West End musical SIX suspends all performances until end of September
Posted on 1 July 2020
London's Arts Theatre has announced that all performances of SIX The Musical up to and including Sunday, 27 September 2020 have been suspended. Officially, the West End has cancelled performances up the beginning of August. However, these mass theatre closures across the UK may or may not be extended. Due to skyrocketing cases of coronavirus in the US and their corrupt and unresponsive government, Broadway recently made the decision to suspend all shows until 2021 at the earliest.
SIX West End musical suspends all performances until after 27 September
Although the West End has only cancelled its shows up until the 2nd of August, specific productions and venues have been extending these closure dates on an ad hoc basis. SIX is one such show. Though the production still plans to reopen this year so long as it is allowed to do so, SIX is cancelling its performances up until and including 27 September 2020.
Fans of the hit London musical can still catch the queens this summer at various drive-in performances across the country (12 locations, audiences of up to 300 cars). Unfortunately, "tickets held for cancelled performances of SIX at the Arts Theatre are unable to be directly transferred to tickets for newly announced Drive-In tour of SIX."
In addition to SIX, Sleepless: A Musical Romance has also taken upon itself to run socially distanced performances, this time beginning in late August, which is all made possible thanks to the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre's spaciousness.
Socially distanced performances not yet a possibility for other West End productions
Sadly, other productions have not been so lucky as Sleepless and Six when it comes to organising socially distanced performances. Major West End theatrical producer Cameron Mackintosh recently announced in early June that none of his four blockbuster productions (Mary Poppins, The Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Hamilton) will be reopening this year. This is partially due to these shows relying heavily on tourism and partially due to the lack of support from the government, whom Mackintosh slammed in the news last month.
About SIX The Musical
SIX is written by Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow and features direction by Moss and Jamie Armitage, associate choreography by Freya Sands, casting by Pearson Casting, choreography by Carrie-Anne Ingrouille, costume design by Gabriella Slade, lighting design by Tim Deiling, musical direction by Katy Richardson and associate musical direction by Ellie Verkerk, musical orchestration by Tom Curran, musical supervision by Joe Beighton, set design by Emma Bailey, and sound design by Paul Gatehouse.
The hit West End musical recently crossed the pond and opened on Broadway for previews right when COVID-19 struck. The show won the inaugural BBC Radio 2 Audience Award for Best Musical at the 20th Annual WhatsOnStage Awards earlier this year.
By Nicholas Ephram Ryan Daniels
Ephram is a jack of all trades and enjoys attending theatre, classical music concerts and the opera.