Coronavirus: Lloyd Webber’s LW Theatres begins redundancy consultations

Redundancies are being planned at Andrew Lloyd Webber’s LW Theatres.

The organisation, which operates seven venues including the London Palladium and Theatre Royal Drury Lane, is understood to have contacted staff affected in June, but there have been no redundancies to date.

It makes it the latest West End operator to begin consultations, following on from Cameron Mackintosh/Delfont Mackintosh Theatres and Nimax.

In April, the company committed to paying all staff and said no redundancies were planned. However, it has now said it needs to make cuts due to the impact of having no shows in its venues.

Chief executive Rebecca Kane Burton said: “All around us, the theatre industry is fighting for its survival. The closure of our buildings on March 16 was only the beginning of the profound challenges we now face. The producers of shows running in our theatres have made decisions to close, or delay significantly the return of their productions, and this is having an impact on our business.”

She added: “Heartbreakingly, this means proposing measures, including in some instances redundancies, which will impact the people who work for us. On June 18, we contacted all those affected to set out the full and proper process ahead. We will continue to work closely with our staff, and, as appropriate, their unions, to offer all the support we can. Any further news will be shared first with our staff.”

The Really Useful Group, Lloyd Webber’s theatrical production arm, has not made any redundancies.

BECTU is working with LW Theatres on the redundancies.

BECTU head Philippa Childs said: “The redundancies at LW Theatres will be taking place after consultation with BECTU and we have come to an agreement about how they should be handled.”

She added: “However, these redundancies are just the tip of the iceberg and we remain deeply concerned about the number of job losses that we are seeing taking place across the whole of the industry. To stop this from happening we need the government to provide urgent clarity on how the cultural recovery package will be implemented and who will be able to access it.”

Earlier this week, BECTU wrote to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to demand clarity on who will be eligible for funding.