London

When it does, the theatre will reduce its capacity of 550 by around two-thirds, depending on the size of household groups attending. The plans have been put together in compliance with stage four of the the government’s five-point “roadmap” for the return of live theatre performances. Stage four will see “performances allowed indoors/outdoors (but with a limited distance audience)”, although no specific timescales were included in the government’s strategy when it was announced last week. … [Read more...] about Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap plots socially distanced West End reopening

During the launch of its No Going Back to Normal campaign, the general secretary, Dave Prentis, said: “Everyone is desperate to get back to normal. However, ‘normal’ cannot mean a return to low pay, penny-pinching and public services staff being undervalued. … [Read more...] about Key workers and public services need more support, say UK unions

Created by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss when they were undergraduates at Cambridge University, Six ran at the Arts theatre in London from September 2018 to March this year, when venues closed due to the coronavirus outbreak. It will now move temporarily to the larger Lyric theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue for a socially distanced 11-week run, beginning on 14 November, with nine shows a week. Another staging of the musical will open at the Lowry in Salford on 27 November and run for six weeks.cancelled due to concerns about local lockdowns. … [Read more...] about Tudor girl-band concert Six set to be first musical to reopen in West End

We are in a situation like that in a Shakespeare history play, where messengers arrive hourly with bad news from all ends of the kingdom. The Nuffield Southampton, which combines a new city centre theatre with a longstanding campus playhouse, is closing, with 86 roles made redundant. The Theatre Royal Plymouth has made its entire artistic team redundant and the Royal Exchange Manchester may have to make 65% of its staff redundant. The story is much the same wherever you look, be it Birmingham, Norwich or Perth. Even the big, seemingly well-protected institutions are not immune: the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, was reported in the London Evening Standard to be “facing closure”. … [Read more...] about Dear Oliver Dowden, have you even begun to grasp the scale of our arts crisis?

The director Sam Mendes has outlined a rescue package for theatre during the coronavirus crisis and warned that if the performing arts are not protected, “an ecosystem this intricate and evolved cannot be rebuilt from scratch”. Mendes’ suggested measures, outlined in a long article for the Financial Times, have been applauded by key figures in the industry, with the choreographer Matthew Bourne hailing the plan as a “great call to arms”. … [Read more...] about Sam Mendes calls on Netflix and Amazon to share ‘Covid-19 windfall’ with theatre