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The Palace Theatre and Lord Lloyd-Webber |
Musicals legend is changing his tune
Architecture fan Lord Lloyd-Webber says modernising theatres is the ‘way forward’
LORD Lloyd-Webber has urged the government to step in and help save the West End’s crumbling theatres.
Making a speech in the House of Lords – as rare an occurrence as a sighting of the phantom in the Royal Opera House – Lord Lloyd-Webber called on the government to rally to the side of theatre owners, who he claims are shackled by archaic planning laws which prevents them upgrading theatres to a standard fit for the 21st century without falling into enormous debt.
He called on English Heritage and the government to review the listed building status of theatres, which he says costs owners millions of pounds when they come to refurbish them.
As an example, he said that by being Grade I-listed, installing air conditioning in the Theatre Royal Drury Lane added an extra £14 million to the cost.
Following his remarks last week, a number of solutions were floated including a £250 million government restoration fund and a comprehensive review of planning legislation.
The speech marks a seachange in Lord Lloyd-Webber’s attitude, from being a staunch defender of Victorian architecture, so much so that in his student days he lay down in the street to prevent the demolition of St James’s Theatre, to advocating a more laissez-faire policy of modernisation and change.
Lord Lloyd-Webber, who has amassed an estimated fortune of £750 million from his string of hit musicals and the seven theatres his company owns, said his views “sit extremely uneasy” with himself. But he said the debate was necessary to stimulate a “way forward” for Theatreland in light of the looming Olympics.
He said: “Ownership of a listed building imposes on the owner a kind of involuntary trusteeship of what is deemed to be part of our national heritage, but buildings that are in living contemporary use surely cannot be treated as if they are museums.
“As someone who has spent more than 40 years professionally involved with musical theatre, I felt that it was time to put my love of theatre architecture to one side and at least draw the attention of the government to some of the issues that confront theatre owners as we head for the second decade of the 21st century.
“When the stock of theatre buildings was constructed times were very different from ours in a whole series of ways. People were physically smaller, there was less demand for bars and lavatories, it was assumed that the wealthy expected to be segregated from the hoi polloi, no one gave any thought to access for disabled people, and for a significant number of patrons, being seen was far more important than being able to see what was on stage. The modern audience, performer and artistic teams today all expect modern facilities.”
Since appearing in Saturday night television hits How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? and I’d Do Anything, the theatre doyen has grown in pop- ularity with the public.
He said the only theatre that had managed to combine new and old to meet the demands of a modern audience was the Royal Court in Sloane Square, but he made the point that this was only achieved with a sizeable chunk of public money. |
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