Consolidated St Giles LLP, the current Landlord and freehold owners of 3-11 Great Newport Street and 1 Upper St Martin's Lane, which includes the site of the Arts Theatre, has served notice on the theatre's current tenants. Brasrat Ltd¹ were granted a three-year lease from November 2008 of the Arts Theatre for use as a theatre and as bars and restaurant. Due to the nature of the site, the Landlord only offered a lease with a three-month break clause, to enable redevelopment.²
Last week, the Landlord served a break notice, terminating the lease as of 13 December 2010. This notice was served without any prior warning, nor any indication that it was being considered. The Landlord has stated that the lease is being terminated for the purpose of putting in a new tenant, which the Landlord states has been prompted principally by their bank, which believes the theatre has been dark since May 2010 and is not being run as a theatre, and that Westminster City Council has made similar comments. Yet the Landlord was fully informed by the managers of the theatre³ of the extent of the programming, including a six-week run of Lillies on the Land in June and July and confirmed programming for the autumn of 2010 and up to April 2011 in an email on 3 September 2010, which also confirmed that refurbishment was being undertaken. There was no response to that email, other than the notice seeking to terminate the lease served the following week.
The Landlord has refused requests for the continuation of the lease or the extension of the termination date, so as to allow either of the two shows and short hires already booked in from November 2010 to April 2011 to take place. The tenants are currently seeking legal advice concerning the validity of the notice. If the notice stands, then neither the planned Christmas production of Puss in Boots nor that of Woody Sez, which is due to follow, can go ahead. The cancellation of Puss in Boots will mean some 30 jobs being put at risk.
The theatre currently has five productions booked in, running from September 2010 through to April 2011, four of which are on sale and the fifth is due to go on sale imminently. Following this, EOP are already in negotiations with a number of parties and are confident the theatre will continue to be fully booked from April 2011. Day hires including auditions, play readings and media events have been booked in since EOP have been programming the Arts, and there have been 25 days since June where events have taken place. EOP have two members of staff dedicated to bookings, one for main shows, and the other for day hires. EOP have also drawn up a proposal to appoint an Artistic Director as part of increasing the theatre's artistic involvement in new works and to promote the theatre to younger producers. In addition, EOP has proposed that the Arts Theatre would become a West End home for play readings, mini seasons of Sunday performances of shows structured around a theme, and prominent revivals of Arts Theatre hits.
On EOP's recommendation, the theatre underwent a full restructuring of staff. This resulted in the appointment of three experienced full-time staff based at the theatre: a Theatre Manager, Box Office Manager and Technical Manager. It was the intention to appoint a full-time Catering & Bars Manager to coincide with the opening of the new café/bars, which had been planned for 8 October 2010.4 EOP had drawn up plans for the imminent refurbishment of the reception areas, bar and catering facilities, disabled access, air conditioning, toilets and front of house signage.
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