Andrew Lloyd Webber has said that he will fully reopen his theatres at the end of June “come hell or high water” in an interview with The Telegraph.
Lloyd Webber claims that he has “seen the science from the tests” and that “they all prove that theatres are completely safe, the virus is not carried there.
“If the Government ignore their own science, we have the mother of all legal cases against them,” he said, adding that should the government delay reopening plans “we will say: come to the theatre and arrest us.”
Lloyd Webber said he may have to sell his six theatres, which cost £1m a month to keep closed, if he cannot reopen soon.
His new musical Cinderella, which was supposed to open last August at the Gillian Lyme Theatre, has 34 cast members in the ensemble and is not commercially viable if the theatre is only able to open at 50% capacity.
“If Cinderella couldn’t open, we’d go, ‘Look, either we go to law about it or you’ll have to compensate us’,” Lloyd Webber added.
“The Government regards theatre as a nice thing to have rather than a necessity.”
The show is scheduled to preview on 25 June, with the world premiere occurring on 14 July.
His comments follow reports from last week where he stated he was prepared to sue the government if theatres could not work at full capacity from 21 June.
Words by Ellen Leslie
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