Apollo Theatre: Ceiling collapses during show in London

[Jimmy-J]

Seventy-six people have been injured, seven seriously, after part of a ceiling in London's Apollo Theatre collapsed during a show, police say.

The venue in Shaftesbury Avenue was packed for a performance of The Curious Incident Of The Dog in the Night-Time.

Eyewitnesses heard "a crackling" noise before the collapse at about 20:15 GMT. Theatre-goers left covered in debris.

The Apollo's owner described it as a "shocking and upsetting" incident and said an investigation was under way.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-25458009

[Arthurgray50@blu]

http://news.sky.com/story/1185681/ap...enue-neglected

The most strangest thing about this story, is that when these productions go on. The owners are only worried about what money they have coming through the box office.

Stars are paid an enormous amounts of money to perform on the stage, but the theatre goes through terrible wear and tear.

I went to a London Theatre last year with my son to see a play and paid a lot of money, but the seating was much to be desired.

I watched a programme on Tv regarding the plastering of these theatres, and the Master plasterer said that they only repair the cracks. And dont go the full way to restoring because of cost.

Two duplicate threads merged.

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by Arthurgray50@blu

http://news.sky.com/story/1185681/ap...enue-neglected

The most strangest thing about this story, is that when these productions go on. The owners are only worried about what money they have coming through the box office.

Stars are paid an enormous amounts of money to perform on the stage, but the theatre goes through terrible wear and tear.

I went to a London Theatre last year with my son to see a play and paid a lot of money, but the seating was much to be desired.

I watched a programme on Tv regarding the plastering of these theatres, and the Master plasterer said that they only repair the cracks. And dont go the full way to restoring because of cost.

Theatres don't put on the shows do they, I thought they were rented by the people that put the shows on.

[Arthurgray50@blu]

Yes, buts the owners of the theatre that arranges everything.

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by Arthurgray50@blu

Yes, buts the owners of the theatre that arranges everything.

In which case they don't get the lions share of the cash then, do they?

[MovedGoalPosts]

I believe theatre owners effectively lease their theatre to a production company. Thus the theatre gets to support itself from rent, part of which should go towards upkeep of the theatre, the production company pays actors making money from a show if successful.

As to how much the rent is I dunno. If it's a proportion of ticket sales then the theatre relies on a popular production, but if it were fixed, it needs to allow for the number of shows that are a risk of failure.

To be honest, I'm surprised there aren't more incidences that theatres have to close for defective plaster, let alone actual failure. Most theatres being quite old will not be of modern plasterboard sheet but a far more brittle plaster to lath arrangement. After time the plaster starts to fail loosing it's attachment to the little nibs pushed through the lath. But you can't see that happening.

And another challenge is that quite a lot are listed buildings, which limits the work that can be done...

[Arthurgray50@blu]

I always remember The Commodore in Hammersith, and you can see it on the Internet. I went there as a kid at Saturday morning pictures.

But the big light that was in the middle of the cinema came down and there were many casualites. the Cinema was very old and finally closed and is now offices.

[TheDaddy]

The old Aussie bar next door to the shepards bush empire used to be a cinema decades ago, that's shut to now and destined to become a car park