Andrew Lloyd Webber says he is pushing ahead with plans for Cinderella shows

Andrew Lloyd Webber has said he is pushing ahead with plans to start performances of his musical Cinderella at the end of April.

The composer told The Stage he is looking into the “feasibility of being able to open with 75%” capacity inside the venue.

Cinderella is set to be staged at the Gillian Lynne Theatre in London’s West End, with previews scheduled to begin on April 30.

Theatres in London have not been able to open since the city was placed under Tier 3 coronavirus restrictions last month.

Lord Lloyd-Webber told The Stage: “I have taken the view, as far as Cinderella is concerned, that I am not going to change any plans at the moment.

“They really felt what would happen would be that January and February would be very bad, but that the combination of much better hospital treatment and the vaccine being rolled out would make things get dramatically better come the middle/end of March and that things would improve very fast.

“So I took my [reopening] decision based on that in November.

“The only thing that has changed in terms of that advice is of course the new variant of the virus, which is one thing we didn’t know then.”

Last month, Lord Lloyd Webber told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show he is confident there will be “an audience in droves” when live theatre returns, and he is a “cock-eyed optimist” this will be by spring.

He also previously took part in trials for the Oxford coronavirus vaccine.

The Theatres Trust has previously said that it is not viable for many theatres to reopen with social distancing measures in place.