𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐎𝐟 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐝

Despite the success of the vaccine rollout, the mood music has suddenly changed, and official caution is once again in the ascendant. Lloyd Webber questions the justification for this. “I’ve seen the science from the tests, don’t ask me how,” he says. “They all prove that theatres are completely safe, the virus is not carried there. If the Government ignore their own science, we have the mother of all legal cases against them. If Cinderella couldn’t open, we’d go, ‘Look, either we go to law about it or you’ll have to compensate us’.”

The stakes could hardly be higher. It costs Lloyd Webber £1 million a month just to keep his six theatres dark. He has remortgaged his London home – a townhouse in Belgravia, which he shares with his third wife, Madeleine, mother to three of his five children – and has reportedly borrowed more than £50 million, although he refuses to confirm that figure today. According to The Sunday Times Rich List his personal net worth has tumbled by £275 million in a year, to £525 million.

More challenges lie ahead. He has two other shows waiting in the wings: a new production of The Phantom of the Opera, the West End’s second longest-running show after Les Misérables, is set to take over the refurbished Her Majesty’s Theatre from July 27; while a revival of Joseph is also due at the Palladium that month. Then, as owner of the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London’s oldest playhouse, he’s also poised to unveil a £60 million renovation in time for the UK stage premiere of Disney’s Frozen in August. All of which leaves Lloyd Webber in a position he describes as “acute financial stress. I don’t think [the Government] understand it. We’ve never taken any profit out of the theatres. I’ve always tried to put back in, which is why we’re in a muddle now because we never had a big reserve.”

When we meet, early in the morning, at his (again, newly refurbished) Gillian Lynne Theatre, Lloyd Webber’s usual, endearing air of eccentric distraction has given way to twitchiness. Having shown tireless leadership throughout the crisis, he seems a bit on edge. News has come in of a government adviser counselling delay to the roadmap and his office has just been contacted by Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden. “They’ve said can we have a call at 5pm? No! I’m doing the day job now. I will talk to him later.” The implication? Theatre is a serious business, not to be treated lightly.

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