Curtains go up after Covid
AFTER more than a year, theatres in London reopened from last Monday.
According to londontheatre.co.uk, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in a government briefing, said: “(vaccine) efforts have so visibly paid off because of your efforts, I can confirm that we have met four tests for further easing of lockdown in England. The data now supports moving to step three.
“We’ll reopen the doors to our theatres, concert halls and business conference centres ... We’ll unlock the turnstiles of our stadia. Everyone will be able to travel within Britain and stay overnight. This unlocking is a considerable step to normality and I am confident we will be able to go further. We remain on track to move to step four on 21 June.”
Like elsewhere around the world, the Covid-19 pandemic shut down theatres in the West End. While the theatres in London have reopened, they are only allowed to operate with 50% capacity and with protective measures in place, reported Reuters.
‘Feels like coming back home’
Standing in a makeshift Paris metro station at London’s Criterion Theatre, actress Audrey Brisson performs a heart-warming song during a rehearsal for the musical Amélie.
According to Reuters, it has been over a year since the production was on stage in London. And as England takes the next step out of lockdown, the musical, based on the hit 2001 French film, was one of the first to reopen at the Criterion Theatre last Thursday.
“It really feels wonderful. It feels heart-warming. It feels exciting, exhilarating. It feels like coming back home,” Brisson, who plays the title role, told Reuters.
“I've missed storytelling. I have missed seeing in the eyes of the audience that glimmer of forgetting reality and just being swept off their feet and imagination.”
Director Michael Fentiman said Amélie
was able to reopen due to the financial support from the British government’s Cultural Recovery Fund. He said the musical was also a small production, where the 16 cast members were also the orchestra.
“We’re a show about coming out of isolation ... about the joy of moving from ... an isolated, anxious place into one of ... connection and joy and empathy ... so we ... had to be here in the moment where theatre turns the light on for the first time,” said Fentiman.
About a third of London theatres were set to reopen last week, according to Julian Bird, the chief executive of the Society of London Theatre and UK Theatre.
Major productions like Wicked, Hamilton and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella are awaiting the final phaseout of lockdown in June to raise their curtains for the summer.
“The bigger shows need the fuller capacity. Their running costs are just too high. They can’t get by on 50% of the seats. If we just look at central London and the West End ... bookings have been remarkably strong. People are very keen to get back to the theatre,” said Bird.
Elliott Griggs, a lighting designer who worked as a supermarket delivery driver during the lockdown, said it was amazing being back.
“So many people are still waiting for that call to come. So I feel very lucky to be here and back doing this job,” said Griggs.
Big shows in the line-up
Meanwhile, actress Barbara Drennan waited outside London’s St Martin’s Theatre last Monday to see one of the first shows back in the West End. It had been more than a year since Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap last welcomed audiences.
“I just think there’s a richness that it brings to people’s lives that as much as box sets and Netflix have looked after us, there’s nothing like this ... and getting caught in some escapism,” she told Reuters.
“And I think after the year that we’ve had, we all desperately need to get back to that. I’ve always thought that it was really important symbolically that The Mousetrap reopen the West End,” producer Adam Spiegel told Reuters.
“So although financially this is unsustainable for a long period, I made the decision that I thought it was worth doing, first of all, to get everyone back to work and secondly to say right, the West End is open for business again.”
According to news.sky.com, the concert version of the show Les Mis has been running at the newly-refurbished Sondheim Theatre since May 20. It stars X-Factor and Eurovision performer Lucie Jones as Fantine.
From September 25, the full version of the West End’s longest-running show will run.
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is also being staged at the Apollo Theatre.
It follows the real-life story of schoolboy Jamie Campbell (Jamie New in the show), who grew up in Sheffield wanting to be a drag queen. The show will also tour later in the year.
Michael Ball and Les Dennis will star in Hairspray, a Sixties-based show that touches on racial equality and fatphobia. Like other shows, it was due to open last year. It will be staged at the London Coliseum from June 22.
The website has, however, cautioned that the dates could be rescheduled in line with the further easing of lockdown restrictions.
Some theatres have already reportedly said that a negative Covid-19 test or proof of having received a vaccine may be needed as a condition of entry.
In New York, Broadway shows are expected to resume from mid-September.