Southend’s Cliffs Pavilion became the first of the HQ venues to reopen post-pandemic on Saturday 31 July with Jimmy Carr in residence for two sold out evenings of hilarity! 

After 502 days of enforced closure, the celebrated comic played to packed houses in gigs that were specially arranged for future broadcast on a major streaming platform. (We can’t tell you which platform, but it rhymes with JetFlix…)

The whole team worked tirelessly to remobilise the building in time for the shows, putting in place all required safety arrangements; and trialling new initiatives such as ticket-scanning and cashless payment methods for the very first time. 

Other HQ venues will now follow suit and are fully focussed on curtain-up dates for their summer and autumn seasons.  Whisper it – but by the end of August, all HQ venues will be open again and welcoming back customers!

HQ Theatres CEO Julian Russell said: “I’d like to pay tribute to all the venue teams, those working in central roles and those on furlough at various stages for their tenacity, fighting spirit and good humour in getting us to this stage. 

“Over the past 16 months, our Technical & Building Managers worked alone for many months diligently looking after our venues, a handful of the ticketing team handled thousands of reschedules, cancelations and refunds and the TDs and central team have worked tirelessly behind the scenes reengineering our operating model, constantly unearthing new ways of building resilience into our business model. Everyone has played their part.

“Remobilising after such a long closure period is no mean feat, but it’s fantastic to see the doors opening again, the tickets selling and the rafters being raised as people come out to enjoy themselves.”