Young Vic's Mandela cancels half of shows so far due to illness

Around half of the scheduled performances to date of musical Mandela at London’s Young Vic have so far been cancelled due to "unprecedented levels of illness" within the show team. 

The theatre was forced to cancel both the matinee and evening performances of the musical today (January 4), stating that it had been affected on an ongoing basis by a variety of illnesses including Covid-19. 

Since the musical’s scheduled start on November 29, the theatre confirmed that 24 performances in total have been cancelled – all but one of which were due to illness. This equates to around half of the performances that were meant to take place. 

The musical about Nelson Mandela, which has music and lyrics by Greg Dean Borowsky and Shaun Borowsky and a book by Laiona Michelle, is still running until February 4.

A statement posted by the Young Vic on Twitter said: "Unfortunately, due to unprecedented levels of illness within the show team, we have taken the difficult decision to cancel today’s matinee and evening performances of Mandela on January 4.

"Despite the continued efforts of all involved to bring the show to audiences, we are sadly unable to proceed with these performances, having been affected on an ongoing basis by a variety of illnesses, including Covid."

The statement added that while the theatre has contingency plans in place to cover roles within the show team and has also bought on additional understudies, it has had to "contend with too many cases of illness" for it to be viable for the show to go ahead. 

Mandela is directed by Schele Williams and choreographed by Gregory Maqoma.

Ticket holders to cancelled shows will have the option to move or refund their tickets.