The first Covid lockdown and a revamp of the Theatre Royal Drury Lane sent Andrew Lloyd Webber’s group tumbling into the red last year.
The West End tycoon’s firm dived to a £7.3m loss in the year to June 2020, according to its latest accounts.
LW Theatres Holdings – a holding company for several of his subsidiaries – made a £239,000 profit the year before.
Staging a comeback: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s latest musical, Cinderella (pictured), was suspended on July 17 after positive Covid tests and resumed again last week
Lord Lloyd-Webber closed his theatres on March 16, 2020 ahead of the first lockdown. Attendance across the year slumped from 2.3m in 2019 to 1.5m – mostly driven by the three and-a-half months of total shutdowns.
Turnover fell to £91m from £127m. Many theatre companies’ attempts to reopen venues were hamstrung by positive Covid tests – bringing productions to a halt.
This happened with Lloyd Webber’s latest musical, Cinderella, which was suspended on July 17 and resumed again last week.
Lloyd Webber’s company warned that revenues would ‘decrease substantially’ in the year to June 2021. It said new lockdowns could cast doubt on its survival – but that otherwise it should be able to keep trading.
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