When you’re looking for ideas as to what to see in the West End, consider all your options carefully. The fantastic musical “We Will Rock You” at the Dominion features the stirring music of rock group ‘Queen’. Alternatively, if you love a good cliff-hanger, the classic “The 39 Steps” should do the trick.

Meanwhile, if reality TV and the search for stars to appear in ‘The Sound of Music’, ‘Grease’ and ‘Joseph’ has whetted your appetite – if so, make sure you secure a ticket for one of these un-missable shows. Or for something a little more traditional, opt for a trip to a stirring opera such as Verdi’s ‘Aida’ or maybe a trip to the ballet in Covent Garden.

The beauty of London’s West End, however, is that so much is packed into such a small area: theatres, hotels, restaurants, pubs, and shops are all conveniently located close together – making it a great place to visit for an action-packed break. Also, many restaurants in the West End offer a special value menu for theatre-goers wishing to eat before attending their selected performance, especially in the area around Leicester Square – so remember to take advantage!

Theatre breaks are not just a summer activity, but can be enjoyed all-year round. Moreover, London’s tumult of activity never ceases, so you’ll be able to see the sights whether you visit in the height of summer or the depths of winter. With many historic attractions, such as Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster, plus far more besides, you will never be stuck for attractions to appreciate. Plus, many of the other marvellous sights of the country’s capital are just a short journey away from the West End, including London’s newly crowned number one tourist attraction – The London Eye.

And no visit to London would be complete without a spot of shopping! Hot-spots such as Oxford Street, Regents Street, Carnaby Street and Knightsbridge are all ripe for a spot of retail therapy. From chain stores to exclusive designer shops you’ll find them all, but remember to get back to your hotel in plenty of time to change for curtain-up!

Perhaps your ideal theatre break involves adding romance to your theatre break with a stay in an intimate boutique hotel in London with your partner, or maybe you just want to plump for a budget hotel. Either way by booking a hotel in the West End you’ll never be far away from the spotlight.

Some Best-Sellers On Broadway

Watching a Broadway show is one of the top items on the “to-do” lists of most New York visitors. However, with so many all-time classics and exciting new productions on stage to choose from, it gets a little difficult to make up your mind! Some of the best Musicals, whose Broadway theatre tickets are selling like hot cake currently, are listed below.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, winner of two Tony Awards, is a funny family musical that narrates the tale of six adolescents who compete in the wackiest spelling bee and realize that life isn’t all about winning.

Chicago, with sexy adult action, revolving around a murder trial, first opened on November 14th, 1996. It went on to win 7 Tony Awards in 1997, including the Best Revival of Musical. Broadway theatre tickets for this show are still one of the hottest Broadway commodities in town!

Wicked, a family-friendly show, popular with kids and adults alike, is a sort of sequel to “The Wizard of Oz” from the perspective of the “Wicked Witch of the West”. This “Untold Story of the Witches of Oz” has some great music and excellent performances.

The Phantom of The Opera first went live on January 26th, 1988, and has been a continuous Broadway hit for over 15 years! The award-winning score of this enchanting Broadway classical, by Andrew Lloyd Webber, has made it the longest-running Broadway show of all times.

Mamma Mia is the story of a young woman who tries to find the identity of her father when she’s about to get married. Full of drama, love, laughter and friendship, this enjoyable musical is a special treat for ABBA’s music lovers.

Hairspray, another hit musical and winner of nine Tony Awards, whose Broadway theatre tickets are selling hot with teens and “tweens” alike, is an adaptation of John Water’s movie by the same name. It’s brightly colored funky sets and catchy toons make it an instant hit with all age groups.

The Lion King is undoubtedly one of the most successful Broadway productions of all times! This Tony-Award-winner is well loved by children, parents and grandparents alike! Debuted on July 31st, 1997, the show is on stage till September 2008. Adapted from Disney’s equally well-loved movie, this Broadway musical is a pure feast for the eyes, with its amazing costumes, mesmerizing music and the grandeur of the wild Savannas!

If you have been able to decide on the show you’ll like to watch by now, you can easily book your Broadway theatre tickets online through an authorized broker and have them delivered to you within one business day.

Theatre of the Oppressed

The Oxford Illustrated History of Theatre

Pocket Sandwich Theatre is a one-stop destination where one can enjoy to the fullest in every sense of entertainment. They maintain that the place is the most fun packed place in the Dallas theatre. They constantly strive to live up to the expectations of their customers and provide them with best entertainment possible. The overall atmosphere is very casual and friendly. They have professional quality of stage shows, periodic dramas and theatrical shows. All these are blended with good food, drink and other amenities which make it a wonderful place to have fun.

To experience the action packed dramas and be a part of all this excitement it is necessary to locate the place primarily. Pocket Sandwich Theatre is a place in Dallas, centrally located one block east of Central Express Highway Number 75. Its exact location is at 5400 East Mockingbird Lane, Suite 119 of the Central Plaza. It is a place where you can relax while enjoying different varieties of food, with friends and families. The theatre has all this and much more with the thrill of seeing a live performance in an intimate setting.

The Pocket Sandwich Theatre has a capacity to seat near about 145 guests at the table, and the bar. There is also a facility for booth seating, assigned to guests as they arrive. There are special arrangements or considerations when larger groups of people come at a time to seat them together. Special arrangements are made for patrons with special physical needs.

It is a good place to spend in value time with family and friends. Pocket Sandwich Theatre gives out an exquisite mixture of Comedies, Melodramas, and Music shows with occasional drama thrown to keep-up the pace of the audience. The main motive behind the theatre management is to highly entertain the audiences with the selected shows. They should feel much better and contented when they leave the place than coming in the theatre. The care is taken by the management to intimate the audiences if their shows are not targeted to the children. Usually the late night shows are not to be meant for children, as they are not expected to turn out during that time.

The atmosphere inside the Pocket Sandwich Theatre is so well maintained it more than satisfies and entertains the audience. The scripts of the shows are most hilarious and they are done in good-natured fun. Before any of the performance starts, the guests are served with nachos, popcorn along with pitchers of beer and other beverages. This surely makes any play bearable, but usually all of them are of high-class. The audiences are encouraged for passive entertainment too. That means they are also encouraged to throw popcorns at the overdramatic performers whether they are good or bad. This unique adventure is fun for all the age groups. 

Everyone can enjoy these shows with lovely sandwiches served. They constitute the dinner with some appetizers. For those who really want to have a blast at the Pocket Sandwich Theatre should well before reserve their seats.

New York City theatre tickets are not hard to obtain if you know the right place to look for them. Many people are so keen on watching a Broadway show that they are willing to pay far more than the face value of the tickets.

An Evening At Broadway

New York City theatre tickets are usually a tough job to obtain as most shows are sold out months before the opening. There are shows that sell more than $400,000 worth in tickets in just one day! The typical evening entertainment for theatre lovers is watching a Broadway show or perhaps even an off-Broadway show.

New York City theatre tickets of shows that children may enjoy such as “The Lion King”, “The Little Mermaid”, and “The Beauty And The Beast” would ensure that a family vacation to New York is a most enjoyable one.

Most shows have an excellent combination of a great creative team and a superb cast that together present a most amazing performance which thrills audiences of all ages. Before you buy New York City theatre tickets, you should know that some shows may be inappropriate for children below 16 years of age. Another point to be noted is that most theatres do not admit children below 4 years of age.

Some shows can leave you with contemplation regarding the play for days at end, while others offer light hearted relief to the audiences. There is so much variety on offer- musicals, drama, classical, Shakespearean drama, mature comedy and Children’s shows. The difficult bit is securing the New York City theatre tickets for the shows of your choice; especially on days that you wish to watch them.

It is a fact that weekday tickets are not as costly as the weekend ones, especially Saturday night shows which are by far the most desired slot. The easiest and least expensive tickets available may be for shows that are scheduled to be performed on Monday nights or matinees. If you want cheap and inexpensive tickets then you can try getting the rush or lottery tickets, or opt for standing room only tickets. You can also try the TKTS booths to get tickets at a discount.

The most preferred method of securing New York City theatre tickets is via an authorized ticket broker. The ticket brokers go to great trouble in securing a huge collection of tickets for almost all events and shows. They can get you premium or regular tickets to the shows. You can book your tickets in advance or even get last minute tickets from them. They can also secure you front row tickets to sold-out shows if you do not mind paying extra.

Make sure that you use the services of a registered authorized ticket broker. They can get guaranteed tickets for you with least trouble. You can call them or make online purchases on their secure website. This purchase of tickets is at your convenience and that too 24/7. You do not have to stand in queues or wonder if the tickets that you have purchased are valid or not. Adding to the convenience is the early delivery of your tickets at the doorstep via Federal Express. The next time you wish to purchase New York City theatre tickets, just contact your authorized ticket broker.

For those people who love to watch performers performing live on the stage should go to the theatres to check out for them. In the theater you will find large number of people coming from different countries to perform and show their skill and there is nothing more enchanting and interactive to see them performing beautifully. There are varieties of stage shows that are performed in theatres like a musical drama, classical love stories or a comedy. No matter what ever show you see, you will always find going to the theatres absolutely exhilarating.

It depends on the people as how would they like to purchase the tickets. There are some people who love to stand in the long queue waiting for their turn to come. At last when their turn come then they do not get the type of seats they wanted since they must have been taken by someone else and later this can create a lot of problem.

Therefore the best way to purchase theatre tickets is thorough online. This will not only save your time but also you do not have to work so hard to get the tickets. You can also check out the time and venue of the theatre program being performed and along with that you can also choose the seats according to your wish. The payment can be easily done with a credit card so you do not need to worry. With the help on purchasing tickets online you can get the tickets fast.

If you are worrying about the kinds of seats you will get then let me tell you that you can check out the charts of the theatre where they will tell you the price of the seats as their would be some variation there. According to the choice of your seat and the cost of it you can book your tickets. Check out Tickets at http://ticketfront.com/

There are many times when some of the world’s best events take place in a theater and purchasing tickets online can be a great boon as in this way you will get an option to chose the seats of the one you want and you will also get the tickets in advance before the charts close downs. These tickets could be a bit expensive therefore you need to take out a bit more from your pocket but it would surely be worth to you.

There are number of groups that perform all over the world in different theatre so you can always get the update in through online. You can also fine out if any of the performance is held anywhere you live then you can easily purchase the theatre tickets online.

Whereas even subscribing to the newsletter will also help you to know about the upcoming theater performances. You will be updated with each and every performances that are going to be held and check out the ones which you want to attend and plan accordingly to enjoy the theatre. Theatre tickets can also be given to your near and dear ones as a gift if you know that they also love going to the theatres. This would be in fact one of the best and memorable gift for that person.

With so much content beaming freely across the web, consumers have never had such unfettered access to entertainment. Dilating bandwiths have meant data transfers have shrunk to infinitesimal speeds and, as entire fleets of pirate P2P websites and media data streamers career off all over the place, the notion of actually paying for entertainment is quickly becoming rather odious.

With a West End theatre seat costing you easily in excess of 20GBP, the economic future of live drama is looking decidedly well, shaky. Pair this with the increasing dependence that West End shows have on celebrity and many have forecasted murky waters ahead.

Matt Wolf from the Guardian describes the recent Hollywood invasion of the West End as the “visiting celebrity cavalcade” come to rescue the dwindling audiences dribbling through the gate. A few years ago, Sheriden Morley described in the New York Times how the influx of celebrity had “turned London audiences, once the best and most perceptive in the world, into mindless stargazers.”

Pretty stern stuff isn’t it? But then, that might not be the whole story. After all, can we really declare that traditional theatre has lost its bite?

It certainly hadn’t just over ten years ago, when Sarah Kane’s Blasted premiered at the Royal Court. The fury that splashed over the front pages of nearly every national newspaper the next morning was burnt into the mind of anyone that dared to assume that theatre had lost its power to shock. The violence in the play is no worse than is found in the tamest of Tarantino flicks so why the outrage?

Quite simply, in the cinema, on television or on DVD, the action happens elsewhere, in a shifting world behind a screen. In the theatre, the action is right in front of you; you can hear it, feel it and, if you were really so inclined, you could reach out and touch it. You can watch actors enact the most brutal or intimate scenes on hi-res plasma screens anywhere, but only in the theatre can they watch you right back.

What’s more, It might not just be the available ‘experience’ that saddles defiantly in theatre’s corner. Theatre, it seems, has quietly started embedding itself within popular culture. Although slightly fewer than its predecessors, Ofcom insists that the BBC’s hunt to cast a new West End version of Oliver!, “I’d Do Anything”, steadily attracts over 5 million viewers. Match this with the recent crop of copycat shows like “Hairspray: The School Musical”, which is currently preparing to air on SkyOne, and it may look like there’s fight in the old girl yet.

To many, theatre may not seem like the most viable economic prospect; who would want to pay for entertainment when they can get huge budget content streamed to their home for next to nothing? But then that may be the whole point, where as ‘content’ can be zipped, transfered and then unzipped at any computer the world over, theatre cannot.

Theatre will be affected by technological advances, of course it will, and it may need to change in order to progress, but it cannot be trampled over by the digital stampede because it is a totally different entertainment animal. Streamers may supersede television schedules and force licence fee funded institutions into remission, but it cannot replace what it cannot do to begin with. Theatre is temporal, magical, immediate, personal and not, under any circumstances, available to download.

westendtheatre.com rounds up what looks hot in London theatre in 2009

If theatre mirrors life then you would expect 2009 to be a bad year for the performing arts in London: economic downturns and credit crunches sound like gloomy news for our discretionary entertainment spending. But West End theatre box office figures have kept on going up in recent years, and the huge number of new productions sailing into town during 2009 could mean that Theatreland manages to buck the trend.

THE GREAT REVIVAL

The RSC, National Theatre, Donmar and Old Vic dominated straight drama in the West End in 2008, and they haven’t finished yet. Big hitters coming to town include Judi Dench in the Donmar in the West End’s Madame de Sade at the Wyndhams; Jude Law offering us his, hopefully fighting fit, Hamlet; Gillian Anderson in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House at the Donmar Warehouse; and a number of crowd-pleasing revivals at the Old Vic, no more so than Dancing at Lughnasa, Brian Friel’s hugely successful play starring Andrea Corr, and Sam Mendes directing Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard and Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale, both featuring Simon Russell Beale and Sinead Cusack.

STAR POWER

Other stars shimmying into town include Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot at the Haymarket, Ken Stott in Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge at the Duke of York’s, heavy-hitter Pete Postlethwaite as King Lear at the Young Vic, and Antony Sher giving us his Prospero in the RSC’s The Tempest. The Gavin and Stacey phenomenon continues to roll on, as we see Joe Orton’s delicious romp Entertaining Mr Sloane at the Trafalgar Studios starring Gavin himself, Matthew Horne, alongside Imelda Staunton; whilst Gavin’s onscreen Mum Alison Steadman plays a barking Leeds housewife in Alan Bennett’s Enjoy at the Gielgud Theatre.

NEW PLAYS

The sharp eyed amongst you will notice that all of these plays are revivals rather than new work, keeping audiences firmly in their comfort zones. That said, new plays may be thin on the ground but not absent all together, with the National offering up Richard Bean’s England People Very Nice, following two lovers across four centuries, and Samuel Adamson’s Mrs Affleck set in the 1950s. Jez Butterworth has two new plays in pre-production, with comedy Parlour Song at the Almeida and Jerusalem at the Royal Court. Also at the Royal Court, Mark Ravenhill will bring his new play Over There. Plus Hollywood man of the moment James McAvoy is to star in Richard Greenberg’s acclaimed play Three Days of Rain at the Apollo, and at The Old Vic Richard Dreyfuss headlines the world premiere of American playwright Joe Sutton’s new play Complicit, directed by Kevin Spacey.

“BASED ON A FILM”

In musical theatre, 2009 promises to be a year of great big fabulous and familiar shows, surely enough to see us through the dark times? And it’s no coincidence that many of them are based on hugely successful films.

Oliver! will be well and truly steaming ahead through 2009 at the Drury Lane Theatre Royal with Rowan Atkinson and Jodie Prenger; La Cage Aux Folles will continue camping it up at the Playhouse but with Graham Norton taking over from Douglas Hodge; and at the Adelphi Theatre Lee Mead will bow out of Joseph to be replaced by Gareth Gates.

Jason Donovan will be donning the wigs and lip gloss to take us on an Australian power-mince in Priscilla Queen of the Desert at the Palace Theatre. And Sister Act at the London Palladium will be doing its best to recreate the fun of the film, helped along by Whoopi Goldberg as co-producer. And not quite a musical but as good as, Calendar Girls the stage play will up the naked flesh quotient in the West End, starring Patricia Hodge and Lynda Bellingham at the Noel Coward Theatre.

KIDS RULE

Kids should also see a good year in 2009 with an enormous live theatrical production of Walking with Dinosaurs coming to a stadium near you, and War Horse transfers from its successful run at the National Theatre to the New London Theatre.

Book these shows here

Prague is widely considered to be one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, and the historic centre has been included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites since 1992. For those wishing to experience the night-life, Prague offers a vast assortment of venues to suit most people’s tastes and is one of the cheapest places to go out in the EU. Perhaps the best reason to visit Prague however is to experience the theatre.

Prague’s strong tradition of theatre has played a significant part in preserving and developing the Czech cultural identity. Today the National Theatre consists of three artistic ensembles devoted to opera, ballet and drama, who alternate their performances between the historic buildings of the National Theatre, the Theatre of the Estates and in the Kolowrat Theatre. The venues select their repertoire from the rich Czech heritage as well as modern local and international works.

The National Theatre was opened in 1881 to honour the visit of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria. Despite experiencing a disastrous fire shortly thereafter, a national collection was quickly set up to rebuild it, and The National Theatre became one of the most important Czech cultural institutions, being maintained by the most distinguished personalities in Czech society. The theatre recently hosted a Gala Concert to mark the jubilee of its 125th season, which includes such works as ‘Norma’ by Vincenzo Bellini and ‘Carmen’ by Georges Bizet.

The Estates Theatre was built during the late 18th century in response to the Enlightenment school of thought regarding general access to theatre and how theatres demonstrated the cultural standards of a nation. The building itself was constructed in a Neoclassical style and remains one of the few European theatres to be preserved in its almost original state to this day. One of the Estates Theatre’s many claims to fame is its strong link with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who directed the world premiere of his opera ‘Don Giovanni’ there in October 1787. The Estates Theatre currently offers performances of ballets, dramas and operas with the focus of the opera company on the work of Mozart.

The Kolowrat Theatre was long part of the Theatre of the Estates’ administrative building, but was opened for performances in 1991 with a performance of Felix Mitterer’s ‘Visiting Hours’. The extensive loft has been sensitively restored and is mainly used for works of intellectual seriousness.

Tickets for performances are available online from several vendors and the venues’ ticket offices, but travellers are advised to book tickets in advance as performances can sell out quickly. Prague is serviced by the Ruzyne International Airport, a flight destination for most of the pan-European budget airlines. From there travellers can catch a bus, shuttle or arrange private transfer to get to their final destination with ease. Hotels in Prague can be booked online in advance, which is recommended, especially as prices for accommodation can be up to twice as high during peak season, which roughly runs from April to October.

So whether you prefer opera, ballet or drama, make the trip to Prague to experience the best that theatre has to offer.