(/(/(/(/(/(/( Panto cancelled (/(/(/(/(/(/( as Hippodrome closes for 2020
THE chief executive of Birmingham’s Hippodrome theatre has said her decision to cancel its Christmas pantomime was made to avoid a potential “death blow” to its finances.
Fiona Allan, who has run the theatre for four years, said it would have been “incredibly risky” to go ahead with plans to stage this year’s production, Goldilocks And The Three Bears, until she knew she could fill every seat without social distancing.
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden recently confirmed a timeframe for the reopening of theatres without social distancing is unlikely to arrive until November. Birmingham Hippodrome usually sells 115,000 seats and makes between 20 per cent and 25 per cent of its annual income during the six or seven-week pantomime period.
Ms Allan said: “It’s a massive production and to gear up for it means employing a lot of people and committing funding for sets and costumes and all the rest. We are at the point in time when we would have to start laying money down.
“To lay down money is incredibly risky when we know we can’t operate panto unless social distancing measures have been relaxed and we can sell every seat, otherwise it is financially not possible. But also the Government has been clear that they are not going to assess that for theatres until November, so we would be making a bet only to be told in November that it is not possible.”
Ms Allan said the theatre had reserves but could not “risk diminishing them more”.
She added: “Our position is better than many. It is not as robust as we would like it to be, but what we couldn’t do was risk accelerating our reserves.
“That would have been a death blow.” Ms Allan said many theatres across the country would soon follow suit in cancelling or postponing their festive productions.
“This really is a make or break time for theatres,” she said.
“I think the decision the Hippodrome has made is now going to be mirrored across the country. We are going to see that not all theatres can survive this.”