I'm spending 2 nights in London and wanted to catch at least 1 musical or performance. I've heard that there's a box office where you can grab last minute tickets for performances that day. Anyone have information on where that is? Is it a reliable way to obtain tickets? Or is it safer to purchase them before I get to London? My only hesitation is that I'm not sure whether I'll be too jet-lagged from my flight to fully enjoy a show (I'm flying from San Francisco).

THANSK!!

If you have your heart set on seeing a particular show, you should purchase tickets before going to London. But the TKTS booth in Leicester Square sells half price tickets the day of the performance for shows that still have available seats.

At www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk, you can click on the tkts box to the right of the screen and see what tickets are available for that day. You can check for several days to see which shows are frequently available.

There are also links at that site for the advance purchase of tickets to shows that you know you want to buy before going to London.

Hi - Not sure if there's a London equivalent of TKTS in NYC, but you can definitely buy tickets in advance for London shows via www.theatredirect.com They're a great resource and generally very helpful for shows in both NYC & London. Trish

I've been to London many times, including just last week and I always get our tickets from ticketmaster.uk. I like the idea of having my tickets in advance and do not find the service fees anything unusual (if you order tickets in the U.S. for most anything these days you pay a fee too). You can arrange to pick up the tickets at the Will Call desk prior to showtime.

If you really want to try for 1/2 price tickets there is the booth in Leicester Sq. Having just been by Leicester Sq. every single morning of my 12 day stay I can only say that the lines were long and if you have a short time in London I would not waste half my morning on the chance you might get tickets to what you want. (in fact ALL the so-called discount offices in Leicester Sq. had long lines of people) not sure about you, but I can find better use for my time then standing in lines.

I live on west coast and never plan a show for the first nite, jet lag can be quite bad, but everyone is different. Only you can judge if you think you can stay awake for a performance.

If you don't have a specific list - you sound as if you don't - I vote for Leicester Square. If it's anything like the tkts line in NY, the line will move fast. (Have used it several times, but when there wasn't a line anyhow - like in January). I find it kind of fun standing a aa line and talking to people anyhow.

Strongly suggest you read TIme Out London, or study up on the Web a bit, so you have a list before you go.

If you really want to see something and it's sold out - I have always managed to get a ticket anyhow by showing u pan horu early and getting on the waiting list. I'd do this first night.

Wjen I am jetlagged I usually spend the morning in my room, then do get out for food and a show.

The half price ticket booth in London is called TKTS but is not related to the one in NY. It is a free standing structure located in a little park in Leicester Square. The thing is many ignorant people coming off the underground at Leicester Square station see the pedestrian street that leads to Leicester Square and several rip off joints with the sign half price theatre tickets and think this is the half price ticket booths. No you have to keep walking down the pedestrian street past Burger King and you will see the little park and the real half price ticket booth is at the rear of the park.

While queues (the proper English term) seem long, they move pretty quickly. You will find a board listing the shows available. You get 1/2 price off whatever is available; generally these are the top price tickets. You can't request alterntive locations.

Most of the mega musicals are not available at TKTS. Blood Brothers is generally always available, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is sometimes available, I doubt extremely if you will find Les Mis or Phantom but they are there from time to time (of course Les Mis is in a much smaller theatre now)...Lion King is positively absolutely not going to be available.

The advise to buy in advance for anything you really have your heart on seeing is a good one. Do remember you can buy lower price tickets and pay the same thing if not less then you pay at TKTS (of course the seats will not be as good but they'll be okay.

You can ring the theatres directly with a little bit of diligence and checking the internet. Calls from the US to the UK have become very dirt cheap; especially with the alternate LD carriers. Unfortunately in this era of charging for almost everything except the air you breathe, you will pay a service charge (generally in the vicinity of £1 to £2) even if you ring the theatre directly.

Hope this helps.

Good advice from xyz123: Don't be swayed by the signs for "Half-Price Tickets" when you come out of the tube station. Here's a website with a picture of what you're looking for:

http://www.thisistheatre.com/halfpricetickets.html

Cheers.

I guess we should be greatful for all those other stands offering "offical 1/2 price tickets," else the TKTS lines would be several times longer and run out of stock.

On my recent visit to London I purchased 3 tickets in advance and three at the TKTS booth.

One advance ticket was purchased full price through http://www.wayahead.com which handles tickets for Really Useful Theatres.

One was puchased through Ticketmaster, taking advantage of Theatre Monkey pointing out some good value, less expensive seats.

One was purchased for about 1/2 price through lastminute.com about a week before the trip.

Keith

Thanks to everyone! I think I'm going to do some research before hand and pick out a show or two that I'm interested in!

Happy travels to everyone!!

A few questions regarding theatre tickets. I want to see Les Mis.

First:
Should I get to Leicester Square as soon as it opens/before it opens to avoid long lines? Will I get a better seat the earlier I'm there?

Second:
Is a weeknight, say Monday, a better night to go to the theatre than Saturday as far as getting a good seat, having a shorter line and being guaranteed that TKTS will have tickets?

Les Mis might be problematic at the TKTS booth. Towards the end of its run at the Palace, except during holiday periods, it was usually available at TKTS albeit with a 25% deduction rather than a 50% deduction. But it has moved to a smaller theatre, the Queens and may not be available at TKTS.

Personally I still think your best bet is if there is a popular show you really want to see, to get the tickets in advance. You can get the phone number of the theatre on several different web sites and call the theatre directly to book.

It's funny how it works at TKTS sometimes. Sometimes if you go early you won't get as good a selection of shows as later as sometimes shows release tickets a little later. Other times, TKTS might have only a few tickets for a particular show and you're best bet is to go early.

So TKTS, while, a good buy, can be problematic. Generally queues (the proper term for a line as most queues are not straight, especially at Disneyland) are not too bad in the morning and I have never had to wait more than 15 minutes no matter how intimidating the queue looks. Of course, as somebody has pointed out, one of the things that holds the lengths of the queues down is the stupidity of so many getting off the tube at Leicester Square station and seeing two or three businesses with queues outside of them with the sign "Official Half Price Ticket Agency."

Read the posts above to make sure you are using the right agency to avoid being ripped off.

Just came back from London and purchased tickets to see Blood Brothers from the TKTS booth at Leicester Square and we received excellent seats.

We didn't really have anything particular in mind that we wanted to see, so if there is something specific you have your heart set on, I wouldn't go this route in case it wasn't available.

I couldn't recall what time the booth opened, so we arrived at 9 a.m. The booth opens at 10:00 a.m. and no real line started forming until about 9:45 a.m. Even right before 10 a.m. the line wasn't very long - maybe 10 people deep for the evening shows.

As for the more familiar shows - Lion King was not even posted, Mama Mia was selling at full price. Phantom was at 25% off. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was 50% off. This selection probably varies daily.

We were in London about a week ago and went to see three shows. Mamma Mia (excellent) and we bought tickets (3 of us) at the box office at around 1 p.m. for a 5 p.m. matinee on a Friday. We got fourth row seats - very good seats. We also watched Abridged Shakespeare and we bought tickets at TKTS. We lined up at 10 minutes before 10 a.m. on a Saturday, and we had our tickets by 10:15 a.m. Again, great seats. The last show we watched was The Mousetrap and its quite easy to get seats for this show. We bought ours that afternoon for an 8 p.m. Monday show. We had originally planned to watch Jerry Springer the Opera on a Monday night, but they talked us out of it since our son is under 16. But there were tickets; as a matter of fact, the very front row seats goes for £25 per ticket and they go on sale starting 12:30 pm for the evening shows from Monday to Friday.

We flew from L.A., arriving shortly after noon and we took the slow transportation to our hotel. I wish I'd gotten theatre tickets for the first night. There was a Mayor of London half-off theatre special that ended the day we arrived, but my husband thought it a bad idea for the first night so I didn't buy tickets in advance for that night. MISTAKE!!! I get so screwed up by the time difference anyway, and it was 9 hours as they changed to daylight savings time the night we arrived!

Anyway, go to the theatre as often as you can. I love the TKTS booth in Leicester Square, but we are on a budget and I like good seats.

Nena,

What did your son think of Mousetrap and Mamma Mia? My sons are 13 and 15, and so far we're going to see Romeo and Juliet at the Globe on our upcoming trip (at their request). Last year we saw The Complete Works of Wm Shakespeare and my kids loved that. They weren't as thrilled with seeing My Fair Lady last year.

Thanks.

Bellairegirl:A few years ago, we took our sons (ages 8 & 12 years) to see Mousetrap in London and they really liked it.

I meant to say that my sons were 8 & 12 yrs. at the time they saw Mousetrap in 2000.

Belleairgirl,

Our son, who recently turned 14, absolutely loved Mamma Mia. He said it was the best musical he has seen, and he has been exposed to quite a few. He loves Abba music, so that may have helped. It is really hard not to enjoy Mamma Mia. He was hesitant to watch Mousetrap but he was thrilled he did. He thoroughly enjoyed it. We wished we had the chance to see the other Reduced Shakespeare productions but their two other shows were playing on the nights we had other plans.

Thanks padbrasher and nena for your comments. I understand from previous Fodors posters that the other Reduced Shakespeare plays are not nearly as funny or clever as the Wm. Shakespeare one.

Also, with the price of theatre tickets and the lousy exchange rate, the last thing I want to do is to get 4 theatre tickets and not have my kids enjoy what they saw!

Both my sons enjoy reading Agatha Christie, which is why I was leaning towards seeing Mousetrap.

Thanks again!
Susan

Have any of you all seen either When Harry Met Sally, The History Boys or Democracy?

I am up in arms about what to see. I've heard bad things about When Harry Met Sally, and and unsure about the other two. Thanks.