Major West End shows cancelled as power cut hits

Thousands of theatregoers were left disappointed after West End playhouses were forced to cancel major shows when a power cut plunged parts of Theatreland into darkness for more than five hours.

Matilda the Musical at the Cambridge Theatre was cancelled while the Donmar Warehouse was forced to scrap its performance of period comedy Trelawny of the Wells.

Actress Lucy Bailey wrote on Twitter: “Thinking about the sea of sad little faces outside Matilda tonight as performance due to power cut. #Chokey”

The outage is the latest in a series of utilities crises to have hit the area including a burst water main in Regent Street earlier this month and an outage in Soho a year ago that left some businesses without electricity for ten hours.

Jo Weir MBE, chair of the Covent Garden Community Association, said: “It is pathetic that this can happen in the heart of London. How much more is this little community going to have to endure?”

“A hell of a lot of retailers will want the electricity company to justify what has happened. Businesses are already having a hard enough time without this.”

She said the area was still suffering because of roadworks being carried out because of the flooding in Regents Street, adding: “If you want to go from Covent Garden to Chelsea, prepare for a journey of at least an hour.”

Francesco Fierro of Seven Dials restaurant Rossopomodoro said: “Our restaurant was affected by the power cut. It was a bad day for us as we lost out on the pre-theatre trade.”

Councillor for the West End Jonathan Glanz tweeted that power company UK Power Networks had “let us down” and said businesses had suffered.

Covent Garden resident David Kaner said his family lighted candles to illuminate their home during the outage, which affected 715 properties in the area, but he said the incident had a silver lining for his eight-year-old daughter.