Andrew Lloyd Webber has warned Britain’s performing arts scene is at the point of no return as he pleaded for a definite reopening date for theatres without social distancing. The theatre impresario told MPs this morning that despite all the mitigations such as compulsory facemasks and increased ventilations theatres were able to deploy, Public Health England was still behaving like a “brick wall”. He said his companies were “bumping up against banking covenants” adding that a full reopening date was needed now to save the sector from devastation. A number of performing arts companies, including the National Theatre, have already introduced mass redundancy programmes. The ending of the furlough scheme in October will lead to thousands of extra redundancies, it has been claimed.

Source: The Times September 08, 2020 11:05 UTC