Lion King Opens for Sunday Business, 8 Oct

Disney's The Lion King, a hit Broadway transfer, is set to import another Broadway practice to the West End. From 8 October 2000, the beginning of its next booking period, the show will play weekly, Sunday matinee performances at 3.00pm, replacing its Monday evening performances.

Such a schedule is the norm in New York where Sundays are one of the biggest revenue days of the week on Broadway. In the West End, however, only a handful of shows - long runners Art, Buddy and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) and the newly opened Peggy for You, starring Maureen Lipman - stage Sunday performances.

Repeated efforts to alter the schedule in order to capture weekend audiences have been rejected by backstage workers. The most recent proposal, tabled by the Society of London Theatre at the end of last year, offered backstage workers a five percent across-the-board pay increase if they were willing to accept a more flexible working schedule. The offer was turned down by the workers' union, Bectu.

The Lion King, which has been nominated for eight of this year's Laurence Olivier awards, opened at the Lyceum Theatre on 19 October 1999. A sell-out, it is now booking until March 2001.

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