West End listed theatres should not be treated as ‘museum assets’, warns Lloyd Webber

Published Thursday 8 May 2008 at 12:45 by Lalayn Baluch

Andrew Lloyd Webber has raised concerns about the cost of maintaining the West End’s listed commercial theatres, claiming that one of his own venues has become “extremely unviable” to run.

Speaking at a debate in the House of Lords, Lloyd Webber also warned that carrying out much needed modernisation work on London’s historic venues would yield no economic benefits and said that theatres should not be treated as “museum assets”.

He revealed that to install air-conditioning in the Theatre Royal Drury Lane would cost £15 million, however he added that were it not Grade II-listed the figure would be £2 million.

He commented: “The difficulty for commercial theatre owners is that such expenditure yields no economic benefit in terms of the operational viability of their buildings. Not one more seat becomes available for sale as a result.

“Indeed, improving the audience experience whilst retaining the architectural qualities of the building normally means losing seats, which commercial theatres can ill afford to do.”

Lloyd Webber went on to say that he had serious concerns about the condition of the Palace Theatre, where 629 seats out of 1,416 have restricted view and are not suitable for modern audiences.

He added: “Combined with the capital costs of, say, £3-4 million for a production of a scale to fill the building, the running costs of such a production, let alone the cost of maintaining the building, it is becoming extremely unviable as a theatre without private or public subsidy.”