London
 

Coming to London in May
25 year old and uncle-young 60. Already have tickets to blue man group
Any other play suggestions, have seen Les Mis, Phantom. What is 39 steps like? thanks

Unfortunately, being on the other side of the world I haven't got the foggiest idea, but in your position I'd start by trawling through the theatre guides and critiques in, say, Time Out (www.timeout.com/london) and The Guardian (www.guardian.co.uk).

My favorite source for London theatre is www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk

It lists everything playing and you can click for more information, and even see what's on sale daily at the TKTS booth for half price.

The 39 steps is a comic adaptation of the Hitchcock movie. It is a mystery, but done comically with four actors playing about a hundred parts. I've heard good comments.

I'd also LOVE to see the Edward Albee play, Lady from Dubuque with Maggie Smith.

A very funny French farce, Boeing, Boeing is on at the Criterion. For musicals, of course Billy Elliott remains a hot ticket and the current production of Evita, I think was sensational.

Not to be a party pooper, but did you pay full price for Blue Man Group? They are nearly always half price. Also the show is closing earlier than expected -- I think now in either May or June, so you may want to check to make sure it will still be on. If not, no fear, tickets will be refunded if they close before you get there.

I loved Spamalot. It was hilarious, very optimistic and cheering.

please see billy elliott
one of the best plays I have seen anywhere!

I was in London in March and went to see Wicked. It was great.

I don't know about the 39 Steps, but I was just in London in March and saw Boeing, Boeing. It was a lot of fun and I recommend it. We were able to get half price tickets at the TKTS booth. We also saw Billy Elliot and Porgy & Bess, and enjoyed both shows.

any good jack the ripper tours

See Broadwaybox.com/london . All the London shows with discounts, plus reviews, listings, seating charts etc.

any good jack the ripper tours >>>>>

This has been debated at length here - just use the search function. In my opinion all the JTR tours are rubbish. There's nothing to see thanks to the Luftwaffe and our town planners and you traipse through a rather dull bit of the old east end with hordes of other tourists.

All the other walks that the various companies offer are, on the other hand, really rather good.

listen to audere_est_facere.

re Jack the Ripper tours:

1) they are very crowded

2) Nothing from the era still stands. You get a lot of "Here was where the xyz was" and "There used to be an alley way where that building is now"

3) People live in the area - how would you like 200 people standing under you apartment window listening to a bloke yell about women being slaughtered?

Take another evening London Walk or try for tickets to the Ceremony of the Keys or go to the theatre - but skip Rack the Ripper.

Another site to try:

http://www.theatremonkey.com/

We saw Mary Poppins last summer and LOVED it. Theatre Monkey really helped me understand seat locations etc. and we were able to purchase good seats for a reasonable price.

Didn't do Jack the Ripper tour and probably wouldn't recommend it. The overly crowded tours are NO FUN! We did the British Museum tour with London Walks and was the worst walk we took (all the others were amazing). I don't believe it was the fault of the poor tour guide who seemed extremely knowledgable (although why they don't just meet at the museum is beyond me -- she had to lead a HUGE group of tourists through some extremely busy traffic to even get us to the museum). Once we got to the museum it was just crowded and we could barely hear her -- we eventually just left the group.

You could do your own walk, check out this site: http://www.londonforfree.net/walks/index.shtml