What shows to see in London?
 

My daughter and I will be in London Sept. 10-13. We both love the theater. What do all of you recommend? We both loved Momma Mia, Phantom, Les Mes, Producers when we saw them in San Francisco and we also enjoy good comedy. Thanks for your help. KOL

I saw Mary Poppins and Billy Elliot in April and I highly recommend both.

I believe Dirty Dancing will open in Sept. Anyone know anything about this yet? I have seen some ads for it.

See something Shakespearean, as they are performing all of his plays in the UK this year/next year.

If you wish to scan the theatre offerings in London, suggest you go to the Society of London Theatre website:

http://www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk

My husband, 18yo daughter and I just saw "See How They Run". It is an old fashioned comedy about vicars and imposters in WWII England ("Sargeant, arrest most of these vicars"). We laughed until we cried.

On our March London trip we saw Les Mis and a Shakespeare comedy.

Billy Elliot is great theater. Most of us Yanks would do well to brush up on Maggie Thatcher and the Miner's strike before seeing it but, it was a superb performance.

whatever you pick, you can call the theater and book your tickets directly with them. Very helpful for seat selection and to be sure the stars will be performing that show. This helped us when we saw "Chitty" because the person at the theater told us the star would not be performing on the night we orginally planned to go, so we chose a different night.

KOL,
If you enjoyed Mama Mia, then you may want to see WE Will Rock You, the play about Queen's music.

It is overacted and tongue in cheek tacky...........but you won't find better music. We saw it in June and loved it. But we all love Queen's Music. All about what you wanna like.

I use http://theatremonkey.com/ to see what the recommended seats are for each show/theatre. The site bills itself as "what theatregoers tell you that box office staff do not."

I would recommend Guys and Dolls. I saw it last year and really enjoyed it. Great dancing and musical numbers. I think Patrick Swayze is in it currently.

Lori - Dirty Dancing opens at the Aldwych Theatre towards the end of October. I have my tickets booked for November!

I recommend Wicked, it is about the plot of the "Wizard of Oz" only from the point of the wicked witch of the West, who turns out not to be so wicked after all!
Also you can try the site www.broadwaybox.com/london , they have discounts for lots of shows in london and maybe you can find new ideas there.
Enjoy

I just found this thread and got ready to add a number of recommendations based on our 10 day stay in late June. But I see KOL's trip is already over.

For others:
Evita and Sunday in the Park with George are both amazing and wonderful current productions I'd highly recommend.

bookmarking

My friend and I absolutely loved Stomp and would highly recommend it. We were told that it would be loud, and it was, but we were up in the first row of the balcony and the noise wasn't uncomfortable at all. We got half-price tickets at the booth in Leicester Square the day of the performance.

Are tickets to "See How They Run?" generally available at the half-price booth in Leicester Sq.?

Yes, they were in June and I see they have been all this week.
See How They Run is indeed a fun show -- dated (World War II) and silly, but so funny and very well done.

My recommendations of Sunday in the Park with George and Evita, sadly are not on discount.

Another show I wish I had seen, but it opened the week after we were there is Canterbury Tales -- it's actually in two parts -- you can see one or both, but as two different performances, and it is on half price at TKTS.

Neopolitan, I am sorry to have missed that. Looks like it was running when we were in London.

Pah. Musicals. Singers that can't act and actors that can't sing.

(Only kidding - Is Chitty Chitty Bang Band still on? Fantastic musical. I've heard Billy Elliott is good too... But wouldn't send any son of mine to see musical theatre)

I'm hoping you aren't serious with any of your comments, Pumbavu, but I'm not sure.

Meanwhile your comment about any son of yours is kind of funny.

Two nights ago on Jeapardy, the final question was the most obvious lyrics from The Impossible Dream and contestants had to identify the musical. The female contestant who was way behind got Man of LaMancha immediately. Both male contestants got it wrong. That'll teach them to have straight men on Jeopardy!

Chitty has been gone from London for a bit over a year now...I agree it was very enjoyable.

Billy Elliot is a tough ticket but has eased a bit as it has been running for more than a year...the performances of the kids in the show is stupendous...the score is adequate at best and a bit of a knowledge of the history of the times would increase understanding of the show. Also the accents are a very sometimes difficult to understand to American ears Northern English accent..not that that ruins the show or anything...also be prepared for 12 year old boys and adults using the "f" word on multiple times during the show.

Mary Poppins is excellent also...not completely true to the original movie but well done nonetheless. It again is uaually easy to get tickets except perhaps for Friday and Saturday nights.

You might also like Mamma Mia if you are a fan of Abba...it basically is a show that was adapted to the lyrics of various songs not that the plot itself is believable.

Les Miz is an old stand by and if you haven't seen it, you should at least once.

Guys and Dolls is sometimes available at TKTS and is good..Evita has been revived and is running currently and I have heard only good things about the person playing the lead role (I saw it with the understudy and it was good but not great)

The Producers will soon be closing in London and was not well received by most of the critics.

Avenue Q has opened in London and got very mixed reviews.

Phantom of the Opera is workmanlike.

Blood Brothers, I guess considered a musical, is very British and worth seeing and is almost always available atTKTS.

Opening soon are Cabaret, Sound of Music, Spamalot if they haven't opened already.

I admit I am partial to musicals and some others might not be.

I, personally, didn't care for We WillRock You, some like it.

But I liked Whistle Down the Wind, most panned it (it's closed now anyway).

Incidentally, Mary Poppins is on the verge of opening on Broadway in the next couple of weeks and I will go to see it around Thanksgiving on Broadway to compare the quality of the show in NY with that in London.

Billy Elliot is supposed to be heading for Broadway in September 2008, it will need some tweaking to be accepted, I believe, by American audiences.

Of course, everybody's tastes are different but whatever you choose, for the most part, you will have a very pleasant evening's entertainment at prices somewhat below those on Broadway or Las Vegas (Mamma Mia).

Oh one other thing...

There are some awesome discounts for many of the shows available on www.Broadwaybox.com

I got tickets for a performance of Les Miz a couple of weeks ago for about 10 quid or so and the seats were in the 5th row of the stalls (and I wouldn't exactly say the theatre was empty that night)...click on the link to London discounts.

xyz: did you pick your tickets up at the box office ? how much service charge was added to purchase price? Thanks for this link, I'd like to know if anyone else has used them. I've always used TicketmasterUK but with the dollar so weak I am not against any discounts I can find for our Spring trip :-) Thanks !!

Lori...

I used that site for 3 or 4 tickets this past August and in each case I picked up the tickets about 45 minutes before the show and it was no problem.

Thanks, xyz. Do your recall what the service fee was on each ticket ?

Lori..

The service charges are clearly indicated on the link. Broadwaybox.com basically gives you a list of links to places where discount tickets are available....on the Les Miz one, for example, I was directed to the site of lastminute.com (this one just happens to stick in my mind) and the service charges, usually very small, were clearly indicated.

It doesn't hurt to browse the site to get some idea of how it works...you'll be very pleased with the prices and variety of shows available.

Oh, "Mary Poppins" was a beautiful production, more faithful to the book than the film. I was fortunate enough to get a ticket to "Billy Elliott", and found it quite moving. Serious, political, and uplifting. It helps to be familiar with British politics and class issues. I didn't have trouble understanding the northern accents, but some people might (especially if the show is headed for Broadway).