Beyond the Pandemic: London's West End readies for next act

LONDON (AP) — Noah Thomas saw his name in lights, and then the lights went out.

The young actor was still in drama school when he was cast to play the lead role in the London West End musical “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie.” Thomas made his professional debut in early 2020. Weeks later, as the coronavirus pandemic washed over Britain, the city's theaters closed.

“It was a bit of a rude awakening,” Thomas said. “As the months ticked on — month one, month two, month three — you think, ‘This is a lot bigger than any of us could have anticipated.’”

More than a year on, the West End is preparing, with hope and apprehension, to welcome audiences back.

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Plagues, fires, war — London has survived them all. But it has never had a year like this. The coronavirus has killed more than 15,000 Londoners and shaken the foundations of one of the world’s great cities. As a fast-moving mass vaccination campaign holds the promise of reopening, The Associated Press looks at the pandemic’s impact on London’s people and institutions and asks what the future might hold.

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The pandemic has devastated British theater, a world-renowned cultural export and major economic force.

The stages that collectively employ 300,000 people were ordered shut a week before the country went into full lockdown in March 2020. They have remained closed for most of the last 13 months, endangering thousands more related jobs in bars, restaurants and hotels that cater to theater-goers.

“We were the first to be closed,” producer Nica Burns said. “And we were the last to come back.”

One of those sidelined when theaters went dark was Neil Maxfield, who turned his love of musicals into a job leading walking tours of London’s West End, the district that is home to more...