Cruise: First show to reopen in the West End proves the door hasn’t closed to young creatives | Ents & Arts News

It sounds like a milestone – English theaters can now open for the first time in 14 months and wow audiences again.

the theater industry, one of the most diverse sectors of the economy, has been COVID-19[female[feminine – beaten and spat out at the other end.

It’s not just the actors who count on opening theaters – the technicians, lighting and sound crews, producers, stage managers, box office staff, costume designers and the hordes of others put on. their career in the sector, and with many of them, the not easy to find.

Suddenly there was one more hurdle for those who wanted to break into an industry that was already difficult to enter: uncertainty.

For Jack Holden, that meant taking matters into his own hands.

“During the first lockout last year, I woke up with a vision of what this show would be like,” he told Sky News of his first Cruise play.

It will be the very first show to open in London’s West End after it has closed – and will tell the story of a man diagnosed with HIV in the ’80s, played by Holden, who aims to live out his final years in succumbing to a hedonistic lifestyle.

Holden wrote the show, teamed up with musician John Elliott, and sent a demo to also debuting theater producer Katy Lipson, who wanted the show to happen.

The chance for a new playwright like Holden to get his show into a theater and in front of an audience, however, is not one he takes for granted.

“It’s been a horrible year, it almost destroyed our industry – the last year was really about survival,” he says, adding that theater owner Nica Burns has found a way to help new ones. ..