.

With additional reporting by Press Association

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in