The stage is set: What to expect at England’s theatres, cinemas and clubs from tomorrow
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.
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‘Important’ for UK that theatres reopen – McKellen
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.
The Palace Theatre, co-owned by Ms Burns, has been dark since last March
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.
Magic Goes Wrong will reopen Leicester’s Curve. Pic: Robert Day
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.
A view of The Comedy Store sign in central London
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.
Sir Ian McKellen, who stars in Hamlet at the Theatre Royal in Windsor, which runs until 25 September 2021
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.
Staff install and switch on a new sign at the Royal Albert Hall in London, as it prepares to celebrate its 150th anniversary
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.
Come From Away tells the true story of the flights that were diverted to Newfoundland after 9/11
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.
Buxton will host an arts festival later this week
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.
The Who’s Zak Starkey is back in the band after reports earlier this week he’d been sacked.
A statement on the band’s official social media pages written by guitarist Pete Townshend said “communication issues” had been “aired happily” and Starkey was “not being asked to step down”.
Townshend also acknowledged the situation “blew up very quickly and got too much oxygen”, concluding “it’s over” and acknowledged his part in “the confusion”.
Titled, “News Flash! Who Backs Zak,” the long statement said Starkey was “not being asked to step down from The Who”.
It said: “There have been some communication issues, personal and private on all sides, that needed to be dealt with, and these have been aired happily.
“Roger and I would like Zak to tighten up his latest evolved drumming style to accommodate our non-orchestral line-up and he has readily agreed.”
Roger Daltrey and Starkey on stage at the Royal Albert Hall in March. Pic: PA
The rock and roll row followed the band’s Teenage Cancer Trust shows in March.
Townsend’s statement went on: “I take responsibility for some of the confusion. Our TCT shows at the Royal Albert Hall were a little tricky for me.
“I thought that four and a half weeks would be enough time to recover completely from having a complete knee replacement. (Why did I ever think I could land on my knees?) Wrong!
“Maybe we didn’t put enough time into sound checks, giving us problems on stage. The sound in the centre of the stage is always the most difficult to work with.”
So what went wrong?
Going on to highlight the specifics of what went wrong, Townshend added: “Roger did nothing wrong but fiddle with his in-ear monitors. Zak made a few mistakes and he has apologised. Albeit with a rubber duck drummer.
“We are a family, this blew up very quickly and got too much oxygen. It’s over. We move forward now with optimism and fire in our bellies.”
A review of one gig, published in the Metro, suggested frontman Roger Daltrey – who launched the annual gig series for the charity in 2000 – had been “frustrated” with the drumming during some tracks.
Townsend also said he owed drummer Scott Devours “an apology” for not “crushing the rumour” that he would be replacing Starkey in the Who line-up.
Devours is supporting Roger Daltrey on his solo tour, which kicked off this weekend.
Read more from Sky News:
The Last Of Us: The science behind the real ‘zombie’ fungus
Eurovision star and face of Bisto gravy dies
Starkey – who is the son of The Beatles drummer Ringo Starr – reposted Townshend’s statement, with the message: “V grateful to be a part of the Who family Thanks Roger and Pete xx”.
The 59-year-old drummer previously said he was “surprised and saddened” by news of his sacking.
He’s been with The Who for nearly three decades, after joining in 1996 for their Quadrophenia tour.
Starkey also drums for supergroup Mantra Of The Cosmos – along with fellow musicians Shaun Ryder and Bez from Happy Mondays, and Andy Bell of Ride and Oasis – and has previously played with Oasis, Lightning Seeds and Johnny Marr.
Entertainment
The Last Of Us: The science behind the real ‘zombie’ fungus – and is it an actual threat?
Could the next public health crisis be caused by a fungus?
Such an emergency is the basis of the post-apocalypse TV drama series The Last Of Us, which has returned for its second season on Sky Atlantic.
Starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, the show takes place in a world ravaged by a pandemic caused by a mass cordyceps outbreak, which transforms people into bloodthirsty abominations.
The prospect was outlined in its debut episode in 2023, when a prescient epidemiologist played by John Hannah warned how a warming climate could force some fungus to evolve into something more dangerous.
“Candida, ergot, cordyceps, aspergillus: any one of them could be capable of burrowing into our brains and taking control of not millions of us, but billions,” he said.
An extreme outcome with plenty of artistic licence taken – but is it entirely without scientific basis?
A mass cordyceps outbreak transforms people into blood-thirsty abominations in the show. Pic: HBO/Warner Media/Liane Hentscher
Do fungi really threaten humans?
“There are numerous fungi infecting the brains of human beings all over the planet, often with devastating outcomes,” says Professor Elaine Bignell, a world leader in the field of human fungal pathogen research.
“A number of fungal species are quite prominent pathogens and kill hundreds of thousands of people every year – it’s just the public is not well aware of this.”
A few of the dangers identified by The Last Of Us’s fictional epidemiologist previously featured on a list of health-threatening fungi by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Among the fungi deemed most high-risk was Aspergillus fumigatus, a common mould widespread in the environment in homes and outdoors, which can cause “chronic and acute lung disease” and can be deadly.
Aspergillus is a type of mould, common in homes
Candida species, which are behind complaints like thrush and skin rashes, are also one of the leading causes of bloodstream infection in intensive care patients.
Cryptococcosis neoformans – which infects the lungs and brain, causing pneumonia and meningitis in immunosuppressed patients – also made the list. It kills more than 100,000 people a year in sub-Saharan Africa.
“One thing killer fungi do have in common is they are able to grow at human body temperature, and that’s unusual for a fungus,” Prof Bignell tells Sky News.
“Most fungi in the environment are suited to growing in more temperate conditions, and it places quite a strain on any microorganism to counteract an immune response in a human body and cope with the high temperature.”
The main symptom of ringworm is a rash, which can spread. Pic: NHS
What about cordyceps?
Cordyceps was not on the threat list – but it is absolutely real.
The parasitic fungus infects and takes over the mind of insects, as it does to humans in The Last Of Us.
“There are about 600 species,” says Dr Mark Ramsdale, a professor in molecular microbiology at the MRC Centre for Medical Mycology.
“They are predominantly insect pathogens. It’s their insect host that they manipulate and change their behaviour. And so from that perspective, there is some basis there.”
A fly infected by a cordyceps fungus. Pic: Alejandro Santillana/University of Texas
Found in tropical forests, the fungus penetrates an insect’s body via spores, which are released to allow a fungus to reproduce and defend itself.
The fungus then guides its host into more humid locations to help it grow, before feeding on the remains and launching new spores from its corpse.
When it comes to humans, cordyceps is used in treatments and therapeutics – notably Chinese herbal medicines.
“There’s a long history of relationships between humans and this particular group,” Dr Ramsdale tells Sky News.
“There’s no evidence they’re causing disease in humans. However, in terms of their insect relationships, they do manipulate their hosts – and several fungi have evolved this capacity over time.”
Cordyceps growing from a caterpillar. Pic: L Shyamal/Wikimedia Commons
Ophiocordyceps caloceroides infecting a tarantula. Pic: Ian Suzuki/Wikimedia Commons
Could climate change the picture?
Another facet of The Last Of Us shared by the WHO’s landmark report was the potential influence of climate change on the nature of fungi and our relationship with it.
Prof Bignell says the impact of global heating will be “profound” for all microbes on our planet.
There are some 150,000 identified species of fungi in the world, well short of the millions estimated to exist, and few have what it takes to cope with the 37C temperature and other stresses imposed by the human body.
But some do, and more could – either those yet to be discovered or which adapt to survive on a warming planet.
Read more:
Fungus unknown to science discovered in Scotland
“It changes the selection pressures that are put on those huge, diverse life forms,” says Dr Ramsdale.
“Perhaps some could potentially make that transition from one lifestyle to another and become pathogenic in a context we haven’t thought of before.”
So the show’s pandemic may be far from factual, but it’s not completely without merit.
“What really is the most removed from the current status quo is the scale and the rate of the infections occurring in The Last Of Us,” says Prof Bignell.
“Some fungi can get passed from one person to the next – and in the environment we are exposed to them all the time – but it would take a very significant variant to be able to cause the sorts of species extinction event they’re dramatising.”
Humans are transformed into zombie-like monsters in the show. Pic: HBO/Warner Media/Liane Hentscher
So … no reason for alarm?
You can sleep easy knowing there won’t be a fungus that turns you into a zombie in your cereal tomorrow morning.
But COVID, researchers say, is proof we can’t rest on our laurels when it comes to public health threats and the potentially sudden nature of their arrival.
With fungal infection in humans being a relatively modern phenomenon, with few examples until the 1980s, and the absence of any antifungal vaccine research programmes, there’s certainly work to do.
“We have to be in a state of preparedness,” says Prof Bignell.
“We have to have a very good understanding of how different fungi can cause human diseases, how our immune systems cope with those microbes, and a good medicine cabinet with antifungal agents we know are effective.”
In the meantime, if you do happen to see anyone that looks like they’re covered in mushrooms and feasting on a member of their family – best steer clear.
The Last Of Us airs every Monday at 2am on Sky Atlantic.
Clodagh Rodgers, a singer best known for representing the UK at the 16th Eurovision Song Contest, has died aged 78.
The Northern Irish singer was described as “the rock of this family” by her son Sam, who said she died on Friday 18 April.
Sam Sorbie wrote: “With a heavy heart, my dear beautiful mum Clodagh has sadly passed away after battling an illness for the last three years. She passed away peacefully yesterday, surrounded by her family in Cobham.
“Mum has lived an incredible life, full of love and happiness. Her fantastic career performing, travelling the world, devoting her life to her two sons and being the rock of this family.
“Life will not be the same without Mum, but she will finally be at peace now with dad, nanny and pappa. We all love and miss her terribly.”
A regular face on the TV in the 1970s and 1980s, Rodgers performed Jack In The Box at the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin, finishing in fourth place behind Germany, Spain and the winners, Monaco.
Jack In The Box went on to reach number four in the UK singles chart, and although she entered the charts later that year with Lady Love Bug, the Eurovision track remained her biggest hit.
Rodgers began singing as a youngster and got her first record deal aged just 15.
Rodgers performing at the 16th Eurovision. Pic: BBC
She went on to appear on primetime shows including The Morecombe And Wise Show, The Two Ronnies, Top Of The Pops, Bruce Forsyth & The Generation Game and The Val Doonican Show.
She was chosen as the face of Bisto gravy in the 70s, following her Eurovision hit.
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(L-R) Rodgers with Ronnie Corbett in 1971, when they starred in Cinderella. Pic: AP
A talented live performer, she also starred in her own West End show Talk Of The Town, and West End musical hit Blood Brothers, as well as numerous variety shows and the pantomime Cinderella, co-starring comedian Ronnie Corbett.
Rodgers released six albums, five compilation records and numerous singles across her six-decade career. She insured her voice for £1m.
In 2001 she appeared as a recurring character in police drama The Bill.
Married twice, Rodgers leaves behind her two sons, Sam and Matt.
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