London Theater
 

Any suggestions of a play to see in London that you really enjoyed? I've seen most of the big musicals, either in NY or local theater, but I'd like to experience London theater. Thanks!

There are scores playing at any one time. Impossible to recommend anything w/o some sort of guidelines/criteria from you.

https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/whats-on and check out the offerings.

For when? Many plays have a limited season.
There's Evita at the moment, for a limited season.
And over Christmas there are several Christmas-related plays and panto's.

Look at the programme for The National Theatre, the Old Vic, the Barbican and other venues for when you are visiting.

Evita obviously being a musical, but it hasn't been on stage in London for quite a while.

If you like Shakespeare look at what's on at the RSC. If you liked Fawlty Towers consider, "The play that goes wrong. " There are also short lived productions depending on when you are going.

We have tickets for "Oslo" on October 16, it won the Tony for best drama, just closed here. Not sure you would say it's transferring to London as they may be re-casting.

Would love it if Jennifer Ehle, a favorite of mine, would keep the role she played in New York.

We're only in London for four nights, son lives in Camden so doubt we see anything else.

http://www.tkts.co.uk/

If you like Bob Dylan, we are going to see
"Girl from North Country" - limited time, closing in mid October.

We saw "Apologia" a few nights ago with Stockard Channing and Laura Carmichael ( played Edith in Diwnton Abbey). We enjoyed this play and recommend it highly. It is in the Trafalgar Studios, south of Trafalgar Square, short walk from Embankment Tube Station. Google it for play synopsis.

We will be in London for four nights, beginning September 16.
That lets out Oslo, which opens Oct. 2. Girl From North Country looks interesting. Has anyone seen The Ferryman or Apologia?
My son saw The Play That Goes Wrong in NY and liked it a lot.

I just noticed Bat Out Of Hell featuring Meat Loaf songs. I loved him...well, not really HIM, but he as great in his day and I didn't have to look at him. I know, not nice. He's pretty much a wreck these days, but that's not the point.

I might see maybe if that's available.

We may just hit Leicester Square and see what we can find. Who knows.

"Apologia" will be playing into November, a wonderful drama experience.It deals with mother child relationships, divorce, and how a woman who is reknown in her field handled it all. I commented on it above. We also enjoyed an excellent pre-theatre dinner at Northall in the Corinthia Hotel, around the corner from the theatre. We used the Tube and got off at the Embankment Station. My brother has tickets for "The Ferryman" next month which sounds very interesting but we decided not to buy tickets for it due to it's length.

"Any suggestions of a play to see in London that you really enjoyed"

Ignore silly analogies with third-rate theatre locations like New York.

The Society of West End Theatre site (http://www.officiallondontheatre.co....sortable%20asc) features about 120 different shows.

The Time Out theatre pages (https://www.timeout.com/london/theatre) give adequate reviews of a slightly wider catchment area, adding up to about 200 stages within 15 miles (or 20 mins by Tube) of P Circus most nights.

I can't see what your experience of foreign musicals has to do with real theatre.

Flanner! You're such a theater snob! :) (Just like me when it comes to the world's BEST theater city, Chicago.)

CarolJ, I can't say I've really enjoyed the big, spectacular musicals in cities outside of NYC (Broadway does it right), but I'm more a dramatic play-person. (Which is, of course, the best in Chicago.)

But if you're looking for plays in London, maybe look at the Donmar Warehouse and the Bush Theater, if anything appeals there. I tend to stay away from the big, long classics, as I tend to be too tired/overstimulated to sit for 2.5-3 hrs in a theater without getting tired or antsy, so I try to find a new work to concentrate on.

Have fun planning!

We have tickets for "Dream Girls" at the Savoy for tomorrow night. Had "Apologia" tickets even been available I would have bought those instead. Carmichael, as I recall, got a fairly good review for her performance.

We saw "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill" at Wyndham's. Audra McDonald is fabulous, but a sad story (Billie Holiday) of course. It was extremely well done.

Just got great seats/tickets to Apologia for £45 each!

My "go tos" for London theatre are National Theater, Old Vic, Young Vic and Royal Court but do look at Timeout London on line for reviews and other ideas.

Meant to link:
I got the tickets here; almost half the price of timeout.

http://www.atgtickets.com/

We were in London in July and we did see The Ferryman, and it is very good. The other plays we saw that I can recommend, which I think are still running, are Queen Anne at the Theatre Royal Haymarket (an RSC production that has transferred), and Road at the Royal Court Theatre (not as dated as I thought it might be).

I agree with checking what's on at the National, Globe, Almeida, Trafalgar Studios, Barbican, Donmar Warehouse, Old Vic, Young Vic, et cetera. I know others are not a fan of standing at the Globe, for various reasons, but we are, not least because of the great price.

I hope you find something that suits, and have a great time in London.

<<Flanner! You're such a theater snob! :) (Just like me when it comes to the world's BEST theater city, Chicago.)>>

No, Flanner's an anti-American grump. Of course NYC is the premier location for theater in the New World and comparable to or superior to the West End (which often enough gets US-initiated shows that use leads from the Broadway <i>traveling</i> troupes instead of the original Broadway leads). Why do top stars go to Broadway first and the West End second and Chicago rarely? Must be the superiority of the West End and the excellence of Chicago ... in an alternate universe .

But if the OP is still out there - what are your interests? And I wouldn't say no to seeing a "big musical" in London if the only previous show I saw was in "local theater." There's a serious quality gap there. We saw a show in the West End that we'd previously seen as a traveling show from Broadway and the West End experience was great (one real benefit of the West End theatres is that they are relatively small, which leads to better views).