The stage is set: What to expect at England’s theatres, cinemas and clubs from tomorrow

Published

4 years ago

July 16, 2021

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For performance venues around England, it is the week they have been waiting for – being able to legally fill their auditoriums after 17 months.

But despite all legal limits being lifted, venues and theatres, while excited, are tentatively making changes to their policies – with some opting to keep some restrictions.

Ahead of Monday, Sky News has spoken to a number of people from the industry that have expressed their relief, anxieties and hopes for the next step in its social and financial recovery.

Nica Burns, co-owner of Nimax Theatres in London

Six of London’s best known theatres, such as the Lyric and the Palace, are co-owned by Nica Burns – making her a major player in the city’s entertainment district.

Speaking to Sky News from her office on Zoom, she said that while restrictions across the UK are lifting, her theatres would not be immediately increasing capacity and relaxing mask rules.

A number of her venues opened in May at the initial lifting of restrictions, meaning she has already had a head start.

“A lot of tickets that were already sold, had been sold at 50%,” she said. “The advance ticket sales go back a couple of months when what they were promised were the capacity and robust mitigation measures – and we’re giving them 50%, and 60% and 70% capacity will go up to potentially go to 75%.”

Explaining her more cautious approach, she said: “I think it’s that I just thought that was the right thing to do.”

Ms Burns added that some of her theatres are old and narrow, meaning, for now, reduced capacity will help alleviate pinch points and keep people safe.

The approach taken by Ms Burns is different to that of counterpart Andrew Lloyd Webber, who is planning to pack his auditoriums as soon as possible and is hosting what he calls a “Freedom Day” performance of Cinderella – but his theatres will still require patrons to wear masks and present recent proof of a negative test, according to his website.

Delfont Mackintosh Theatres, home to shows such as Mary Poppins and Hamilton, also says online that it will be asking for proof of vaccination status and encouraging mask use from 21 July when auditoriums fully reopen.

Shows in the West End are booking now.

Chris Stafford, chief executive of Curve Theatre in Leicester

The Curve Theatre in Leicester will open on Tuesday, without any social distancing, for the first time since the pandemic when the national tour of Magic Goes Wrong opens.

“We’re really pleased to say audiences feel confident returning to theatre,” Mr Stafford told Sky News over Zoom from the venue’s auditorium.

“We are seeing audiences booking tickets to come back and have a shared experience together.

“But also, one of the really important things for us is that we offer audiences as they build their confidence security, that the theatre coming back and returning to live events will be as safe as it possibly can be.”

Mr Stafford explained that while his venue received culture recovery grants from the government, and that his venue is partially subsidised by the Arts Council, audiences need to return to “pre-COVID levels”.

He added that 330,000 people a year were visiting his venue before the pandemic – making it a key part of Leicester’s economy

“It’s essential that they survive this pandemic,” he concluded.

Masks will still be required at the venue, Mr Stafford confirmed, while social distancing will be dropped.

Leicester Curve reopens on Tuesday 20 July, with a touring production of Magic Goes Wrong.

Loki Mackay, manager of The Comedy Store in London

“There are so many things to do still,” Loki Mackay told Sky News ahead of The Comedy Store reopening, adding: “The short notice made it difficult to plan ahead.”

The iconic central London venue will open its doors again next week and invite punters back in to what is one of the world’s most famous comedy clubs.

Upon reopening, the club will go pretty much back to standard trading – masks will be optional, no social distancing will be in place, and visitors won’t need to prove their health status.

Mr Mackay told Sky News he was “doing okay with tickets” but added there will be no full houses for a while.

He says comics are “raring to go” after 18 months of podcasting and blogging to make ends meet.

On support over the last year, he said that it was “b***** all” and that everything they have heard has been through the newspapers. And while he has had some some Arts Council funding, it all went on rent.

The venue reopens later this week, with acts such as Marcus Brigstocke, Kiri Pritchard-Maclean and Tom Stade.

Sir Ian McKellen, theatre legend appearing in Hamlet at the Theatre Royal Windsor

Sir Ian McKellen, 82, who is starring in Hamlet at the Theatre Royal in Windsor, told Sky News he believes audiences will be nervous to come back into venues.

He said: “I am a little bit nervous about that. I daresay the audience will be nervous too.

“Do audiences really want to come back and sit next to people with a cough, who’s a bit fidgety?”

He said he didn’t know if “our patterns of behaviour” will have changed, or “will swing back to normality”.

Sir Ian added: “I suspect not for a little bit.”

Tickets for Hamlet, which has just extended its Windsor run, are available now.

Mazz Murray and Ben Forster, West End performers and appearing at the Royal Albert Hall

The Royal Albert Hall will be back with a bang this week, as it hosts its delayed 150th birthday celebrations.

On Monday it will host its very own 150th birthday party, then on Wednesday, stars of the West End will take to the stage in aid of charity Acting For Others.

Ben Forster, who has performed iconic roles such as Jesus, in Jesus Chris Superstar, and the Phantom, in Phantom Of The Opera, will be one of the stars on stage that night.

“The last 18 months has been terrible. We would never have expected coming into the pandemic that it would have lasted for so long,” he told Sky News from the Royal Albert Hall.

“I just want people to feel the love again, and it heightens people’s spirits. That’s why people go and watch musicals, because it lifts them and takes them on a journey for for a moment. And that’s what this show is going to do.”

Mazz Murray, who will be taking on the role of Donna in Mamma Mia in August, will also perform, and says it’s going to be a “real mix of emotions”.

Murray added that while performers have had little support over the past year-and-a-half, “there’s been no precedent and that unfortunately their professions were spent in dark, busy unventilated spaces”.

“So if anyone’s going to have to take the rough end, then I’m prepared to take it,” she said. “It was it was very, very difficult. I’m hoping that we’re at the end of it, but I love what I do – so on this occasion, we all got the short straw.”

Like other venues, the Royal Albert Hall is asking people to wear masks and take tests – but won’t enforce it as the hall feels it is unfair when the government permits taking masks off.

Tickets to The Best Of The West End on Wednesday 21 July are available now.

Jenna Boyd, West End performer in Come From Away

Jenna Boyd will be part of the cast of the Olivier-winning Come From Away when it reopens later this week.

It’s based on the true events in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 when planes were rerouted to Gander in Newfoundland, Canada.

Speaking to Sky News during a rehearsal break at the Phoenix Theatre, Ms Boyd said the last 18 months had been “hideous”.

“This industry has felt abandoned,” she said. “There are a number of people who have been fortunate enough to be able to receive some sort of financial aid – but the huge majority of people have been literally hung out to dry.”

Speaking about getting back on stage, she said: “I think it’s going to be fairly overwhelming for all of us. There’s going to be a few tears as we walk out and there’s going to be a few tears as we finish, and it’s all because the love that the audience gives from their appreciation of what goes on on that stage and the story that’s been told is so, so mammoth.”

Come From Away opens on 22 July at London’s Phoenix Theatre.

Steve Cowley, local theatre performer, appearing in one man show Battle Cry

Steve Cowley from Chesterfield in Derbyshire says he is “really excited” to get back on to stages over the next few weeks. He’ll perform in one man show Battle Cry in Birmingham and Buxton – the first time he’ll have appeared on stage in the flesh since early 2020.

The show is about a veteran suffering with PTSD, which opened to acclaim when it debuted a couple of years ago.

Mr Cowley teaches acting as well as treading the boards for a living, but last year left him at a loss when his only work suddenly dried up.

“Even my agent had to get another job,” he told Sky News from his local theatre, adding: “It’s scary to see the industry on its knees.

“We were probably overlooked, and I thought I might quit at one point.

“I used the government’s job retraining tool, and it gave me things like market trader, funeral director and beauty consultant – none of them were me.”

You can watch Battle Cry at the Buxton Fringe on 23 and 24 July.

Cinemas and gig venues

It’s a busy time for large parts of the industry right now, understandably, so many of the people Sky News contacted were unable to chat.

However, cinemas such as Vue and Curzon said in statements that masks would still be encouraged at their screenings with safety protocols – like enhanced cleaning – largely unchanged. The UK’s biggest chain, Cineworld, says masks remain mandatory in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as per the government guidance there, but won’t be in England anymore (they will be encouraged for staff, though).

At gig venues – the Academy Group, which looks after the local O2 venues across the country, says while masks are no longer mandatory, their use is encouraged. Its venues will also be asking for proof of a negative test or that both vaccinations have been had.

It is important to note that each venue, company and operator will have different rules, and it is advised to check with them before making any decisions to book events.

Entertainment

Christina Aguilera on bringing Burlesque to the stage and her rise to fame

Published

41 mins ago

July 22, 2025

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Christina Aguilera on bringing Burlesque to the stage and her rise to fame

Christina Aguilera has told Sky News it is “magical” to see her hit film Burlesque being brought to London’s West End – and also opened up about her rise to fame in the late 1990s.

The US star topped the US and UK charts with Genie In A Bottle in 1999, before finding an even bigger audience with her acclaimed album Stripped and hits including Dirrty, Beautiful and Fighter in the early 2000s.

In 2010, she starred in Burlesque alongside Cher, Julianne Hough and Stanley Tucci, and now, 15 years later, is a producer for the stage version of the show alongside the film’s original director and writer, Steven Antin.

Speaking ahead of the show’s gala night, Aguilera told Sky News presenter Leah Boleto she has enjoyed taking a backseat and seeing the fresh interpretation of her character – a small-town girl turned into a star.

“It’s just so beautiful to see the talent that’s on this stage and to absorb it and appreciate the fresh takes on things,” she said. “I love actually taking a step back and a backseat… it’s beautiful to see the reinvention.

“When you’re in it, you focus on the choreography, all these different elements, that being able to take a backseat and being more of a visionary of the bigger picture, it’s really a special thing.”

Aguilera said she had been “blown away” by Jess Folley, who plays her character Ali in the show, and has fully embraced the “powerhouse vocals” as well as the vulnerability needed for the role.

“She just is doing such a magnificent, magnificent job and likewise inspires me as well,” she said.

Aguilera said she would love to see her film co-star Cher popping by to see the show in London.

“She’s always welcome to grace us with her incredible, iconic presence. And I’m just so grateful that I had the time to be with her. I mean, looking back, it’s just – did that even happen?”

Aguilera arrived on the scene at the same time as Britney Spears, at a time when young female pop stars were celebrated, sexualised and scrutinised.

After the success of her debut album, she took a different direction with Stripped – embracing her sexuality and famously taking on a less girlish image with chaps, a nose stud and black streaks in her hair for the Dirrty video, and opening up about her life and emotions through songs such as Fighter and Beautiful.

She also took on the patriarchy in Can’t Hold Us Down, a duet with Lil’ Kim, and performed on the hit cover of Lady Marmalade alongside Lil’ Kim, Maya and Pink for Moulin Rouge!

“I always want to stay true to authenticity,” she said. “And for me, with that first album it was wonderful to get my foot in the door…

“It’s important to me that I stepped out on my own and reflected all sides of me as a woman, embracing my sexuality and sensuality, and my body… Dirrty, I just loved those chaps and everything about that was just so fun and raw.”

So would she do it all again, then? Or would she prefer to be an artist starting out now?

“The ’90s, it was a pretty special time in music. And it was a time when you could still like go to Virgin records or like wherever and look at the CDs, look at the packaging. And, you know, sometimes the authenticity is missed.”

However, the good thing about social media now is that it has given stars the means to tell their own stories, she adds. “You have an opportunity now to really present yourself in ways that it’s not just about the music, to become more the narrator in real time… this is what it is like, be your own voice rather than reading about yourself in an article.”

But still, she wouldn’t swap. “It has to stay where it was.”

Burlesque The Musical is showing at The Savoy theatre in London now

Entertainment

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who played The Cosby Show’s Theo, drowns in Costa Rica

Published

18 hours ago

July 21, 2025

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Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who played The Cosby Show's Theo, drowns in Costa Rica

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who played The Cosby Show character Theo, has drowned in Costa Rica, according to authorities.

The country’s Judicial Investigation Department said the 54-year-old actor drowned on Sunday afternoon off a beach on the Caribbean coast.

It is understood he was swimming at Playa Grande de Cocles in Limon province when he was pulled underwater by a current.

“He was rescued by people on the beach,” according to the department’s early report, but emergency workers from Costa Rica’s Red Cross found him without any signs of life and he was taken to the morgue.

Warner was on holiday with his family at the time, according to US celebrity news site People.

The Cosby Show aired from 1984 to 1992 on NBC in the US and is regarded as a groundbreaking show for its portrayal of a successful black middle-class family. It was also shown on Channel 4 in the UK at around the same time.

Its star, Bill Cosby, played a doctor named Cliff Huxtable, with Warner in the role of Theo, his only son.

The NBC sitcom was the most popular show in America for much of its run between 1984 and 1992.

Warner played the role for eight seasons in all 197 episodes, winning an Emmy nomination for supporting actor in a comedy in 1986.

For many, the lasting image of the character, and of Warner, is of him wearing a badly-botched mock designer shirt sewn by his sister Denise, played by Lisa Bonet.

Warner ‘proud’ of show despite Cosby claims

The legacy of The Cosby Show has been tarnished after Cosby was jailed in 2018 following a conviction for sexual assault.

He was released in 2021 after his conviction was overturned.

Dozens of women had accused Cosby of sexual assault or rape before the trial.

Following his release from prison, Cosby was found liable for sexually assaulting a woman at the Playboy Mansion in 1975 when she was a teenager.

Warner told the Associated Press in 2015: “My biggest concern is when it comes to images of people of colour on television and film… We’ve always had ‘The Cosby Show’ to hold up against that. And the fact that we no longer have that, that’s the thing that saddens me the most because in a few generations the Huxtables will have been just a fairy tale.”

In 2023, Warner told People in an interview: “I know I can speak for all the cast when I say The Cosby Show is something that we are all still very proud of.”

Read more entertainment news:
Danny Dyer on Mr Big Stuff
Scuffle breaks out on Royal Opera House on stage

Warner wins a Grammy

Following his career on The Cosby Show, Warner later appeared on the sitcom Malcolm & Eddie, co-starring with comedian Eddie Griffin in the series on the UPN network from 1996 to 2000.

In the 2010s he starred opposite Tracee Ellis Ross as a family-blending couple for two seasons on the BET sitcom Read Between The Lines.

He also had a role as OJ Simpson’s friend Al Cowlings in American Crime Story and was a series regular on Fox’s The Resident.

Films he has appeared in include the 2008 rom-com Fool’s Gold with Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson.

A poet and a musician, Warner won a Grammy for best traditional R&B performance for the song Jesus Children with Robert Glasper and Lalah Hathaway. He was also nominated for best spoken word poetry album for Hiding In Plain View.

Warner was married with a daughter, but chose to not publicly disclose their names.

Entertainment

Danny Dyer on Mr Bigstuff, Oasis, and his surprising screensaver

Published

1 day ago

July 21, 2025

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Danny Dyer on Mr Bigstuff, Oasis, and his surprising screensaver

From Human Traffic and The Business to his critically acclaimed performance in the raunchy TV adaptation of Rivals, via a stint as Queen Vic landlord Mick Carter in EastEnders, Danny Dyer has been on our screens for more than 30 years.

But it was his performance in the TV comedy Mr Bigstuff that earned him his first BAFTA win – and one of the ceremony’s biggest cheers from the audience – earlier this year.

Now, he returns to his prize-winning role for the second series of the Sky show, which tells the story of two estranged brothers – Glen (played by creator Ryan Sampson), an anxious carpet salesman living his ideal suburban life with fiancee Kirsty (Harriet Webb), and Lee (played by Dyer), an alpha male who struts back into his brother’s life carrying their father’s ashes.

Several EastEnders alumni feature, including Nitin Ganatra, Victoria Alcock and Linda Henry, who played Dyer’s on-screen mother, Shirley Carter.

Reflecting on some of Albert Square’s most famous characters and who would work well in Mr Bigstuff, Dyer says he would have loved to see the late June Brown, who played the chain-smoking hypochondriac Dot Cotton for 35 years, taking on a role.

“Absolute legend,” he says.

Sampson suggests the late Dame Barbara Windsor, who played the formidable Queen Vic landlady Peggy Mitchell, but has a clear pitch if season three gets the green light.

“It could still be a possible, it would be amazing,” he says. “You want your Pat Butcher, don’t you? You want Pam St Clement. Why hasn’t she played a mafia boss yet? She’d be amazing. She’d be incredible at it.”

Dyer reveals his screensaver

After his long career on screen, Dyer is now enjoying playing a variety of roles alongside the Cockney geezer types that became his bread and butter in the early noughties.

His nuanced performance as awkward entrepreneur Freddie Jones in Rivals brought him praise from fans and critics alike, and Mr Bigstuff his BAFTA.

But Dyer always had range. After small TV roles in shows including The Bill and A Touch Of Frost, he grew close to the Nobel Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter in 2000 after auditioning and earning the role of a waiter in his play Celebration at the Almeida Theatre in Islington, north London.

“I’ve got Harold Pinter as a screensaver on my phone,” he says. “I always feel that he’s sort of looking down on me or close to me, so I like to just feel that he’s around me.”

Dyer continued the role in Celebration both in the West End and on Broadway, with Pinter becoming his mentor in the process.

In 2020, he presented a Sky Arts documentary, Danny Dyer On Pinter, which explored the life, career and impact of the playwright and screenwriter, who died in 2008.

He also has plans to develop a stage tribute to his friend, currently titled When Harry Met Danny.

Reflecting on his entry into the industry, he says theatre was quite inaccessible at the time, but Pinter opened it up to him.

“I think it’s even worse now, which I feel is a sad state of affairs,” he says. “I don’t know why that is. Everything’s become quite elite. All the elite f****** looking after themselves, so that needs to change.”

‘Love in the air’ at Oasis gig

But Pinter isn’t his only big influence – Dyer was one of the thousands of fans to see Oasis make their return to the stage in Cardiff earlier this month.

“It was really emotional seeing them come out,” he says. “There was a lot of love in the air, a lot of good energy.

“You know, there’s a lot of f****** shit going on. I think people, of my age as well, just want to jump around and sing them songs at the top of their lungs. So I’m still recovering, I’m not going to lie.”

Mr Bigstuff returns for season two on Thursday, on Sky Max and NOW