West End brought to a halt by power cut during heatwave

Parts of London’s West End was brought to a standstill after a power cut disrupted performances and led to cancelled shows.

Taking place in the hours running up to performances, the power cut seemed to hit a variety of shows. According to social media reports, Clueless had a 15-minute show stop as a result of the disruption, while Operation Mincemeat, hit a number of times by outages, eventually went on to cancel at the Fortune Theatre. Hercules, over the road from the Fortune at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, also cancelled its performance.

Other shows affected by stops included Mamma Mia!, The Phantom of the Opera, Cabaret and Tina – The Tina Turner Musical (which eventually had to cancel its performance). Stranger Things: The First Shadow was also cancelled a few hours before curtain up, though it is uncertain whether this was connected to the power cut.

An array of other productions remained unaffected, including Les Misérables and Evita, which had its opening night at The London Palladium.

The moment was reminiscent of the great Broadway blackout of July 2019, when shows took to the streets to deliver unplugged performances after venues lost power.

All performances are set to go ahead today as planned.