Andrew Lloyd Webber: UK Government Suggests Musicals Return ‘Without Any Singing’

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Musicals Andrew Lloyd Webber

A government report has advised that musicals return “without any singing” Andrew Lloyd Webber has revealed.

The award winning composer told BBC radio four on Friday that a government official had bizarrely suggested that West End musicals come back, minus the singing, to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.

Lloyd-Webber said he “lives in hope” that government will listen to some of the methods he is proposing around the reopening of theatres.

The Independent reorts: In a week that saw industry figures warn that the UK is on the brink of “cultural catastrophe”, the composer told BBC Radio 4’s Todayprogramme about his plans to keep theatre going.

With the government being widely criticised for failing to support the arts during the crisis, Lloyd Webber explained that he’d had “a couple of phone calls” with Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden about the future of theatre.

“I would love to say that I think that they understood a little more,” Lloyd Webber said.

“I have seen a report, I don’t know what’s going to be in the report on theatre that’s coming out on Monday (22 June), but I sincerely hope it doesn’t contain some of the things that I’ve seen in some of their advice, one of which was a brilliant one for musicals – that you’re not allowed to sing.”

Lloyd Webber shared his plans to “prove” to the world that theatres can stay open.

The composer hopes that a one-off performance of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat will go ahead at the London Palladium in July, explaining: “We’ve just had the final bits of equipment delivered into England, we hope to have them in the theatres next month.

“All one can do is try and be positive. I really believe that we in theatre must be positive and use everything we can to demonstrate that we can open. If having done that we fail, at least we’ve tried.”

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