London Palladium opens at 30% capacityLondon Palladium opens at 30% capacity

The singer Beverley Knight gave a blazing performance at the London Palladium on Thursday but the spotlight was firmly offstage on the safety measures used in the auditorium to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.The singer Beverley Knight gave a blazing performance at the London Palladium on Thursday but the spotlight was firmly offstage on the safety measures used in the auditorium to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s theatre opened at 30% capacity, to an audience including industry figures and the public, to demonstrate stringent hygiene methods he hopes can be used to enable UK theatres to open without social distancing.

Visitors had staggered arrival times, wore mandatory face masks and, while queueing, used mobile phones to fill out NHS test and trace forms and preorder drinks for in-seat service. After contactless security checks and ticket scans, temperatures were taken with thermal imaging cameras.

The Palladium has been fitted with door handles that use silver ions to kill 99.9% of bacteria and viruses. One-way systems were in place throughout the venue, which had been cleaned with antiviral chemical fogging.

The star attraction was expected to be expensive misting machines that sprinkle audiences with antiviral spray before entering. They were a key measure that helped a production of Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera reopen in South Korea earlier this year without social distancing.

A spokesperson said they had brought the technology to the UK but “in consultation with the Health and Safety Executive, it has been agreed that it is unnecessary to use misters. This is great news as it removes one of the mitigation measures that theatres would need to deploy.”

In the stalls, row A had been removed to allow a five-metre distance between the performers and the nearest audience members. Every other row of seating was entirely marked off, as were various other seats to allow for one-metre distancing between each group or “bubble” watching the show.

The mood was jubilant. One visitor, Kirsty, who works in marketing, said she used to go to the theatre once a week and was “pleased that this is being tested and that we’re moving forward”. Alex, 24, a recent graduate from musical theatre school, was attending with her mother. They said it was a critical time for the industry Alex is entering and they were glad to be taking part in the experiment.

The joyous spirit was matched onstage by Knight, dressed in sparkly jumpsuit and red high heels. The lyrics to her opening number, Made it Back, chimed with the return to performance more than four months after UK lockdown began. (“I made it back,” she sang triumphantly, “from a place called nowhere.”.) Backed by a six-piece band, Knight said: “This is the first time we’ve been on stage for months and it feels so good!”

The Palladium – where Knight starred in Lloyd Webber’s Cats in 2015 – has the biggest capacity of the seven London venues in the composer’s LW Theatres group. On Thursday it held approximately 640 people rather than its usual 2,297 capacity.

“I have to say this is a rather sad sight,” admitted Lloyd Webber, addressing the sparse audience from the stage. Socially distanced theatre is “a misery for performers” as well as feeling flat and in any case financially unviable, he said. Assuring the audience that the theatre’s air-filtering system meant “we are safer in here than you would be in Oxford Street”, he said the pilot was not about reopening the Palladium but getting the whole industry back in full swing.

Earlier this week, a damning report by the digital, culture, media and sport select committee said the government’s response to the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the arts had been too slow and vague and jeopardised its future. Lloyd Webber said he recently encountered “one of the country’s greatest viola players” and was shocked to discover she is currently “stacking groceries”.

He said: “Really? This is where we are now. We have to do something about it.” He believes the culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, is “really trying to do his best for all of us” but made a deadpan comment that it “would be quite helpful” if there was further detail on the £1.57bn arts rescue package, announced almost three weeks ago.

It was crucial that theatres had at least a target date for reopening without social distancing, he added, as it would take four to six weeks to prepare for the reopening of an established West End show and much longer for a new production.

Theatres around the country, he warned, need to know this summer if they can open at Christmas. Not being able to stage a lucrative pantomime would deepen the crisis for the UK’s regional theatres he added.

Socially distanced theatregoing means quieter bars or shorter toilet queues, but the numbers don’t add up. Musicals, said Lloyd Webber, need about 70% capacity just to break even, let alone repay the investment. “We absolutely have to have our theatres full again,” he declared, to thunderous rounds of applause.

Reference: The Guardian: Chris Wiegand 17 hrs ago:23rd July 2020