Simply the best way to reopen: Tina Turner tribute to bring live music back to The Deco Theatre

Live music is returning to The Deco Theatre with a socially-distanced Tina Turner tribute act after the coronavirus lockdown.

The Northampton town centre venue plans to reopen with the Typically Tina night at the beginning of September, having been closed since March.

Manager Jill Roach said seats will be removed or covered over to ensure everyone stays apart but she cannot wait to get back to putting on shows.

"We thought we would run with the Tina Turner show as the production company wanted to run with it and it will be a nice test for us to see if it goes to plan with our one-way system and the other facilities we're putting in," she said.

"But we don't know for certain if we can do it if the rules change but we decided we would put a stake in the ground and say, 'we're going to reopen the doors,' even if it's just serving ice cream on September 1, then have the concert on the 11th."

The Tina Turner tribute concert, by performer Karin Bello, was meant to be on May 15, but like every other show at every other venue, was postponed by the Covid-19 crisis.

Jill said the Abington Square theatre is managing financially, with most staff on furlough, and have been preparing for how they can reopen as soon as possible.

Everyone will have their temperature checked on arrival, there will be a one-way system around the venue, spaced out seating to maintain a two-metre buffer between groups and staff will be wearing PPE.

"I hope we can get back to some sort of normality. I think people have it engrained in them to social distance and that's the way to go for the foreseeable future," Jill said.

This summer was supposed to be a particularly exciting time for The Deco, having acquired the original frontage and gone through a major relaunch at Christmas.

Bookings had been steady and Jill has spent most of the lockdown trying to reorganise shows and tickets, with customers generally being patient and understanding, she said.

The manager believes the challenge will be getting the public's confidence in coming to the theatre back, especially towards the end of the year for the pantomime.

"I can't wait to get it open again as it was so exciting to relaunch last Christmas but we need to get people's confidence back so we can keep going," she said.

Tickets for Typically Tina are £18.50, with a £5 discount available with code FIRST. For more information, visit thedeco.co.uk.