Stay theater appears an eternity away in New York, the place Broadway shows are on hiatus until eventually at least Jan. 3. But in London, an in-man or woman performance at a important theater was held just final 7 days.

Andrew Lloyd Webber, the composer of “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Cats,” hosted a trial operate Thursday of a concert for invited friends and media at his London Palladium. Theaters there have been locked up given that March.

Singer Beverly Knight and her band’s gig was meant to show the venue’s new protection measures, although supplying an eerie glimpse at a probable coronavirus long run.

“I must say this is a alternatively unfortunate sight,” Lloyd Webber, 72, said seeking out at the 600-robust viewers with some 1,900 unoccupied seats covered in paper Xs.

“I’m so grateful to you all for coming and remaining a type of guinea pig like this, but the Palladium is intended to be total. It is a theater that would like to appreciate you.”

Some have explained that if theaters were being cathedrals, his Palladium — with ornate, sprawling lobbies and 2,500 seats — would be the Vatican. And, like at the Vatican, mass as we know it is now on maintain.

Enjoying the component of the Pope, a hopeful but staunch Lloyd Webber insisted the night would “prove why social distancing in the theater actually doesn’t function. It is a distress for the performers.”

Even so, his daring experiment provides some optimism for New Yorkers 3,500 miles away, who will likely get almost nothing of the sort ‘til up coming spring. It is a thrill just to know that an individual, somewhere is executing on a stage.

And there will be a lot more to appear. The British isles federal government will get started enabling theaters to work with minimized ability properties and social distancing in place beginning Aug. 1. But even Lloyd Webber has reported that acquiring area to spread out isn’t economically viable.

“The ordinary enjoy requirements a 65 % potential and a musical requires additional,” he advised the BBC very last 7 days. “All we want is clarity and consistency.”

On Thursday, viewers customers described an expertise identical to what Broadway theatergoers are previously accustomed to — a winding line on the avenue outdoors the location having about 15 minutes to get within.

Novel, having said that, had been the necessary encounter masks, temperature checks, up-to-date HVAC technique and “Star Trek”-like air seals that are all now a element of the deal. Alcoholic drinks weren’t banned — or forcibly served with a sandwich — but delivered by practical ushers right to seats.

Less than happier situations, actor Jac Yarrow would have been putting on a rainbow robe on the Palladium phase that night as the title role in Lloyd Webber’s “Joseph and the Wonderful Technicolor Dreamcoat.” Alternatively he was an encouraged viewer.

“Being back in a theater following so extended was so surreal,” Yarrow told The Put up. “Everyone was executing it mainly because we adore theater, and we want it to occur again as it was just before. It was a piece of background.”

“They’ve finished it brilliantly,” a supply in the viewers added. “Seamless. They’ve outdone any other marketplace I’ve noticed. As Andrew claimed, you’re safer right here than on Oxford Avenue.”

But like Lloyd Webber, the resource also cautioned that staying masked and far absent from many others can experience like “an anesthetic” for an viewers that can’t laugh very easily or fill a place with pre-present buzzing. All people is in a clamor for the return to 100-p.c capability.

“Joseph” will be back again at the Palladium following summer season with, Yarrow thinks, a total — and whole-throated — household.

“‘Joseph’ is such a effectively-liked musical,” he claimed. “Everyone is aware it. In some cases I sing ‘Any Dream Will Do,’ and the audience will sing alongside!”

For live theater, that’s the only desire that will do.