End of the Yellow Brick Road?

In an interview before The Wizard of Oz opened Andrew LloydWebber mentioned problems with the yellow brick road they were trying to lay outside the London Palladium. He believed it was the perfect way to welcome audiences to the show starring Michael Crawford which opened earlier this week to rave reviews. Now he has had to scrap his plans because of health-and-safety rules.

Lord Lloyd-Webber originally thought of using yellow bricks or a vinyl cover but the council was against the idea saying:  “Both of these looked dirty and unattractive within hours. A physical yellow brick road solution won’t work and will look terrible after a few days.”

Westminster City Council had other ideas and insisted on time-consuming laboratory testing of six patches of paint for slipperiness at a cost of £20,000 with council officials also opposing the idea of transforming Argyll Street in London’s West End because they thought the road would look “dirty and unattractive”.

A very frustrated Lloyd-Webber responded with “We cannot undertake a trial consisting of six test patches – the cost of £20,000 is prohibitive. The Yellow Brick Road will take approximately two weeks to install in good weather conditions, so for it to be completed in time for our Press night on March 1 our contractors need to start work on February 9th. The only chance we stand of getting it installed by March 1st is if the council would allow the full installation to go ahead immediately."

Looks like it’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road!