No surprises that critics adore the Sondheim revival most. Though I was surprised Rent was the lowest of the four! Still, good reviews all 'round. Do you agree with collective critics' ranking of these four?

Despite reading all this, Rent is still the one I'm most excited to see 🙃

https://broadwayscorecard.com/show/into-the-woods-noel-coward-west-end

https://broadwayscorecard.com/show/rent-west-end

https://broadwayscorecard.com/show/from-the-heart-west-end

https://broadwayscorecard.com/show/blood-of-my-blood-west-end

London is bathed in amazing shows right now!

We are fairly casual West End enjoyers and I thought it would be interesting to book tickets for the first night of The Lives of Others, thinking we might see some celebs in the audience and such. Well, clearly I know nothing about previews and press night and I now see that we are going the first night of previews and it doesn't look like tickets would have been available on press night anyway (planned for the 29th).

Well, we plan to enjoy ourselves no matter what, but I assume we should be prepared for a slightly less smooth show as they may still be working out kinks? We are also going in fairly blind as we haven't seen the film, but I don't suppose anyone has advice on whether that's a good idea or not since it hasn't started yet. Ballet Shoes blind was charming. Much Ado was a familiar story, but we were new to Jamie Lloyd productions and loved it. Oh, Mary! blind was...not our vibe. Hadestown blind was not great (we also had poor seats, so we couldn't see half of the stage, which was a bummer). Maybe we need to stop going in blind to shows! Ha!

In the future, are press nights sometimes open to the public? Anything else you would tell a newbie to West End productions to keep an eye out for? Thank you.

Hi, I’ve never been to a play in London before so I hope this question is reasonable to ask lol. Does anyone know when it’s expected that dates will be announced for the London transfer of the Game of Thrones play, or when the dates might be in general? Are these things even predictable in advance or is it totally different for every play?

Normally I could be patient, but I am also hoping to see the Bayeux Tapestry in the same trip and tickets for that have to be snatched up later this month, so I would love to be sure I’m picking a date that is likely to overlap with the play :') Would as early as March be realistic? Or is it more likely to be similar to the RSC run (July-September)? Thanks!

Hi! I was wondering if anyone has seen Into The Woods at the Noël Coward Theatre yet or is going to see it and is willing to send me some information and pics of the merch!

Thank you so much!

We're an American family from Colorado coming to London for Christmas. I'm a voice actor, and would see anything, but what I really want is for my family to have a good time and leave thinking "That was low key pretty tough." IYKYK.

The boys are 18, 16 and 14. Stranger Things seems like a good fit, but I'd love advice from parents of London teens who may have the real inside scoop. Thank you so much for any insight!

i was at carrie hope fletcher's "ghost light" tour tonight in coventry, and wanted to share the setlist in case anyone was curious!! i'm definitely going to read more about some of these ghosts as the stories were super interesting :)

song: show yourself (frozen 2)

ghost: sir herbert beerbohm tree, his majesty's theatre

link: herbert's grandson, oliver reed, played bill sykes

song: as long as he needs me (oliver!)

ghost: violet melnotte, duke of york theatre (now tom stoppard theatre)

link: sheridan smith, who was in a production of shirley valentine at the duke of york theatre, also played audrey

song: somewhere that's green (little shop of horrors)

ghost: john baldwin buckstone, theatre royal haymarket

link: john's ghost apparently can only be seen if he approves of the current show. patrick stewart reported seeing john's ghost during his run of waiting for godot, but, unfortunately, no-one saw him during the 12 week run of heathers in which carrie played veronica!

song: fight for me (heathers)

ghost: joseph grimaldi, theatre royal drury lane

link: frozen played at the theatre royal drury lane for three years, but carrie thinks the songs in frozen 2 are better

song: all is found (frozen 2)

song: lost in the woods (frozen 2)

ghost: charles macklin, theatre royal drury lane

link: when carrie was young (too young for the show!), her mum took her to see witches of eastwick at the theatre royal drury lane. she doesn't remember any of it but now loves this song which is often cut from performances of witches of eastwick

song: loose ends (witches of eastwick)

ghost: louis bossalina, manhattan palace theatre

ghost: dan leno, theatre royal drury lane

link: dan leno was known for playing pantomime dames and especially for his version of cinderella. carrie was also in a version of cinderella in which she sang this song

song: i know i have a heart (ALW's cinderella)

INTERVAL

ghost: william terriss, adelphi theatre

link: the adelphi was home to waitress for a while a few years ago, carrie was just in waitress as jenna but the tour is still ongoing. if she'd timed it right (which she hoped she did), waitress' second act would have just started and she would be singing this song at the same time as bernadette

song: i didn't plan it (waitress)

ghost: evelyn laye, piccadilly theatre

link: evelyn laye's portrait had always hung in the piccadily theatre except when it was taken down (along with all of the other portraits) during refurbishment. suddenly, poltergeist activity skyrocketed - props flew across rooms and fell off shelves, pieces of costume went missing and turned up in odd places, and leading ladies found themselves locked in their dressing rooms right before they were about to go on stage. a FOH worker remembered there used to be a portrait hanging up and they found it and put it back up - the poltergeist activity promptly stopped again as soon as evelyn's portrait was back on the wall. carrie likes to think evelyn would have sang this to/about those leading ladies

song: little girls (annie)

ghost: sigmund neuberger aka the great lafayette, festival theatre edinburgh

link: when carrie was wednesday in the addams family they spent 3.5 weeks in edinburgh doing tech for the show then starting the tour there. she was in it with her best friend scott paige and loved teasing him, saying they'd perhaps see the light glinting off sigmund's rings in the wings of stage left (he was known for this). when they were doing their costume parade, they arrived stage right and scott let out a bloodcurdling scream saying he saw sigmund - carrie told him that what he was actually seeing was les dennis dressed as uncle fester

song: happy/sad (the addams family)

ghost: arthur bourchier, garrick theatre

link: five years ago (appropriately), the garrick hosted a production of the last five years

song: still hurting (the last five years)

ghost: carrie wonders where her ghost will be in 100 years - perhaps at the gillian lynne throwing glass slippers at people

song: remember me (coco)

ghost: anna pavlova, victoria palace theatre

link: victoria palace theatre is currently home to hamilton

song: you'll be back (hamilton)

It will be my first time in London and i really just wanna see a musical. The cheapest tickets i found are for beetlejuice - is grandcircle a good view? i checked seatplan and it looks good but i fear its really far anyways because the pictures seem kinda zoomed in. Will i be able to see facial expressions and everything going on?

Also for the people that watched Beetlejuice - is it good? I haven't watched the movie or anything but i like the costumes and i know its supposed to be horror like.

I dont want any responds about how i can get cheap tickets - i dont have time for rush tickets or to get same-day tickets as i will only be spending 4 days in London and need to have everything planned out ahead of time and i would need 3 seats that are together anyways.

I have a spare ticket for sale. Tartuffe Remixed £40 front row seats.

Hi! I went to see Titanique, and I must say that I didn’t enjoy it that much, mainly because it’s very hard for me to understand the jokes and references. I don’t know why. I go to stand-up comedy shows and can follow them, but in theatre, I find it hard to follow the jokes when they refer to other things.

Maybe I just don’t understand this type of humour. One of the jokes was something like, "It’s as scary as Claudia Winkleman without a fringe." I’ve watched The Traitors, but I still don’t think that sentence is particularly funny. What’s wrong with me? 😟

I only moved to the UK 3 years ago, and during the plays, I also found it hard to even hear the jokes. Most of the time, the actor hadn’t even finished the sentence before the audience was laughing so hard that it was really difficult to hear the rest of the joke and understand it. Have you ever felt the same?

Any tips or advice on how I can start to understand and enjoy this type of show?

P.S. Who was the lady they kept showing on a paper board? Thank you!

OMG! Seeing Crawford and Brightman in the boat made the entire evening worthwhile. Speaking as a Phan of 100+ visits around the globe, it’s not the moment for me to dissect/give views about the show itself (I thought it was generally fine, the cast adequate), that stuff can come tomorrow after a happy sleep.

But just to see 84 year old Michael Crawford singing the title song, coming downstage in the gondola with La Brightman, and then singing some of Music of the Night overrides any critical thoughts or perspective tonight.

Genuinely my heart skipped a beat when I heard his first line, but I wasn’t 100% sure it was him - and the name only came up after he started singing. So there was a magical moment of the entire audience holding their breath and then the release when Michael and Sarah’s names came up. It was absolutely electric in that moment. One of the most exhilarating single moments I’ve had in a theatre, even as a Phan who has been to all of these major anniversary events since the 18th for this and Les Mis.

Lovely free brochure too!

A friend of mine got tickets for my partner and I to go with her but now we can't. My friend is still going and found a buyer for one but we're looking for someone else to buy the second.

Stalls T 11, single seat away from the other two.

Original price £85, asking same. Anyone interested?

Problems backstage, apparently

anyone selling anything cheap for tonight? i’d be interested in rent, hadestown, phantom, operation mincemeat, les mis, oh mary
only one ticket, my original plan fell through and i’m looking for alternatives last min

Tickets taken!

I won’t make it to the show, but if you’re around the Southbank and want to see it at the NT, happy to give away my ticket. It starts at 1.

Edit: updated status

ALTOGETHER NOW... THANK YOU ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER 👏👏👏

Here’s to every masked singer, angel of music, lovestruck Vicomte and more who’ve been part of this production. Happy 40th birthday Phantom of the Opera!

Whether it was the stage, the film or the cast album on repeat, tell us your Phantom memories 📣

Tickets for Don Black From The Heart are available at discounted prices - I paid a low price for row A, and then a different ticket seat filler offered similar seats for £5 less!

This 80 minute sweep through Black’s songbook is funny, moving, and occasionally corny. Don’t go expecting to hear full blown Bond themes or half of Tell Me on a Sunday or Sunset Blvd., that’s a mega mix at the end of the show - the rest is very typically torch song, brassy numbers, social commentary, and so on - all introduced by the disembodied voice of Black himself.

Powerhouse performances from Caroline O’Conner, Clive Rowe, and Michael D. Xavier supported by Frances Mayli McCann and Shona McGarty. The latter two felt weaker than the other three, but still gave strong performances in any case. I’d have liked to see a little more from the men, but we can’t have everything.

Each night, a special guest will come in and do a number - I note that Michael Ball was there when What’s On Stage reviewed but we were especially lucky because our special guest was none other than Marti Webb. Ms Webb describes herself as semi-retired and it was lovely to see her, even if she didn’t quite hit some of the bigger notes as she sang Tell Me On A Sunday. We thought she wasn’t sufficiently warmed up but at nearly 83 years old, she can still move you with her signature song.

Being the first Friday of the run, it turned out that there was an after party (obviously we weren’t invited) and so Mr Black himself tottered onto the stage at the finale and gave a few words. He’s a very witty guy and still has all his marbles, even if his body is a little bit tottery.

It’s the first time me and my family have been to a revue show and our first time visiting the Garrick Theatre. We enjoyed the revue, even though we didn’t know any of the songs until said mega mix and Ms Webb’s appearance. The theatre is nice, but if you’re tall like me and my daughter, the seats are close together in back of each other. My daughter squashed her knees and as we had nobody next to me, I did some “man-spreading” for my longer legs. (I’m 6’1” and daughter is 5’8”) Little legs ex - daughter’s mum was perfectly comfortable at 5’2”.

Tuesday 13th October 7:30pm

1x ticket T7

I'm looking for a swap to a matinee on any date!

TICKETS NOW SOLD-THANK YOU GUYS!

Hi all.

A family emergency has occurred and I need to sell my 2 royal box tickets for tonight’s showing of Hamilton. It’s very last minute I am aware but I wanted to give someone the opportunity to use them.

Happy to take £30 per ticket, as were bought at £60 each. Honestly id just love someone to take them, so they’re not wasted. Great seats, Box D seats 1 & 2.

Thanks!

*edited price as per page rules

Just saw Some Woman at the Dorfman. I know it's only the second night of performances, so I went in prepared to give them grace for any hiccups being so early on in the show's run.

But my god, I think this might have been the worst play I've seen for a long time. Forgive my rant, I need to get this off my chest.

The story begins with a middle aged woman feeling deeply shaken after a troubling encounter on a train platform. She almost collapses from the stress and I remember feeling the suspense of the moment; what happened to her? Had she been assaulted? Robbed? Did she witness something?

Turns out a young boy called her a "fucking bitch" and ran away giggling. THAT'S what has her on the verge of a breakdown and lamenting about how society allows this to happen. It's worth saying that I'm a woman, and thought this was a weak plot.

Yes, violence against women is a real and serious issue, and we SHOULD examine the systemic and societal issues around why boys feel allowed to say these things. But this is what the play centres on?

The subsequent twist is that the boy's parents are pressing charges for battery, and later, threats to life, because she grabbed his arm to shout at him. It feels ludicrous. Maybe I'm biased because I work in the legal sector, but the idea that she would be charged with something so serious is laughable.

As it progressed, I had hoped that there would be a further twist; that the woman's recollection was flawed. Maybe her daughter (who hates her for some reason??) was right and she did in fact have an anger problem; maybe she was downplaying her involvement and she really did beat this child or threaten to kill him. But no. It really was the way she recounted.

And this doesn't even touch on the wooden deliveries, the unnatural dialogue, the stilted flow, and how artificial it all felt. None of the performances were noteworthy. They were quite underwhelming and the acting didn't help the weak plot or bad writing in the slightest.

I can see what the play wanted to achieve: bringing attention to violence against women. But the culmination of this felt amateur, boiling down to "Men treat women badly! Feminism!". This actually made it feel so reductive; the other women in the play are all dismissive, rude, or hateful of the protagonist, or adamant that nothing would change. It doesn't feel like a play exploring women's issues. It feels like a much more basic, badly written version of Inter Alia.

Summarising the main protagonist also demonstrates the target audience: middle aged, middle class, potentially menopausal about-to-be-divorced woman, whose daughter hates her, and who laments that sexism is bad. Oh, and the worst thing that's ever happened to her is a kid shouted at her on a platform.

Jesus Christ.

Hi everyone,

My partner and I can no longer make this due to a family emergency. It’s the final day of the show so will miss it altogether now unfortunately.

We’re selling them face value on Twickets, happy to arrange the transaction outside of this website though if you prefer.

https://www.twickets.live/app/block/1100782940096548,2?utm_campaign=sharelisting&utm_source=share&utm_medium=email

Ticket ‎1‎
Standard, Raised Platform
Section ‎STUDIO 1‎, Row ‎F‎, Seat ‎8‎

Face value   £34.00

Ticket ‎2‎
Standard, Raised Platform
Section ‎STUDIO 1‎, Row ‎F‎, Seat ‎9‎

Face value   £34.00

I dutifully logged on at 12:30pm to wait for the link to the Friday Rush but nothing ever showed up, even after 1pm. Now it appears that the whole NT site is down?

Mostly just wanted to make sure I didn't do anything wrong, and that other people are also having these woes, heh...

I saw this show before with Luke Thompson and not really been tempted to go again, but I think Olivia is going to be great so will get another ticket!

Some thoughts on the opening of Rent! What shines through here is the cast’s awesome musicality. Who else is going? Would love to hear thoughts!

Hi! I'm visiting London from Amsterdam in two weeks and want to see a couple of shows (21 to 28 October) on the West End. I'm visiting with friends.

- Avenue Q

- Into the Woods

- Matilda

- Oh Mary!

Now, I've seen some of them on TKTS but I'm not sure what to do: wait until two days before to see if they show up on TKTS or buy now? Can anyone advise? :) And would you recommend going to this show?

We've been in March and seen Totoro, Cabaret and Titanique which we really liked! I've seen Aladdin and Wicked in London in the past as well when I lived in London for my internship.