The owner of the West End theatre that closed last year after its ceiling collapsed injuring audience members says it will reopen next month.

The Grade II-listed Apollo theatre has been closed since the night of December 19 when about 10 square yards of plaster plummeted on to the stalls below, leaving 80 people injured, during a performance of The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time.

Nica Burns, chief executive of Nimax Theatres which owns the Apollo, said the venue will reopen on March 26 with the upper gallery roofed in so experts can continue to examine the ceiling.

She told the London Evening Standard she hoped to open with a new show – an adaptation of the vampire movie Let The Right One In.

The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time moved up the road to the Gielgud Theatre when the Apollo was closed.

Burns told the Standard: “I am sorry to see them go, I wish them well but for whatever reason that is what they have decided”.

The cause of the incident is still being investigated.