A West End Producer Talks Tough About Post-Covid Theatre

The good news is that, after way too long burying their heads in the sand, in my opinion, the Theatre Industry has weaned itself off singing show tunes on line and is beginning to get scared and angry about what the future holds. Language has become provocative and answers and assistance is demanded.

Leading West End producer Sonia Friedman (HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD and THE BOOK OF MORMON amongst many other hit shows) has written a opinion piece in The Telegraph, which claims that "British theatre is on the brink of collapse".

She envisages closures could last six months, or even over a year, during which time there will be no income from ticket sales.

Within each organisation large portions of the workforce have been furloughed, a scheme which the government has, so far, only agreed to pay for until October. Beyond that, with theatre coffers empty after lock down, it’s very unlikely that any venue is likely to be able to rehire staff. As Friedman says of the Government’s 80% subsidy of wages "the second it stops, theatres will sink."

The Nuffield Theatre in Southampton has been placed in administration (although, it’s alleged, this was also the result of extravagant overspending in recent years), Shakespeare’s Globe has announced imminent closure if public subsidy isn’t found to keep it afloat and I'm told our very National Theatre is desperately fighting off the end times. My inbox as editor here is crammed with appeals for donations to save everything from the vast Metropolitan Opera in New York to the Finborough Theatre, a tiny fringe venue in London’s Earls Court.

Friedman has had to shut down 18 productions globally in the last ten weeks. She predicts "70 per cent of our performing arts companies will be out of business before the end of this year".

So it’s a waiting game to see if government can/will release cash to save a sector that, as reported in The Stage Newspaper recently “ provides £5 billion for London's economy on an annual basis. A vital aspect of the tourism sector.”

Beyond London, theatre heads all over the world have tried to work out new seating configurations that will allow people to sit 2m apart from their neighbour. The distance the government advises we should keep from strangers. Every article I’ve read concludes that reducing the capacity to allow for this means there won’t be enough seats to sell in order to cover costs.

As Friedman concludes, "theatre is incompatible with social distancing".