Covid: Theatre and music facing lockdown reopening delay ‘catastrophe’

Theatre and live music risk “imminent catastrophe” and even “final collapse” as the return of full-capacity events is delayed, industry figures have said.

West End producer Sonia Friedman warned that “many livelihoods are under existential threat” from a delay, which is expected to be confirmed later.

Another theatre impresario, Sir Howard Panter, said the ramifications would be “extremely serious”.

Social distancing is likely to remain at venues until at least 19 July.

The government had originally pencilled in 21 June as the date to lift all restrictions in England, but that is now expected to be pushed back by a minimum of four weeks as a result of the rise of the Delta variant.

Friedman, whose shows include Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, wrote in The Telegraph that she had “never been more worried about what lies ahead for the West End and all commercial touring theatre”.

She said: “I begin this week full of apprehension that the industry I care deeply about, one that plays such an important role in our economic and emotional well-being, is now facing imminent catastrophe.”

She called on the government to provide financial support for the West End and other forms of commercial theatre, which “received pitiful amounts from the Cultural Recovery Fund”.

“Commercial producers face an impossible challenge as they try to fill theatres against a backdrop of chronic uncertainty with finite resources and next to no government support,” she wrote.

“We are contractually bound, and feel morally obliged, to put on shows – bringing work to the sector and entertainment to audiences. But we have no safety net.”

She added: “Get this wrong, and we wipe out an entire sector.”

Sir Howard, who runs Trafalgar Entertainment, said producers had already “mobilised a whole industry” to reopen on June 21.

He said: “Thousands of people have been mobilised in order to work in the theatre industry, to start work from next Monday and now we are being told, apparently, ‘Oh no, it’s not that date. It may be some other date, we don’t really know’.

“The ramifications for the theatre industry are extremely serious. But also the ramifications for all the industries which frankly work with and collaborate with the theatre – restaurants, hotels, hospitality, transport, taxis. You name it.”

Producers say large-scale shows are not financially viable at the current 50% capacity limit.

Andrew Lloyd Webber recently said he was prepared to be arrested if he couldn’t open his new musical Cinderella as planned on 25 June.

Sir Howard had been planning to open the musicals Anything Goes and Jersey Boys in late July, but those are now in the balance.

Some major shows will be opening with social distancing on 21 June, including the musical Hairspray at the London Coliseum.

Michael Neri, a theatre producer who also runs a stage school for young people in Worcestershire, had been planning to put on three shows from 15 July.

“Now I have to tell students they cant go on stage,” he told BBC News.

“This month I have to start paying back a £40,000 bounce back loan but I am constantly losing money.

“This includes non-refundable deposits for costumes, set design etc. I feel that as a youth theatre and small-scale producer, we are being overlooked.”

Singer Frank Turner, who has been one of the most active artists to raise money for struggling small music venues, said the delay “is going to tip some businesses into final collapse”.

It is “another blow to morale, another financial loss”, he wrote in a string of tweets.

Toni Coe-Brooker, who runs the Green Door Store music venue and nightclub in Brighton and was behind the #SaveOurVenues campaign, had a number of sold-out events lined up after 21 June.

“It’s very disappointing for audience members and bands,” she said. “I’ve probably rescheduled a lot of these shows four times already. And now it’s just being pushed back again with no real sense of when we’re going to be able to open again.”

She said the government needed to come up with new financial support. Mark Davyd, founder and chief executive of the Music Venue Trust, also called for more funding.

“The good news is that there is money within government already set aside to deal with such delay,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“The problem is the government needs to get it out, get it into people’s bank accounts, really make people around these venues – the landlords, the creditors – have confidence that they are going to reopen, because they’re not handling this very well at the moment, quite frankly.”

Anna Wade, who runs the Boomtown music festival, said organisers understand that safety is the priority, but it’s hard to plan when “everything just keeps on moving at the very last minute”.

She said: “This four-week delay will have a huge impact for everybody [organising festivals] in July, but it adds a continued level of uncertainty to an already very crippled industry that is just looking to find some way to claw things back a bit and be able to give everybody the summer they all want.”