OK - I've never been to London How do I check what's playing and order tickets? What are the best plays to see? Thanks for any help

Go to this web site:http://www.albemarle-london.com/news.html<BR>for lots of information about the various plays being offered in London. You can book on line or phone in your order. It is very easy to do and you can pick your seat after viewing the seating charts for the theater. I would recommend you see Les Miz, Lion King, Mamma Mia, My Fair Lady to start with. You can read reviews of all of these plays on line too. There are so many great plays to see it will be hard to decide but what ever you decide on you'll probably enjoy...the London Theater is wonderful.

Check out www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk

Also try www.ticketmaster.co.uk

I just bought tickets last night (Lady Windermere's Fan) through Ticketmaster. It was very easy, they gave me several seating choices and charged me &pound;5 service charge for two tickets. Much less than the Theatre ticket online companies.

While all of the mentioned websites will give you a lot of information, and albemarle is great for actually printing off the seating chart of any particular theatre, you would be smart to get the actual individual theatre box office numbers from the officiallondontheatre web site. Why do people want to call ticketmaster or albemarle and pay higher prices for the tickets than just calling the actual box office and paying the lowest regular price with absolutely no fees involved? They will take your credit card on the phone and hold the tickets at the box office for you, so you don't even have to pay a handling fee or mailing fee. Theatre tickets are a bargain in London compared to New York, but why lose that bargain by paying a bunch of extra fees or higher prices by going through a broker when the individual box offices will sell you the best tickets available at a lower cost than any of those places?

For myself: because calling the box office is an overseas phone call to an unknown entity. Do they have a recording or voicemail system? Are they open regular hours? How long will the transaction take etc... Using a 24 hr online source like Ticketmaster is worth the small expense.

Sorry, I failed to mention that the officiallondontheatre website will also give the box office hours. For most of us it is pretty easy to figure out the five hour time difference (or whatever depending upon where you live). I have yet to run into a voice mail or recording for the box offices, and have yet to be on hold for more than maybe a minute and I've ordered tickets for dozens of shows in London that way. I'd much rather pay maybe $1.50 or $2.00 for an overseas call from my home phone than spend an extra $10 each for two tickets plus upt to another $10 each for the mailing and or handling charge. I've already ordered 16 tickets for my next trip to London (four of us going). That could have been as much as $320 total extra by going through an agency. That's worth a lot to me, more than the "convenience" of using ticketmaster, but whatever makes you comfortable.

BTW calls from the US to the UK can be very very cheap. No more expensive than calling from New York City to Newark.<BR><BR>There is a wonderful service available in many parts of the country (but not all unfortunately but most metro areas) offered by a firm called PT-1. It works like this. Prefix the call with 1016868. Unlike some of the rip off 101...services this one has no minimums, no hidden call set up fees. You are billed on your local phone bill at the rate of 7.9 cents a minute for calls to the UK. How do you know if you have it...try it. If it works, you have it.<BR><BR>Also...how do you call the UK. Let's say you look at an English web site with the phone number 020-7555-1212.<BR><BR>You dial thusly:<BR><BR>1016868-011-44-20-7555-1212.<BR><BR>011 is the code for international calls. 44 is the code for the UK. On calls from outside the UK, you drop the leading 0. (If you are calling inside the UK you dial the 0). 20 is the code for London. London phone numbers have 8 digits. If the first digit is a 7, the phone is in inner London. If it is an 8, the phone is in the burbs. The local number is 555-1212.<BR><BR>You should be able to do a booking within at most 5 or 6 minutes. Paying 48 cents for a call to London to book a ticket is far better than throwing money away to an agency.

If you are not going to the big musicals, you can often get tickets after you get to London by phoning the box office or just showing up for a matinee. Time Out magazine lists all the plays and musicals in the greater London area. <BR><BR>"I would recommend you see Les Miz, Lion King, Mamma Mia, My Fair Lady to start with"...oh please, some people go to London for the theatre and to see plays they cannot see outside of NYC. There is more to theatre than rehashed tired musicals that can be seen in most US cities.

Some websites to help you decide:<BR>The Evening Standard theatre guide... http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/html/h...op_direct.html <BR>Reviews at the Theatre Monkey... http://www.theatremonkey.com/<BR>The London Theatre Guide... http://www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk/<BR>

Another site with helpful links (theatre and not) is: <BR>http://www.allthingsbritish.com/

I bought mine through Londontown.com. We are seeing Phantom, Kiss Me Kate, and Mousetrap (that's closing after a 30 yr. run). They also list everything that's currently playing.

I agree with Theatre Lover. If you want a blockbuster musical you can book now, preferably by phoning the theatre in London direct, in London booking office hours. If you want good theatre, something to think about, something to remember, you buy at a newsstand in your arrival airport a copy of the listings magazine Time Out or What?s On, and on the boring train tide towards your hotel you can find what will suit you, you personally. Both magazines cover the Fringe well: no website does.<BR><BR>Welcome to London<BR><BR>Ben Haines<BR>

If you haven't seen many plays before you'll probably enjoy the recommendations made by MammaMia. These are all good, solid performances that are very popular and entertaining. If you have a more sophisticated palate then you may want to try some of the lesser known productions. Of course the decision is yours but as was said earlier, the London theater is fabulous and you'll be happy with most choices....enjoy.

Cherie,<BR>Go see whatever you like and tell the rest to kiss off. Jeez, theater snobs are worse than wine snobs. To paraphrase Einstein, " Great plays often encounter violent opposition from mediocre minds."<BR><BR>BW

We just returned form London with two 16 year old girls. Popular shows (Mamma Mia!, Lion King, and even Les Miz were impossible to get unless ordered ahead (we used uktickets.com.uk -the price even with the service fee was less than for tickets in New York (@$75.00). The "hot" show now is Chitty Chitty Bang, Bang, still in previews but impossible to book (unless from the black market for about $150.00). For a non-musical show we chose Humble Boy, with great acting and an almost modern day Hamlet theme. If you go in the summer, be sure to see something at the new Globe Theater (I believe this summer's productions include Twelfth Night and Midsummer Night's Dream, as well as a non-Shakespeare play).<BR>Have fun!

Jeff --Thanks for the dial around number.

Les Miz is my favorite play and I see it every time I'm in London. Regarding the note by a previous poster that it's impossible to get tickets in advance, I've found that showing up at the theatre on the day of performance (in this case, the Palace) at 6:00 p.m. I've always gotten great seats. That's when cancelled tickets are released. There's a window on the right side of the ticket booth in the lobby that you purchase from. You'll pay face value--no deals--but you can probably get a seat. Last time I got two tickets for third row center.<BR><BR>Have a great time!

It depends a little on when you're in London, whether low season or not. Just returned from a March trip, and I got my tickets by buying from TKTS at Leicester Square, which is discount but not literally half-price, and I was satisfied. I didn't mind the couple of pounds added on for service charge. Even better was going directly to the box office and buying there, with no add-on fee. If you like a big, brassy musical, the Broadway touring company of "Kiss Me Kate" was an excellent show (at a price you could not have in NY); also saw and enjoyed the more youth-oriented "This Is Your Youth."