Theatre Breaks In London

Weekend Theatre Breaks in London

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 10:37:04 +0000

Weekend theatre breaks in London are becoming a very popular way of visiting the UK capital. A weekend theatre break usually consists of two nights in a London hotel and tickets to see a West End show.

Usually you arrive in London on Friday evening. You either choose to see your show straight away on the Friday evening or book your show for Saturday night. If you choose to see your show on Friday you might worry about getting a pre-theatre meal. However most of the restaurants in the West End offer pre-theatre menus which are served from 5:30 giving you lots of time to get to your show.

I prefer to book the show for Saturday evening if at all possible. It gives you Friday night to relax, explore a little and have an unrushed evening meal. Then a little gentle sight-seeing and maybe shopping on the Saturday. I like to have a really English treat, afternoon tea, somewhere like Fortnum and Masons. This needs to be booked in advanced. Some of theatre break agencies will let you book when you book this when your break and even offer a discount. Afternoon tea is really a small meal not just a snack so it should see you through everything but the longest shows. After the show, most end between 10pm and 10:30pm, you can easily find somewhere to have a spot of supper. I am very fond of La Tasca which does fresh, tasty Spanish tapas until quite late on Saturdays. It is great for sharing and you can order as much or as little as you want. The it is back to your hotel for a nightcap and to relax. This is when you will be really glad you chose a central London hotel, somewhere within walking distance of the theatre is ideal. This is so much pleasanter than dealing with the tube, black cabs or rickshaws.

After theatre tapas?

If you are an early riser and you’ve travelled fairly light Sunday morning can be a great time for sight-seeing in London. The city is amazingly quiet on Sunday mornings and you can see busy areas like Westminster without having to deal with the crowds.

Happy New Year Theatre Breaks In London

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 16:12:42 +0000

Happy New Year for 2010 from the Theatre Breaks in London blog team.

It’s been a great year in London’s West End with some surprise hits and some unfortunate flops as well, and we look forward to 2010 especially with the opening of the Phantom of The Opera continuation Love Never Dies and the new Wizard of Oz.

January is a busy tine for the travel and entertainments industries so we hope you all manage to find the best theatre breaks in London bargains out of all the new deals and offers floating about at this time of year.

Breaks in London

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 21:34:44 +0000

Breaks in London

London seems such an industrious city with working people rushing about all the time and yet on any one single day there are probably tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of visitors taking some kind of breaks in London. In this blog we mainly concentrate on theatre breaks in London because that’s the name of the blog but within that whole idea of city breaks with a hotel and theatre show combined in one package, there are many different ways of putting it all together, so that comes down in the end mainly to individual choice.

Hotel breaks in London

Hotel breaks in London can of course come with or without theatre tickets, and the attraction of a top musical show isn’t what brings everybody to the West end even. Some might come for sporting, shopping or concert breaks in London. And then there’s the question of whether weekend breaks are better than midweek breaks in London when the show tickets might be for better seats but the hotel room have less availability. The same parent might choose to bring the kids for family breaks in London to meet one purpose but on another occasion just a partner for romantic breaks in London with a fantastic meal at one of the numerous smart restaurants in the city.

Comedy Theatre Breaks in London

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:38:54 +0000

In the run up to Christmas some of the West End theatres stop running plays and musicals and instead offer top name comedians live on stage, which makes an opportunity for people from out of town to visit London on what we cal “Comedy Theatre Breaks in London”. A comedy theatre breaks will include tickest to the theatre for a great night out comedy show, and a room on teh night of the show in a smart hotel in central London.

Last year, in 2008 for example we had Bill Baily’s comedy and music Tinselworm show and also Eddie Izzard’s amazing standup performance, both in Shaftesbury avenue theatres.

This year, 2009 we have Dylan Moran, the surrealist Irish comedian who starred in cult TV sitcom “Black Books” among other things.

Dylan Moran Theatre Breaks in London

Dylan Moran

Eddie Izzard is back this year but only for one night so it’s at the O2, where there;s a Russel Brand show too.

O2 comedy breaks – Eddie Izzard , Russel Brand

Theatre Breaks in London 2010 – Love Never Dies

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:07:38 +0000

My tip for theatre breaks in London in 2010 is going to be for, “Love Never Dies”, the Phantom of the Opera sequel. We don’t know all that much about it yet, but that doesn’t matter, even this early. We know the pedigree behind it, with Andrew Lloyd Webber in charge and a whole string of hit musicals behind him, but that’s not the clincher.

Theatre breaks in london

Anybody who has been up to London on a special trip just to see The Phantom of the Opera will be wanting to see what happens next, and that’s where Love Never Dies theatre breaks in London will pick up a certain number of devotees but there’s more. There are two books which Phantom fans may have come across. One by the original author of the novel upon which phantom the musical was based, ( that one is also called “Love Never Dies”) and a later novel by Frederick Forsyth called “The Phantom of Manhattan”.

Where I think this new musical is going to make sure of its own survival in London theatreland though, is in having Ben Elton write the playscript. Elton is the comedian, comedy writer and novelist who is behind the storyline in “We Will Rock You” which is another of the longest running West End musicals, and a long term favourite for theatre breaks in London, not just for the great classic rock songs by Queen. So with a host of talented established musical theatre stars lined up for a possible three instances of Love Never Dies worldwide, with the experience of the management, talent of the writers and the following of Phantom to build on, I can’t see Love Never Dies failing to make a permanent marl on the London theatre breaks scene.

Chicago Theatre Breaks

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 05:26:58 +0000

Chicago is simply one of the best known musicals for theatre breaks in London and despite being a bit long in the tooth it’s a perrenial favourite. The promotors of this international hit show manage to keep on coming up with unlikely special guest stars who always bring a new lease of life and interest to the show, for example this summer in London you can see Jerry Springer in the role of Flynn the lawayer. Here’s a video of Jerry helping to publicise Chicago at West End Live in London’s Leicester Square back in June 2009.

YouTube Video by Theatre breaks

Wicked Theatre Breaks In London

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:58:35 +0000

Wicked theatre breaks in London might be centered around the Victoria area, with the huge Apollo theatre for Wicked being located near London Victoria station as well as several top quality hotels nearby. Go before December and you’ll have a chance to see the new Elphaba, wicked witch perfoermed by Alexia Khadime who is surely making for a superb replacement for Kerry Ellis. This video is from the West End Live show last weekend, and gives a low key idea of what Alexia can do I think.

While in the Victoria area for a Wicked theatre break, I’d head south down to the riverbank and take a look at the Tate Britain art museum if that’s your kind of thing. It makes a nice change from the more popular Tate modern these days. On the day of the show why not have an enjoyable bar snack style lunch at Chimes of Pimlico Restaurant

West End Live Running Order for 2009

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 08:05:08 +0000

Here’s the running order list for the West End Live shows free in leicester Square on Saturday 20th June and Sunday 21st June 2009. Looks like a great line up again, and don’t forget that Jodie Prenger will be there from Oliver and Jerry Springer from Chicago.

West End Live for Saturday 20th June, 2009

11.05 Hairspray

11.15 Been So Long

11.30 Wicked

11.40 Dirty Dancing

11.55 The King and I

12.05 Oliver!

12.15 Sister Act

12.25 We Will Rock You

12.45 Priscilla Queen of the Desert

12.50 Chicago

13.10 Jersey Boys

13.30 Thriller Live

13.50 Forbidden Broadway

14.05 The Sylvia Young Theatre School

14.25 The South Bank Centre presents ‘Tom Tom Crew’

14.45 Little Big Club

15.10 So Jest End

15.25 Avenue Q

15.45 Zanna Don’t

16.05 The London Gay Men’s Chorus

16.30 Too Close to the Sun

16.50 Faithless Bitches

17.05 The KB Fusionnaires

17.45 La Cage Aux Folles

17.55 Stomp

West End Live Sunday 21st June

12.00 Stomp

12.15 Little Big Club

12.35 West End Kids

12.55 Jersey Boys

13.15 Thriller Live

13.35 Noise Ensemble

13.55 Zanna Don’t

14.10 Honk!

14.20 SOLT – Competition

14.25 Royal Albert Hall presents ‘The Red Stripe Band’

15.05 Chinatown Arts Space Presents ‘TheBathroomGirl’

15.25 Bar Rumba presents ‘Salsateca’

15.40 Players Theatre presents ‘Victorian Music Hall’

15.55 National Youth Music Theatre

16.10 Lord Mayor of Westminster’s West End LIVE presentations

16.20 Octave8 presents ‘Yot.K’

16.50 Dover Street Restaurant and Jazz Bar presents ‘The Blues Engineers’

17.25 Ain’t Nothin But Blues Bar present the ‘West Western Bluesonics’

Mamma Mia Theatre Breaks in London

Sat, 30 May 2009 12:06:17 +0000

Mamma Mia is one of the longer lasting musicals in the West End and so Mamma Mia Theatre Breaks in London have built up to become one of the standards alongside Dirty Dancing

It’s something to do with the heady feel good atmosphere generated by just the impression of a greek island holiday even though you are in the middle of the big city. You don;t necessarily have to be a big fan of Abba’s songs either, I know I’m not – but the game of guessing how the plot is weaving along to include yet another classic is almost as much fun as the superb acting and singing. The film of Mamma Mia! was pretty good too, with Maryl Streep proving she can sing for the first time to her usual film audience.

Theatre Breaks Magazine Launched

Mon, 04 May 2009 13:19:54 +0000

A new resource for theatre breaks online launched last month called Theatre Breaks Magazine

Categories of articles include