Anne McElvoy on Theatre
SONIA FRIEDMAN is a doyenne of theatrical production in London — as tough as they come from a family born to the stage. As the pandemic unleashed lockdowns around the world she closed 18 productions, forfeiting revenues for the year of many tens of millions as productions were mothballed or closed for good. Friedman tells me it will cost £3 million to get her biggest global moneyspinner, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, open again, even when vaccines are rolled out and audiences worldwide reckon it is safe to crowd into theatres again.
It is a reminder that commercial Asks” podcast) that she sat down outside the shuttered Wyndham Theatre where she had just opened Tom Stoppard’s before the March lockdown and burst into tears.
