Cinderella: Andrew Lloyd Webber says new West End musical will open in July without social distancing

Andrew Lloyd Webber has claimed that his forthcoming Cinderella musical will open in July without social distancing.

The Phantom of the Opera composer has resumed rehearsals for his new musical ahead of the planned incremental relaxation of lockdown restrictions by the UK government.

Addressing a group of cast members and technicians, Lloyd Webber said (per The Daily Mail): “We’re absolutely going ahead. It’s time, and we’ll just open and if they arrest us all, well, fine. They’re going to have to get an army to stop us now.

“I’m not going to keep my theatres closed any more. We will open,” he added.

Speaking to the Mail, Lloyd Webber also confirmed that he does not want social distancing in place at his shows: “With a performance like this, we have to be over 80 per cent capacity to even break even,” he said.

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Cinderella, co-created by Lloyd Webber and Killing Eve’s Emerald Fennell, is scheduled to open at London’s Gillian Lynne Theatre on 14 July, with Carrie Hope Fletcher playing the title role.

Lloyd Webber’s other West End musicals Phantom of the Opera and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat are also set to re-open in July.

“If we get a situation where, for serious medical reasons, we can’t carry on, then obviously we can’t,” said the composer. “But this time I am not going to take it lying down.

“I want to see the science behind keeping us closed and all this nonsense about social distancing when people are allowed to eat without masks in marquees in pub gardens. I feel very, very strongly about this.”