A Christmas Carol celebrates opening show only to close a day later

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Producers behind West End shows including the new musical A Christmas Carol were left in despair today as theatres faced financial disaster following the decision to put London into Tier Three.

The show at the Dominion Theatre had its star-studded officially opening night yesterday just one day before it will shut after tonight’s performance, with Amanda Holden attending today’s matinee with her daughter Hollie, eight.

A Christmas Carol has been produced by Gary England with musical director Freddie Tapner for the London Musical Theatre Orchestra and has been in previews since December 7. The show was set to run until January 2.

Mr England had not been expecting to make a profit on the show and instead wanted to help people within the industry from actors to technical crews and stage door keepers to front of house staff to ‘get back to work’.

But it will now have only two further performances at 3pm and 7.30pm today – with star Brian Conley, who plays Ebenezer Scrooge, saying last night: ‘We opened tonight. We close tomorrow. What’s that all about?’

The Grade II-listed Dominion – which could seat 1,000 for the show, half its normal capacity – is owned by the New York-based Nederlander Organization, which also owns the Aldwych and Adelphi theatres in London.

Mr England, 51, said it had been a ‘herculean task’ to get the show on and it had been a ‘hugely risky business but ultimately it came from the heart’, adding that he was a ‘commercial producer’ and not funded by the Arts Council.

Speaking last Wednesday in a podcast called Passions, Mr England added: ‘It’s not only our money that’s invested, it’s our investors’ money, and there’s obviously a huge sense of responsibility that goes along with that.’

Basingstoke-based Mr England took on the project after meeting Mr Tapner in February 2019 and they originally wanted to put on the show at the London Coliseum from November 2020 with the English National Opera.

But this plan was cancelled because it was not commercially viable – and he instead moved it to the Dominion after the venue became available because the return of current show The Prince of Egypt was delayed until 2021.

Mr England also told there has been a ‘huge business mindset in terms of mitigating risk and cost because you can’t get insurance for Covid in theatre at the moment’ and said: ‘We don’t have a bottomless pot of cash.’

He set up a company with Mr Tapner in October called ‘Three Ghosts Ltd’ but no accounts have yet been filed. He said you ‘don’t go into it with a mindset of making any money’, but he was desperate to help ‘actors, technical crew, stage door keepers, front of house staff, anybody within the industry – we just wanted to get back to work’.

Mr England, who is married and is originally from Hinckley, Leicestershire, has also worked as Ascot Racecourse hospitality director, English National Opera commercial director and sales chief at the Barbican Centre.

At the start of the second lockdown in November, Mr England said the team had considered pulling the whole show and saving 75 per cent of the capitalisation, ‘but it felt premature and it felt wrong to cancel at that point’.

West End box offices took an estimated £75million last December, and theatre owners had reported huge demand for tickets in recent days, with Nimax venues hosting 42 performances of 12 shows in six theatres in the last week.

Shows are now suspended, but tickets for some – including A Christmas Carol – are still on sale from Wednesday next week onwards when the next review of tiers is expected, amid faint hopes that London could be moved back down a tier on the day that the five-day Christmas bubbles begin. 

Many top West End shows such as The Lion King and Hamilton cost more than £400,000 a week to run, and City brokers Panmure Gordon estimates Tier Three will see London businesses lose £700million before Christmas.

A review in What’s On Stage said theatres closing felt a ‘very Scrooge-like gesture on the part of a government that has yet to prove they love the arts’, while London Theatre Direct said the show ‘certified itself as a must-see’. 

The show, which had tickets available for today’s matinee for between £43.75 to £72.50, also stars Busted singer Matt Willis, EastEnders actress Jacqueline Jossa, X Factor star Lucie Jones and Sandra Marvin from Emmerdale. 

Among the stars attending the UK premiere at the Dominion last night were Jessica Plummer from I’m A Celebrity, comedian Keith Lemon, stylist Gok Wan and TV presenter Emma Willis, who is also the wife of Matt Willis. 

Other West End shows which have now been cancelled include: Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (Apollo Theatre), The Elf Who Was Scared of Christmas (Charing Cross Theatre), The Play That Goes Wrong (Duchess Theatre), Potted Panto (Garrick Theatre), Pantoland (London Palladium), The Comeback (Noel Coward Theatre), Mischief Movie Night (Vaudeville Theatre) and Les Miserables: The All-Star Staged Concert (Sondheim Theatre). 

The update comes a day after the Government confirmed that London will move into Tier Three from tomorrow, requiring restaurants, pubs and other leisure and hospitality venues to shut their doors to customers. 

The British Beer & Pub Association said in London alone the restrictions will force 1,250 pubs that remained open in Tier Two to close, putting nearly 8,000 more jobs at risk. Under the new restrictions, which also apply to parts of Essex and Hertfordshire, entertainment venues including concert halls, cinemas and museums must also close. 

New West End Company, which represents local businesses, said it could not yet put a figure on the total losses that will be caused by the ‘hammer blow’, but pointed out that 10 per cent of all Londoners work in the West End.

Footfall in Central London has been significantly weaker this year due to travel restrictions, the enforced closure of shops and venues and guidance for workers to stay at home, with West End landlord Shaftesbury announcing a £699million annual loss today after the pandemic battered rental income and caused property values to plunge. 

Jon Ranger, a piano player on A Christmas Carol, said there will be ‘no viable way out for theatres’ unless the Government changes its policy on live entertainment.

He felt ‘a combination of anger, frustration, a bit of hopelessness’, saying: ‘We fought so hard as an industry to prove that we could open safely and we’d done everything that was asked of us, yet it doesn’t seem to be enough.’

Mr Ranger said: ‘People’s mental health is really important and the reaction we’ve had from the audiences in previews and last night – last night was the best audience reaction I’ve ever had on any show that I’ve ever done, because people need this, they need something to enjoy in their lives and they need something to live for.’

Mr Ranger said that with the extensive planning that is needed to mount a show, theatres need to be allowed to open with more certainty that they will not be ‘told with 48 hours’ notice ‘now you have to close again”.

He added: ‘If the Government continue with this attitude and this direction, I don’t see a viable way out for theatres in the new year because it’s just not a business model that could operate like that.’

The show was written by famed Disney composer Alan Menken, Lynn Ahrens and Mike Ockrent and premiered in 1994 at New York’s Paramount Theatre before running for more than a decade at Madison Square Garden. 

It comes as Andrew Lloyd Webber said it seemed ‘arbitrary and unfair’ to ban performances while shopping was still allowed, while Cameron Mackintosh said forcing venues to close was devastating and ‘smacked of panic’. 

Jon Morgan of the Theatres Trust said: ‘It is a disaster for London’s theatres. Theatres have worked incredibly hard to create safe environments for audiences and through no fault of their own will now face enormous financial losses. They have done so at great risk as it is currently impossible to secure production insurance.’ 

He said the tier system meant ‘more uncertainty and risk for months’ and called on the Government to introduce an insurance scheme to support the industry.

Tier Two restrictions had allowed for socially-distanced performances and museums to welcome visitors. 

Among shows to be affected by the capital being plunged into Tier Three is Pantoland at the London Palladium, which opened on Saturday starring Julian Clary and Elaine Paige. 

Sir Cameron said: ‘The sudden volte face in deciding to immediately put London into Tier Three and shut down the West End is devastating for both the theatre and the economy. 

‘Even worse it smacks of panic and makes all our considerable and costly efforts to ensure the safety of both performers and audiences alike, widely praised by the health authorities, seem worthless. It breaks any sense of trust between us as an industry and the government departments we’ve been trying to build a rapport with.

‘The commercial theatre has had virtually no support from the Treasury, apart from the offer of quite expensive loans – which we, unlike the subsidised theatre, have been asked to give personal guarantees to repay. A lot of us do not want to go into debt to pay for losses caused by diktats completely out of our control.’

Lord Lloyd Webber said: ‘Theatres have worked tirelessly to make themselves as Covid safe as possible.

‘It does seem arbitrary and unfair that people can jostle uncontrolled in crowded shops yet orderly socially distanced theatre-going is banned.’ 

Analysis by the Sunday Times Rich List in May suggested Lord Lloyd Webber would take a £20million hit to his fortune due to the coronavirus pandemic, although this figure will have likely increased since. His calculated wealth is said to be £800million. 

Theatre producer Sonia Friedman said: ‘London going into Tier Three is yet another blow for British theatre – one it simply cannot afford after a brutal year, and one that both could and should have been avoided. 

‘It feels like a final straw: proof that this government does not understand theatre and the existential crisis it is facing. Its short-sightedness is starting to look like serial mismanagement.’

Michael Harrison, director of the Pantoland pantomime which opened at the London Palladium on Saturday, said he is ‘deeply concerned’ about the financial impact of Tier Three restrictions on the West End. 

He added: ‘Whilst the safety and health of our visitors, staff and performers is of extreme importance, the Government’s yo-yoing approach on advice is frankly appalling.’ 

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, along with their three children, went to watch the pantomime last week.

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden was also in attendance. Discussing Mr Dowden’s visit, Mr Harrison said he was ‘thrilled to see him crying with laughter’.

He added that ‘it’s just a shame my entire cast and company are now crying because of the Government’s decision to put London into Tier Two just 12 days ago encouraging us all to press on with our productions only to realise that was in fact a mistake’.

Miss Paige tweeted: ‘Oliver Dowden [the Culture Secretary] saw it for himself. And yet Tubes and flights still allowed? These rules are illogical. The audience response shows how desperate they are for two hours of escapism. If it’s so terrible – cancel Christmas!’ 

Playwright James Graham said the theatre industry has been ‘decimated’ ahead of the closure of venues.

Entertainment venues in the capital and parts of Essex and Hertfordshire will be welcoming visitors for the last time today before new Tier Three restrictions come into force.

Graham, who wrote Ink, This House and The Vote, as well as TV dramas Quiz and Brexit, labelled the move as ‘sad’.

He tweeted: ‘The largest concentration of theatres on earth managed to open last week, only to close tonight.

‘The hope was to revive a decimated sector and tell stories at Christmas. Thousands spent to get Covid secure, closed in blanket measures. So sorry. So sad.’ 

Julian Bird, chief executive of Society of London Theatre and UK Theatre, the membership organisations which aim to promote the sector, also said the announcement is bad news for the industry.

‘The past few days have seen venues beginning to reopen with high levels of Covid security, welcoming back enthusiastic, socially distanced audiences,’ he said.

‘Theatres across London will now be forced to postpone or cancel planned performances, causing catastrophic financial difficulties for venues, producers and thousands of industry workers – especially the freelancers who make up 70 per cent of the theatre workforce.

‘We urge Government to recognise the huge strain this has placed on the sector and look at rapid compensation to protect theatres and their staff over Christmas in all areas of the country under Tier Three restrictions.’

The Creative Industries Federation said the Tier Three announcement is ‘devastating news’ for London’s creative sector.

A tweet from the trade body said: ‘Devastating news for London’s £58billion creative sector, particularly for the many who will see a total loss of income due to today’s Tier Three announcement.

‘Greater support including insurance for those planning future performances and events is needed for all parts of UK facing restrictions.’

The New West End Company, which represents businesses in the area, said they could not yet put a figure on the total losses to companies that will be caused by Tier Three, but pointed out that 10 per cent of all Londoners work in the West End.

Jace Tyrrell, chief executive at New West End Company, said: ‘We all recognise that the safety of the public is of paramount importance, and action must be taken to ensure that the infection rate remains low, but these stop start measures are worsening an already catastrophic situation. 

‘However well telegraphed, yesterday’s announcement comes as a hammer blow to the West End’s restaurants and hotels. Advising against travel will heap further pressure on retailers that have invested millions in enhanced safety measures and staff training to support trade.

‘We call on the Government to provide vital financial support to compensate these viable businesses. For all those Londoners locked down into tier three, our message is that the West End remains safe and open to you, so come and support these retail businesses and help protect local jobs.’ 

The Government is currently distributing its £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund to the arts sector.