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Olympics will hurt theatres

Published:Saturday | December 31, 2011 | 12:00 AM
This Thursday, October 7, 2010 file image is a computer-generated image of the London 2012 Olympic Park made available by the Olympic Park Legacy Company and shows the Olympic flame floating down the River Thames. London has been preparing seven years for the games, ever since it defeated Paris in the final round of the International Olympic Committee vote in Singapore on July 6, 2005. Now, the countdown is truly in the final stretch for the UK's biggest peacetime exercise, or what organisng committee leader Sebastian Coe calls a


LONDON (AP):


Andrew Lloyd Webber says London's Olympic Games will force most of the capital's theatres to close for the summer.


Lloyd Webber said yesterday the games will make it "very tough" for shows in London's West End and predicted that three major musicals would not play over the games.

The composer told BBC radio that the biggest hits - such as his own The Phantom of the Opera - would play over the games but that others would struggle to draw crowds.

He says advance bookings for West End shows were running at only 10 per cent of their normal level.

Webber's Really Useful Group owns seven London theatres. Others in the industry have predicted a slump in demand over the summer.


CAPTION - This Thursday, October 7, 2010 file image is a computer-generated image of the London 2012 Olympic Park made available by the Olympic Park Legacy Company and shows the Olympic flame floating down the River Thames. London has been preparing seven years for the games, ever since it defeated Paris in the final round of the International Olympic Committee vote in Singapore on July 6, 2005. Now, the countdown is truly in the final stretch for the UK's biggest peacetime exercise, or what organisng committee leader Sebastian Coe calls a "Halley's Comet" moment for Britain. - File