The Stage

All bets are off on Hippodrome’s future

Published Wednesday 22 October 2008 at 11:30 by Alistair Smith

Live entertainment finally returned to the historic site with modern variety show La Clique, but it’s already under threat as plans to turn the venue into a casino move forward.

The London Hippodrome reopened this month as a live performance venue for the first time since 1982, but on the same day that new resident show La Clique faced the critics, a licence was granted for the historic site to be converted into a casino.

After having initially been unsuccessful in its bid to open a gaming complex in the Frank Matcham-designed variety theatre, operator United Leisure Gaming has now had that decision overturned on appeal at Southwark Crown Court, paving the way for a £15 million redevelopment of the site in time for a proposed 2010 opening.

What does it mean for La Clique, which opened to glowing reviews and might have looked forward to an extended run in other circumstances?

Producer Mark Rubinstein believes that, in the short term, the effect will be minimal. There is a chance that the appeal result will be challenged and, even if not, money will have to be secured by ULG for its ambitious redevelopment project. Longer-term, though, La Clique might have problems.

He added: “We will probably be happy to stay here for more than a year and hopefully longer still, but clearly the sword of Damocles is hanging over us. There is a notice period of several months - we’re booking till February 1 and I hope we extend and that won’t be an issue. But long term, that rather wonderful building looks as though it will be lost as a performing venue.”

Nick Wright, the current operator of the Hippodrome who is leasing the space to La Clique, is even more downbeat, labelling the granting of a casino licence as a “catastrophe”.

“We hoped that La Clique would have been the start of something long term,” he told The Stage. “We’d be very happy for them to stay here. We’ve had this casino business hanging over our heads since the whole thing started. We were hoping that on appeal it would have been rejected again. From our point of view, this is a catastrophe - for both our hopes for the Hippodrome and for myself and my wife personally, who run the venue together.

“If the casino goes ahead - and it will unless there’s a public inquiry or some kind of public outcry - it’s the end of the hopes of live performance at the Hippodrome. What is so distressing for us is that having got to the point where we’ve got just what we want in the venue, what we think the West End wanted, then this comes along and they shut you.”

According to ULG, however, the casino will not mean an end for live performance at the Hippodrome. Indeed, the company insists that a cabaret space is intrinsic to their plans.

A spokeswoman for the venue said that former Donmar Warehouse executive producer Nick Frankfort has been contracted to produce two shows a night, six days a week, in a 150-seat theatre on site. The redeveloped building will also feature Gordon Ramsay’s latest restaurant venture on its first floor.

She added: “The aim is to make the Hippodrome a premiere cabaret venue in London, attracting top acts and artists, including many well known names, but also emerging American and European artists.”

She also stressed that while work is planned to start early in 2009, it is not envisaged that the current booking period of La Clique (until February 1, 2009) will be affected.

Simon Thomas, chairman of Hippodrome Casino Ltd - the company set up by ULG to run the site - said: “Whilst London has many casinos, [they are] mostly small, but almost all are gaming-led, not catering for people who want more. The Hippodrome will offer a modern multi-purpose leisure casino where people can go for a whole night’s entertainment. The visitors will be able to enjoy fabulous live cabaret, a state of the art casino, a gastronomic restaurant in spacious, luxurious surroundings and much more, something not available in any casino in London.”

Exactly what the venue will offer in terms of live shows, though, will not be clear until a full programme of acts is revealed closer to opening.

Wright, however, has doubts as to what sort of entertainment the venture will, in fact, provide and pointed to the minimal amount offered by other London casinos.

“Live entertainment is not their primary business,” he added. “It’s not making money for them.”