Theatre, comedy and cinema - The Rough Guide to London - page 415

THEATRE
London's love affair with musical theatre shows no sign of abating, despite the fact that only half the shows actually make
money. Les Misérables is the longest-running musical, on the go since 1985, closely followed by The Phantom of the Opera ,
which opened in 1986; both are mere babies, though, compared with The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie, which began its West
End run in 1952, and is the longest-running play in the world. The Royal Shakespeare Company ( W rsc.org.uk), who tour
in London each year, and the National Theatre ( W nationaltheatre.org.uk) stage challenging performances of mainstream
masterpieces, and there is original, exciting work found in what have become known as the Off-West End theatres. At the
fringe theatres, more often than not pub venues, quality is more variable (and ticket prices are lower). The listings below by
no means represent the full tally of London's stages - there are plenty more West End theatres showing long-running musicals
and family-friendly mainstream entertainment, plus scores of fringe places that present work intermittently.

29

Information For details and news about the West End
shows,

productions from the likes of Shakespeare's Globe
( W onscreen.shakespearesglobe.com), for a fraction of the
cost of the real thing.
Festivals London's two main theatre festivals are
Mimefest ( W mimefest.co.uk), a feast of puppetry, mime
and physical theatre which takes place over a fortnight in
January, and LIFT ( W liftfestival.com), a summer jamboree
of innovative international productions.

along with tickets and promotions, see

W o ciallondontheatre.co.uk. Also check Time Out

( W timeout.com/london/theatre) for listings.
Prices Full-price tickets for £15 are restricted to the fringe;
the box-o ce average is around £35-40, with £50-110
the usual top price. If you want to buy from the theatre
direct it's best to go to the box o ce in person; booking
over the phone or online, you'll probably be charged a
booking fee. Cheap Monday tickets or standbys are often
very good value, and some major theatres do keep some to
sell on the door on the day; check the website of the venue,
and be prepared to put up with a restricted view. Students,
senior citizens and the unemployed can get concessionary
rates on tickets, including standbys, for most shows. Ticket
agencies such as Ticketmaster ( W ticketmaster.co.uk) can
get seats for West End shows well in advance, but can add
hefty booking fees.
Discount tickets Whatever you do, avoid the touts and
the ticket agencies that abound in the West End - there's
no guarantee that they are genuine. The Society of London
Theatre ( W o ciallondontheatre.co.uk) offers online
discounts and special offers on West End shows and run a
very useful booth in Leicester Square called “tkts” (Mon-
Sat 9am-7pm, Sun 10.30am-4.30pm; W tkts.co.uk),
which sells on-the-day tickets for the West End shows at
discounts of up to fifty percent. These tend to be in the top
end of the price range and are limited to four per person,
and prices include a service charge of £3 per ticket. Tkts also
sells some tickets up to a week in advance, some of them
discounted. Another option is the Encore London theatre
passport, which costs £21.90 and can be redeemed for the
best available seat at a weekday or matinee performance at
some of the West End's most popular shows. Buy the pass
from the Visit Britain website ( W visitbritain.com), and
redeem it on the day of the show you want to see at the
Encore booth opposite the Garrick Theatre on Charing Cross
Rd (Mon-Sat 9.30am-6pm, Sun 10am-2.30pm; avoid
school holidays and busy periods).
Live screenings Check out the capital's cinema screenings
(see p.415), when you can watch performances from the NT
( W ntlive.nationaltheatre.org.uk) and other prestigious
companies as they happen, or see recorded past

WEST END THEATRES
Barbican Silk St, EC2 T 020 7638 8891, W barbican
.org.uk; ! Barbican or Moorgate. The Barbican's two
venues - the excellently designed Barbican Theatre and
the much smaller Pit - put on a wide variety of shows from
puppetry and musicals to new drama and twists on old
classics. Box o ce Mon-Sat 10am-9pm, Sun noon-9pm;
phone bookings Mon-Sat 10am-8pm, Sun 11am-8pm.
Ì National Theatre Southbank Centre, South Bank,
SE1 T 020 7452 3000, W nationaltheatre.org.uk;
! Waterloo. The NT consists of three separate theatres:
the raked, 1150-seat Olivier, the proscenium Lyttelton and
the experimental Cottesloe, to be re-opened as the
expanded Dorfman Theatre in 2014. Standards set by the
late Laurence Olivier, founding artistic director, are
maintained by the country's top actors and directors in a
programme ranging from Greek tragedies to Broadway
musicals. Tickets needn't break the bank - and on special
“Travelex” performances, half the seats go for £12. Some
productions sell out months in advance, but £12 day tickets,
available for the lowest-priced seats available, go on sale on
the morning of each performance - get to the box of ce at
least an hour in advance for the popular shows (two tickets
per person only). In addition, standbys, available 90min
before the performance, can lop £15 off the top prices. Box
o ce Mon-Sat 9.30am-8pm, Sun noon-6pm.
Old Vic The Cut, SE1 T 0844 871 7628, W oldvictheatre
.com; ! Waterloo. The venerable Old Vic, established in 1818,
is a producing house under the stewardship of Oscar-winning
American actor Kevin Spacey, who occasionally treads the
boards himself. Shows include classics and new works, usually
with big-name stars. Box o ce Mon-Sat 10am-7pm (6pm
when there are no performances); phone bookings Mon-Fri
9am-7.30pm, Sat 9am-4pm, Sun 9.30am-4pm.