Andrew Lloyd Webber is giving away free tickets to two London shows to bank employees who have lost their jobs in the current financial meltdown. (Nathan Strange/Associated Press)

British theatre impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber is giving away free tickets to two West End productions to London bankers who have lost their jobs in the global financial downturn.

Newly unemployed bank employees can claim a pair of free tickets to The Sound of Music and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat until Oct. 15.

According to a press release from Webber's entertainment company, The Really Useful Group, all they have to do is produce a P45, the document given in England to those who have been fired, issued after Sept. 1, in person at the appropriate box office.

The tickets are for shows between Monday and Thursday, subject to availability.

While it may be small consolation to the estimated 5,000 London employees of bankrupt investment bank Lehman Bros. who lost their jobs Monday, Webber said he hopes his shows will cheer up those affected by the downturn, if only for a few hours.

"Free tickets might offer some respite for some of those people who have sadly lost their jobs," he said in the press release.

The Sound of Music is playing at the London Palladium, while Joseph is at the Adelphi Theatre.