The Stage

Exclusive: Fresh air for Theatre Royal, Drury Lane

Published Wednesday 25 February 2009 at 12:50 by Alistair Smith

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group is seeking planning permission to install air conditioning into the Theatre Royal Drury Lane as part of a scheme that is expected to cost in excess of £1 million.

Lloyd Webber has previously spoken - most notably at a debate in the House of Lords last year - about how it would cost £15 million to install air conditioning into Drury Lane, which RUG operates, because of its status as a Grade I-listed building.

But it now appears that a more commercially viable way has been found to undertake the improvements to the historic venue.

While the works are expected to cost in excess of £1 million, they will be nowhere near as high as originally estimated.

A RUG spokesman told The Stage they could not give a precise estimate on the cost of the scheme, but added: “We have applied for listed building consent and if we are granted permission then there will be a substantial cost involved.”

Lee/Fitzgerald Architects has been taken on to deliver the improvements and an application for planning permission was submitted to Westminster council earlier this month.

Few of the West End’s historic theatre buildings currently boast air conditioning, but Mark Price, planning and architecture adviser for the Theatres Trust, said the organisation was “keen to support this kind of work, which makes a more comfortable experience for theatregoers” but only if the proposals were sensitive to the fabric of the listed building.