The Apollo Theatre, which has been closed since the end of December, will reopen on 26 March, owner Nica Burns has told the London Evening Standard.
In an interview with the Standard’s Nick Curtis, Burns said that the theatre would open next month with the National Theatre of Scotland’s acclaimed production of vampire tale Let The Right One In, though contracts are yet to be signed on the transfer. The show, an adaptation of a hit film and novel about a lonely boy and a teenage vampire, was previously seen at the Royal Court late in 2013.
The cause of the partial ceiling collapse that closed the theatre, then hosting the multi-award-winning stage adaptation of The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, is yet to be discovered. At the reopening, the upper gallery will be roofed in to allow further investigation and renovation to continue.
Speaking to Curtis in today’s Standard, Burns, whose company Nimax owns six West End venues, reveals her feelings about the incident, saying: “You never forget something like that, and nor should you. It was just heartbreaking: it wasn’t about the building, it was about the people… Sorrow is the word that sums it up for me. No one should be put through that and I am so sorry.”
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time will begin its run at the Gielgud Theatre, next door to the Apollo, on 24 June. The National Theatre production tells the story of a teenage boy who has difficulty interpreting everyday life. When he comes across a neighbour’s pet impaled on a garden fork, he embarks on a mission to uncover the perpetrator of the crime, but discovers far more than he could ever have expected.