What does a delay to reopening mean for theatres and is Andrew Lloyd Webber going to jail?
The Cats maestro has said his new musical will open at full capacity come hell or high water  Boris Johnson has today announced a delay to full reopening in England, an increasingly inevitable decision that prompted headlines last week when Andrew Lloyd Webber said that hed rather go to jail than delay the reopening of his theatres. Heres all you need to know about the current situation. Like cinemas, theatres have been able to reopen with social distancing since May 17. However, many shows and theatres had been holding off their reopening until after June 21, because the 50 percent capacity cap required by social distancing would cause many shows to lose money. This is more of a problem for commercial producers (ie the West End) who havent been able to access the same amount of government support that subsidised theatres have. As a rule, theyre really well prepared. Some shows  notably Under Milk Wood and After Life at the National Theatre  will remain socially distanced throughout their runs regardless. Most others took to heart the government advice that June 21 was not set in stone and have adopted a suck it and see approach, wherein they have plans to raise the capacity and put more tickets on sale, but will only do when theyre officially allowed to. And many of the bigger West End shows  be it classics like Les Mis and Hamilton or newies like Frozen and Back to the Future  have cautiously held their openings back until the end of the summer, or even further. Theatres have had a terrible pandemic, and another month of diminished income will be a real kick in the teeth  especially as the furlough scheme requires greater employer contribution from July  while delays of much longer than a month would potentially be devastating. However, in a prosaic sense: although nobody wanted it, almost everybody in theatre was prepared for a delay. Yes, he did say that. His new musical Cinderella and his old musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat are both scheduled to start performances within the period of delay, and neither is selling socially distanced tickets. Lloyd Webber has maintained that he will sue the government to allow them to open, and whatever the outcome of said suing he will open them anyway, going to jail if need be. Wow. He has famously spent a lot of money tricking out his theatres with god-tier air filtration systems and self-sterilising doorhandles and whatnot. A recent UCL study has found that capacity theatres are safe for masked audiences so long as correct safety measures are observed. However, it still seems ridiculous that the government would allow exceptions on those grounds, given the fury this would surely provoke in basically everyone else not allowed to open. He did! He really did! Nobody has clarified any of this yet, but as best as we can tell from what the PM said, the government is looking to make the entire run of Cinderella a pilot scheme exempt from distancing. Whether any other shows or theatres are included is unknown. As a minimum, it would certainly feel incredibly unfair if open-air theatres like the Globe were forced to distance still. We dont know! Lloyd Webber has stated that he is prepared to keep his theatres open at full capacity in defiance of the law. To be honest, him getting arrested is such a mad outcome that its hard to believe it will really happen. But still, you have to assume that as things stand he would break the law. Regarding the PMs shout-out to Cinderella, Webber put out a statement after the press conference saying he was pleased and surprised it was mentioned, but that he cant comment on the proposed pilot until I know more about the scheme. This doesnt really sound like a man giving off big fuck-the-government-Im-going-to-jail vibes, but he doesnt actually rule it out. Certainly whatevers going on would not appear to have actually been sorted out yet. So in conclusion  yes, Andrew Lloyd Webber might still go to jail. Cinderella is due to start performances on Jun 25. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is due to start performances Jul 1. The best new theatre shows to book in 2021.