Help me pick shows!

[upinlights]

Posted: 6/18/18 at 11:15pm

Hi all, 

I'm a NYC native who is headed to London for four nights in two weeks, and I'm looking to see about 3 shows. I'm really not sure what to expect-- I saw Les Mis in 2014 on a school trip, so I have no idea what the cost of that ticket was. Right now, Heathers is a must, and I'd also like to see Jamie and something else, so recommendations are welcome! Also, is it common for people to buy in advance, or rush, or what? I'm not looking to spend a ridiculous amount, but I want to have a good experience! Thanks!

[dbird]

Posted: 6/19/18 at 5:52am

Hi! Heathers is sold out but you can enter the lottery the week before and hope for the best or check Facebook groups where people are selling tickets. They also announced a cancellation line but not sure how that works.

Jamie does day seats (i.e. rush tickets) and isn't really busy at the moment. Just go to the theatre and ask for day seats, they should be £20 or £25, location varies but if you can negotiate, try to avoid the front row, the stage is high.

Les Mis tickets vary, the Upper Circle front row is slightly restricted but if you position yourself, you can see most things and those tickets are less than £30 if you book them in advance. Otherwise Les Mis is on the pricier side since they don't do day seats and are selling well thanks to the tourists.

Theatremonkey is a Londoner's best friend when it comes to day seat information:

http://www.theatremonkey.com/dayseatfinder.htm 

[ggersten]

Posted: 6/20/18 at 11:53am

I will be in London/Oxford as well next week.  Oxford is having the Offbeat Fringe Festival.

As for London, only have tickets to Thrill Me on 29 June.  Entered lottery for Tina!.  Just going to miss Laura Linney.  Prime of Miss Jean Brodie at Donmar appears sold out.   We've seen most of the musicals before on other visits - or the US version - Shows I'm considering are:

Bat out of Hell (there are new reduced ticket prices)

Julie at the National
Translations at The National
Fun Home at the Young Vic
Strictly Ballroom  (love the movie - but theatregoer comments on TheatreBoard are discouraging)
Trioperas at Peacock
Lieutenant of Inishmore
Genesis Inc and Death of John Doe, both at Hampstead
Jungle

Consent 

[LexiGirl]

Posted: 6/22/18 at 5:52pm

I’m interested in what people recommend in this thread, as well! I’m hoping to be in London for a week at the end of August, so I’m already thinking about what shows I could see. I keep up with Broadway, but don’t know as much about the West End. And since it will be just me, hopefully I can find some great single seats!

[ggersten]

Posted: 7/2/18 at 4:08pm

Saw Victim at Oxford Fringe.
Im London saw Thrill Me , Bat Out of Hell Nd Tina.
Reviews and thoughts to follow later. But I reccomend them all

[SempreLiberal]

Posted: 7/2/18 at 8:22pm

I was in London last week and saw

1) Red - with Alfred Molina and Alfred Enoch (How to Get Away wifh Murder and Harry Potter). Excellent production (I missed it when it was in NY). Both actors are superb. Show is one act ~95 minutes.

2) Inperium: Dictator. Part 2 of a two-parter on Cicero and the Roman republic, Civil War, has aftermath. Each play stands independently, and I only saw Part 2, which stands alone nicely. Superb cast. Long, but moves quickly. 3 acts, 2 intermissions. 7 pm curtain. Ends around 10:10 pm.

For non-theater, I always recommend chamber music at Wigmore Hall, especially the Sunday am coffee concert and the Monday 1 pm one-hour concert. Inexpensive. Great hall and excellent musicians.

[ggersten]

Posted: 7/6/18 at 9:28pm

 So, in the end, we saw Victim at Oxford Fringe. It was quite good - although I didn't exactly get the point of the piece. We also arrived two minutes late (took a wrong turn) but since the back row was full, I managed to trip down a couple of steps. The performer was very nice about it. Victim is a one woman show where the performer basically plays (1) a female guard with marital trouble and (2) a murderess who is in jail for life. Along the way, the guard and the murderess channel other characters. The pieces intercut until they meet at the end.   That was the only play we saw.

Yes, after listing a bunch of plays, we ended up seeing only musicals.

In London, we saw Thrill Me. And first off, don't do the gallery seats in the studio. yes, they are comfortable, but the glass railing has a metal railing on top which blocks the view. Thrill Me is about the Leopold & Loeb murder in Chicago in the 1920s - a "thrill killing" one that was done for the thrill of committing the crime. The show builds to the murder - then quickly skips over it - to Leopold and Loeb trying to evade capture and ultimately how they are captured. The music is mostly ballad after ballad - I found the actor playing Nathan Leopold better than the actor playing Richard Loeb. But, the two have been playing the roles together for a while now. I found Loeb's character to be too much of a sociopath from the start - and so he lacked the charm that drew Leopold in.

Saturday afternoon, we saw Bat Out of Hell. Originally, we were going to just wait for the US Tour, but advice on the London board seemed to suggest the staging at the Dominion would be unlikely to be the staging on the US tour. I found the show insane - I mean bonkers. I loved the music - couldn't really follow what story there was -loved the staging - loved the older audience rocking out while younger members seemed perplexed. There seem to be people who are multi-repeat attendees because there was a bit of audience talk-back/shout-outs during the show as well as singing along.  Here was the major audience participation:

Audience Participation  

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

Near the end of the show, Strat (and others) are singing "I Won't Do That".  Near the end of the song, Strat takes a dramatic pause and an audience member shouted "Say It" like it was Rocky Horror.  The actor playing Strat paused and laughed (I suspect this has happened before) and then finished the song with "But I Won't Do That".

Saturday night was Tina! - We ended up with two singles in the stalls. They were "returned" tickets.  We paid not top price - but not low price either!  Spouse got Row D Center and I got Row J further back and to the side. Spouse really loved the show. I really liked it. I found myself comparing the stage show to the film What's Love Got To Do With It - and frankly, I found the film superior, for one primary reason. In the film, Ike Turner has a charm to him - you can see why people adore and follow him while disliking him. The Ike Turner in this show is just a mean vile SOB from the first sequence. And I don't know what accent the actor was using - but it was a one note affected accent and really distracting. My favorite moment is the staging of the final concert - I found it imaginative and breath-taking. For the most part, the audience obeyed the admonition pre-show to not sing along until the end of the show. BTW, Adrienne Warren had a knee brace. The instant standing ovation made me think I was back in the US. I found Tina! to be a pretty standard bio-musical, although it used the songs for plot points rather than "And then I recorded this..and then I recorded this" as in Beautiful (which was in the same theatre). 

And, then it was on to Iceland. We didn't attend any theatre in Iceland

[nyskier]

Posted: 7/10/18 at 2:12pm

Hi!

I'm also a NYer and going to London in April.  What shows would you recommend that are not on Broadway?  And which shows should I jump on advance tickets for versus last minute.  We prefer musicals and I'm taking my 12 year old with me on this trip.

Thanks!

[ggersten]

Posted: 7/10/18 at 5:38pm

Hard to know what new musicals will be playing on the West End next April - Les Mis, Phantom, Lion King, Hamilton, Mamma Mia, Book of Mormon and Wicked will likely be playing on the West End (oh, and Thriller).  For shows not currently on Broadway, Tina! likely will still be playing.  Jamie?  Maybe.  Bat out of Hell?  Maybe.  Then, there are UK versions of Kinky Boots, 42d Street and Dreamgirls, but no guarantees any will still be there next April.  , 

I think Come From Away will have opened by next April.  

In short, "new" UK Musicals have been having a real hard time - and are few and far between.

Off the West End - you can check to see what will be playing at Union, Southwark, Menier, Almeida and Hampstead. 

The National has musicals, sometimes.

 

  

[nyskier]

Posted: 7/11/18 at 9:53am

ggersten said: "Hard to know what new musicals will be playing on the West End next April - Les Mis, Phantom, Lion King, Hamilton, Mamma Mia, Book of Mormon and Wicked will likely be playing on the West End (oh, and Thriller). For shows not currently on Broadway, Tina! likely will still be playing. Jamie? Maybe. Bat out of Hell? Maybe. Then, there are UK versions of Kinky Boots, 42d Street and Dreamgirls, but no guarantees any will still be there next April. ,

I think Come From Away will have opened by next April.

In short, "new" UK Musicals have been having a real hard time - and are few and far between.

Off the West End - you can check to see what will be playing at Union, Southwark, Menier, Almeida and Hampstead.

The National has musicals, sometimes.



"

 

Thanks!  I guess I will wait a few months and see what is out there.  It looks like Jamie is selling into the spring - would you recommend getting tickets in advance or waiting?  How hard are tickets to this show?  

 

[Dkinny23]

Posted: 7/21/18 at 9:00am

I’m a New Yorker who just came back from London a few days ago and saw Bat Out of Hell. GO SEE THIS!!!!! It was sooooooo great, the staging, the production, and oh my god I can’t even say enough about how amazing the actors were!!!! Tickets were insanely cheap, we got them for £18 in advance (not sure where, my mom bought em) but I know you can get them on TodayTix app and also I saw them at the TKTS booth in London for around £22. I am a youngin (26 yrs old) and totally agree with someone else’s previous comment that it was hilarious seeing all the older people rock out cause they grew up with this music (well I sort of did too.. lol but obviously it’s a little different). The story is very wacky and not the most original (has a bit of a Peter Pan feel to it with the lost boys who don’t age) but other than the actual story itself, you just get lost in the characters, their voices, their acting, and the production as a whole. I agree if it ever comes to New York (which I feel like it would) than the staging will probably be different. The stage was so unique at the Dominion that I am not sure how they would exactly re-create that here in New York.