Coronavirus: Cameron Mackintosh says theatres ‘unlikely’ to reopen this year

‘The longer it is until we can say social distancing is gone, the longer it’ll be for the theatre to come back’

Theatre producer Cameron Mackintosh has admitted that he thinks it’s unlikely that London’s West End will reopen before next year.

Mackintosh, who is best known for producing shows such as Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera and Hamilton, appeared on Michael Ball’s BBC Radio 2 show on Sunday when he speculated that West End and Broadway theatre could be the last to go back compared to most other countries.

“It takes months and months to get huge shows like the kind we do up and running,” Mackintosh said.

“All major producers are all talking to each other on both sides of the Atlantic… From the moment social distancing has gone, it will take us four to five months to actually get the actors back together, to redo the mothballed theatres, it is a huge, huge thing. Each big musical has about 200 people working on it, in that one building.”

He continued: “We will be back, but we need time to get back. If we don’t hear [about lockdown lifting] in a few weeks, I think the truth is we won’t be able to come back until early next year. The longer it is until we can say social distancing is gone, the longer it’ll be for the theatre to come back.”

London’s West End was forced to close following the government’s banning of large gatherings on 16 March, with Mackintosh’s long-term business partner Andrew Lloyd Webber previously calling ideas that the theatres could reopen in June “ridiculous”.