Andrew Lloyd Webber 'to receive experimental coronavirus vaccine' as part of trial
Andrew Lloyd Webber will be seeing if scientists are playing the right tune with the coronavirus vaccine after volunteering to be part of the trial
Andrew Lloyd Webber has reportedly volunteered to be part of the medical trial to see if the experimental coronavirus vaccine is hitting the right notes.
The 72-year-old composer announced his intention to be involved in a tweet on Wednesday, in a bid to save the world of theatre from a terminal outcome.
In what could be one of his most important works of the past decade, Lloyd Webber wrote: “I am excited that tomorrow I am going to be vaccinated for the Oxford Covid 19 trial. I’ll do anything to prove that theatres can re-open safely."
An experimental vaccine called ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 is being developed at the University of Oxford and results so far have reportedly been promising leading to researchers signing up more than 10,000 people to be involved int he next stage of the trial.
Lloyd Webber's involvement in trial comes after it was confirmed that the curtain is falling on Phantom of the Opera in the West End after 34 years.
The show has suffered a "huge financial hit" during the coronavirus shutdown and it was enough to call time on it.
Producer Cameron Mackintosh spoke out about the closure, telling the Evening Standard last month: "With no endgame to this crisis in sight, last week I had to follow through with the awful distressing downsizing of my organisation to ensure my company’s survival.
"On top of this, Andrew and I have had to sadly permanently had to shut down our London and UK touring productions of The Phantom of the Opera, but are determined to bring it back to London in the future."
Lloyd Webber has since vowed to bring the production back, stating on Twitter : "As far as I’m concerned Phantom will reopen as soon as is possible."
Since performances were brought to a halt by the spread of the virus it has put thousands of people involved in the industry out of work.
There has been an injection of cash from the government to try and prop up the industry but it is feared that some productions and venues will not be opening again.
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