Joop van den Ende struggled with depressive complaints due to corona

The theater producer, who celebrates his 80th birthday on Wednesday, went through a dark time after the arrival of the virus. “I was paralyzed by insecurity, almost depressed. I closed myself in and then I am almost unreachable for Janine.”

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Van den Ende had to close his theater at the beginning of 2020, the musical Hello, Dolly! could not continue and the activities at his own foundation also came to a standstill. The theater producer, in his own words, was at his wits’ end. “Normally, with the most difficult things, I’m cool, like ‘we’re going in that direction’. But now, I didn’t know how to solve it. I didn’t have a plan and I have to have a plan, otherwise I can not live.”

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His wife Janine was concerned. “I have never experienced Joop as intensely as in the first month of corona. Everything fell out of his hands.”

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Van den Ende says that the musical Diana en Zonen helped him through the early days of the corona pandemic. His daughter Iris, who produces the musical, asked him to be involved in the production in an advisory capacity because of her pregnancy.

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