Theatre Breaks in London http://theatrebreaks.co/2941/theatre-breaks-in-london/

Theatre breaks by Coach http://theatrebreaks.theatre.travel/filter.php?f=HC_COACH

Theatre breaks are one of the best ways of seeing the top London shows, even if you live near London. It might seem a bit mad to spend a night in a London hotel when your own bed is only 50 miles away but please hear me out
Theatre Breaks to Warhorse I was chatting to some folks in deepest Essex the other day and it soon became clear that for them, an evening trip to a West End show was not really a viable idea. They had been to see Warhorse and couldn’t speak highly enough of the show. But they said they’d think twice before going to the West End again. They live just over 50 miles from the centre of London but getting in and out of the city at night is no easy matter. Usually they drive to a train station, park the car there and hop on a train. Driving in the city means congestion charges and parking nightmares so they try to avoid it if at all possible. However, travelling into the city centre by rail at the right time means going against the flood of commuter traffic and paying the peak time fare (4pm to 7pm). You don’t really want to battle with the peak time tubes either so a black cab also adds to the cost. Most shows start around 7:30 but you want to be there a little early to pick up your tickets, maybe have a pre-theatre drink and order something for the interval.  This means you need to eat early (a special pre-theatre menu in one of the West End restaurants perhaps). If you try to wait till after the show to eat then you’ll have much less choice and you may well be rushing to catch the last train home.  The trains do run quite late but it can be 1am or even later before you get home. I’m exhausted just thinking about it! Here’s a glimpse of what Warhorse does best – some amazing life sized puppetry:

I gently suggested they might be better booking a theatre break next time and that was when I discovered people have some funny ideas about theatre breaks! Three Myths about Theatre Breaks 1. Expensive! My friends went to see Warhorse. A theatre break with top price tickets to see Warhorse a central hotel with breakfast the next morning starts from  around £120 each. Most sites will let you book your rail fare with a good discount. With  a hotel near the theatre you can  walk and avoid paying for a cab and  most sites offer a special price on a pre-theatre supper. By the time my friends had paid for all their little extras there really wasn’t much in it. 2. Bad seats My friends could only get single seats that were not next to each other. They were top priced seats and very nice, but not together. Most theatre breaks websites have better access to seats than the general public. You can often choose from a range of seat prices. You always get to sit together. The lesser known fact is that these sites often have tickets for top shows (like Warhorse!) that are reserved for theatre breaks customers. 3. These internet sites are dead dodgy! Buying stuff online is part of all our lives these days. My friends are sensible. They bought their tickets from a well known site that they have used before and trusted. That same site also sells theatre breaks!  If you are worried about how secure a site is check out this advice. (Book Theatre Breaks On Line with Confidence) So next time you are thinking about booking theatre tickets for the West End do check round first before you assume that theatre breaks aren’t a better idea.

There’s still a small amount of time left to book  Christmas or New Year theatre breaks but the choice of shows left will keep getting tighter the longer you leave it. Theatre Breaks in the Holidays January is a peak time for West End theatres in general but specific dates around the school holidays always have a high demand and booking tickets only will very soon become impossible for most of the popular musicals and plays.  Not everybody realizes though, that theatre breaks packages will still be available for top shows with good seats and plush central London hotels, long after the scramble for individual seats has subsided. That’s because the holiday and theatre breaks companies block book seats in advance and have priority arrangements with the hotel groups, In this way they can still offer top  seats for London theatres and best affordable rooms in the most convenient hotels for a price that is nearly always better value than that you could put together yourself, even if the dates you wanted were still available. Top Musicals for Theatre Breaks So which are the top five musicals for theatre breaks in London this season? Top new musical for 2011 is GHOST with fabulous rock music by Dave Stewart Ghost

musical: Ghost

starring: Richard Fleeshman, CAISSIE LEVY, SHARON D CLARKE

Book Now: Ghost theatre breaks

opening night:24 June 2011 booking until 13 October 2012.

Top Family Musical, also new for 2011 is MATILDA Based on Roald Dahl’s dramatic novel.

musical: Matilda The Musical

starring: Paul Kaye

Book Now: Matilda The Musical theatre breaks

opening night:25/11/2011 booking until 12th February 2012

LAST CHANCE! Priscilla Theatre Breaks  

musical: Priscilla Queen of the Desert

starring: Ray Meagher

Book Now: Priscilla Queen of the Desert theatre breaks

opening night:March 10 2009 booking until 31/12/2011

Perennial Favourite Wicked Theatre Breaks  

musical: Wicked!

starring: Rachel Tucker

Book Now: Wicked! theatre breaks

opening night:2006 booking until Open Ended

More Wizards and Witches in the West End Wizard of Oz Theatre Breaks  

musical: The Wizard of Oz

starring: Danielle Hope

Book Now: The Wizard of Oz theatre breaks

opening night:March 1st 2011 booking until Sunday October 28th 2012

Shakespeare In Love http://theatrebreaks.co/wiki/Shakespeare_In_Love

London Bloggers – Heather Cowper http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/08/24/london-bloggers-heather-cowper

Ghost The Musical started previews in London this week at the Piccadilly Theatre with Caissie Levy as the leading lady. Caissie Levy stars in Ghost the Musical Ghost has been a great hit with the Manchester audience during its pre-West end run and one of the firm favourites of everyone who has seen it is Caissie Levy. Caissie plays Molly Gordon, the female lead of the show. Caissie is a Canadian with a gorgeous voice and good acting skills. She needs them both during Ghost. This is a very demanding role as Molly’s character goes through an amazing range of emotions as the show progresses. We saw Caissie on the West End stage last year in the visiting Broadway production of Hair. Although Hair is a very much an ensemble piece I felt when I watched it that Cassie’s performance really stood out. She played the idealistic Shelia with real conviction and her voice rang out in songs like Good Morning Starshine. I think this bodes very well for her performance as Molly. Caissie’s other most famous role is probably as Elphaba in Wicked in the Broadway production.  In recent interviews she has drawn parallels between Ghost and Wicked. She felt that the range both of vocal skills and acting required of Molly and Elphaba were rather similar. When asked she agreed it was possible that, like Wicked, critics would not like Ghost and it might be a show that would appeal more to audiences. This wasn’t true of the Manchester critics who gave the show  great reviews but London can be harder to convince. Caissie has a gorgeous voice and I thought you might enjoy a sample:

Theatre review of Irish Blood, English Heart – Trafalgar Studios, London

This article titled “Irish Blood, English Heart – review” was written by Michael Billington, for The Guardian on Wednesday 4th May 2011 22.04 UTC Darren Murphy is clearly a generous man. We go to the theatre expecting one play and he gives us at least three: a psychological study of sibling rivalry, a social portrait of the London Irish and a meditation on the nature of narrative. But, although some would argue that nothing succeeds like excess, I would gladly have settled for half. At first, we seem to be in familiar theatrical territory. Two brothers converge on the Southwark lock-up where their father, an emigre Irish cab driver, apparently killed himself. Con is the struggling one who followed his dad into the cab trade and whose wife, Peggy, dreams of opening a restaurant. The other brother, Ray, is the success story who has written a bestselling novel and TV film that cannibalises the family history. While Con is anxious to honour the dead dad, Peggy’s main aim is to extract compensation from Ray for appropriating their lives in a piece of fiction. Behind the play lurks the formidable shadow of Arthur Miller: the fraternal rivalry is straight out of The Price, and lines such as “A man is more than the worst thing he’s ever done” strive to achieve a Milleresque resonance. But I feel Murphy’s real preoccupation is with stories and their ownership. Does one, he implicitly asks, possess the copyright on one’s own life? A comedian once expressed his bewilderment to me that it was the author, rather than the subject, of a biography who got paid; and it is such a provocative issue that I wish Murphy had explored it in more detail. Instead, he gets carried away with the brothers’ re-enactment of past familial wrongs, and even introduces a totally implausible fourth character to remind us that the dead father was himself a monstrous fantasist. I will say this for Murphy, however: he gives his actors plenty to chew on and, in Caitriona McLaughlin’s nicely cooked production (which transfers from Southwark’s Union theatre), they clearly relish the emotional feast. Ian Groombridge exudes a nervy anxiety as Con, seeking closure on the disordered narrative of his dad’s life. Howard Teale has the right sheen of success as the brother who has adopted the name of Ray Suede and whose whole career is a form of self-invention. Although Con’s wife is marginalised in the later stages, Carolyn Tomkinson invests her with a fractious energy. In the end, the play seems to suggest that the Irish capacity for fabrication and storytelling needs an element of formal restraint. Though it is a perfectly valid message, I wish Murphy had followed his own good advice.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

Nick Clegg is the unlikely hero of Nicked, a new musical that’s unfashionably sympathetic to the Lib Dem leader

This article titled “Anyone for Nicked: the Clegg musical?” was written by Euan Ferguson, for The Observer on Saturday 23rd April 2011 23.05 UTC Least likely contender for Spring Hit in Theatre-World, I think it’s safe to say, is going to be Nicked. It’s basically a musical about Nick Clegg, written by a performance poet: that’s when it’s not being a play about the alternative vote. Not, on paper, I think you’ll agree, the most urgently prepossessing of dramatic ideas. And although political theatre does have a proud tradition, and the TV/film adaptations of aspects of the Blair years were enthralling, there’s also a particular recent history of turkeys, especially when “satire” is advertised within. Also… well, Cleggy. Isn’t he a bit obvious? Isn’t this what we call a laughably soft target? Fears totally unfounded. Preconceptions proved damnably and delightfully wrong. Watching early rehearsals for Nicked, one of the productions showcased in this year’s HighTide festival in Suffolk, it’s clear this could be a thing of brilliance. And, actually, something Mr Clegg might want to travel to Halesworth to see – festival director Steven Atkinson estimates about 70% of visitors come from London – because it manages the seemingly impossible at the moment: it humanises the Lib-Dem leader, and makes you think again. Among the scenes I saw, in a small, busy rehearsal room, piano in one corner, cast leaning casually against the walls as they waited to become Samantha Cameron, or Miriam Clegg, or Vince Cable, or David Laws (remember him?) or the Queen, was the crucial one that had Jason Langley and Sam Hodges, as Clegg and Cameron, meeting in an underground car park to warily woo. It’s done as a tango, perhaps the perfect form, the tango having originated in Buenos Aires as a dark celebration of the ever-changing dance of power/need/compromise, both physical and figurative, between sailors and whores. So Dave and Nick tango, head leaning against head as the music builds, and I won’t spoil it but they’re given some pretty good lines, and sing them grandly, and twirl and stamp. It’s great dramatic fun and makes you think, and I realise fairly quickly that this is not a Clegg-knocking exercise. “Absolutely not,” says the writer, Richard Marsh, as far from my idea of “performance poet” as you could imagine – self-effacing and engaging, if a little unslept. He’s been teasing and tweaking the script nightly, to give it greatest relevance when the show opens, because so much has happened to Clegg since “Cleggmania” after those election debates; and continues to happen. Marsh, and director Pia Furtado, will be changing it right up until the week of the AV vote. The script focuses, yes, on those early negotiations, our extraordinary coalition and aspects of the fallout, but it is not yet finished. “Whatever happens, this is just a human story,” continues Marsh, who has in a previous short play, among other things successfully fused Guantánamo Bay with Harry Potter. As you do. “What I wanted was to tell a story about someone whose job is politics. And humanise them, try to get people to relate to him from the view of his own set of circumstances. Everyone is the hero of his own story. But the more I’ve looked into Nick Clegg” – Marsh even read David Laws’s book. All of it – “and those extraordinary days while the coalition was being founded, a handful of very, very tired white men deciding the future of our country, the more I realised the drama of those days.” Steven Atkinson, the festival director, pulled a string or two to arrange a visit to Downing Street, to allow Marsh a glimpse into the physicality of how it all worked – men in rooms, bartering and phoning and sweating and swearing and worrying and wooing, as was happening half a mile away that sunny May in other dark corridors in and around Smith Square – but the outcome wasn’t just a power-play or a point won. It was, as we know, the car ride to Buckingham Palace, here done as another song, this time of joyous comradeship at a deal successfully done. “Just give me PR and then/ we’ll share the keys to Number 10!” Queen Liz looks on, even sings, in wonderfully sardonic fashion; Sam Cam dances with sly exuberant delight. “It’s been quite hard to hold on to my original thoughts of Nick as a person while he’s been getting stuck whack in the middle of decisions I don’t personally agree with,” says Marsh, who, when he first conceived this production, could not have foreseen the storm of opprobrium to land on Clegg of late. The team’s job, and I think rightly so, is essentially to question the knee-jerk reaction of much of this, remind us there is a person at the centre of it, fraught with his own dilemmas, and to do so in verse, with dance; it’s a little miracle it seems to be working so well thus far. As Atkinson says: “Does anyone who’s jumping on him now ever ask themselves: what would you do in the same position? What was the alternative?” The fast-changing nature of the coalition and the way it’s perceived has led to problems or, as politicians would doubtless have it, challenges and opportunities. Marsh is keen to apologise to his director. “Pia’s very patient. We’ve had to cut whole songs. Cut things that didn’t happen, insert things that did or had more impact than we’d first imagined.” Furtado smiles, patiently, itching to get back to rehearsals. She’s spent a while with them earlier just working on character, real character: “The last thing any of us wanted was some Rory Bremner-style caricature.” In one strangely touching scene, Jason Langley’s Clegg pleads with David Laws, a strong friend and fine financial mind caught in that early expenses/gay row, not to resign. Laws, a pitch-perfect Peter Caulfield, but with, I suspect, a better singing voice, breaks from song to solemn dialogue, after Clegg insists: “Most normal people won’t care.” “No, Nick,” he replies. “Most normal people will get political this year.” And they did. Which is better, surely, than apathy. But along the way, some may have forgotten the humans involved at the middle. Quite bizarrely, a sharp little musical – 70% splendid fun, 30% insights wiser than our own leader columns – could just start redressing the balance. Steven Atkinson is even talking about a West End transfer.

Nicked premieres on 30 April, as part of the HighTide Festival, at the Main House, The Cut, Halesworth. hightide.org.uk

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Some interesting ships can be seen docked in the Thames, such as the Greenwich warship a couple of years ago. This weekend brought a Spanish Navy training ship, the four masted tall ship called Juan Sebastián de Elcano which is one of the largest and oldest tall ships still operational.

The video was taken from onboard one of the Hurricane Clipper river boat catamarans which provide a commuter service as well as sightseeing on the river Thames and now accept Oystercard onboard for payment as well as pre-paid tickets.

Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogGreenwich Tall Ship – 4 Masted Juan Sebastián de Elcano

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An article in the Daily Mail Online reports that the decommissioned air craft carrier Arc Royal could be ‘saved’ and used as a helipad in London. The intended location turns out to be right next to London City Airport, in effect providing an instant additional runway to the controversial inner city airfield within the London borough of Newham.

Ark Royal could be saved from the scrapheap under plans to turn it into a heliport.

The Royal Navy aircraft carrier, axed in last October’s defence cuts and due to be decommissioned next month, could be based on the Thames by May 2012. The 693ft vessel would be manned by around 150 former servicemen, for whom it would be both a home and a job, and would cater for City workers, police helicopters and London’s air ambulance. Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, the head of the Navy, said the move could safeguard the future of the carrier, and the Ministry of Defence  confirmed it was considering the plan. Currently in Portsmouth, the ship would be moored in the Royal Docks near City Airport to comply with noise-pollution rules. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1358880/Ark-Royal-new-future–floating-helipad-Thames.html

Photo: HMS Illustrious at Greenwich

Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogArc Royal to extend London City Airport

Related posts:Mercedes Marilyn and Ella at Theatre Royal Stratford To us, it’s an obscure shift of tax law. To the City, it’s the heist of the century

An article in the Daily Mail Online reports that the decommissioned air craft carrier Arc Royal could be ‘saved’ and used as a helipad in London. The intended location turns out to be right next to London City Airport, in effect providing an instant additional runway to the controversial inner city airfield within the London borough of Newham.

Ark Royal could be saved from the scrapheap under plans to turn it into a heliport.

The Royal Navy aircraft carrier, axed in last October’s defence cuts and due to be decommissioned next month, could be based on the Thames by May 2012. The 693ft vessel would be manned by around 150 former servicemen, for whom it would be both a home and a job, and would cater for City workers, police helicopters and London’s air ambulance. Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, the head of the Navy, said the move could safeguard the future of the carrier, and the Ministry of Defence  confirmed it was considering the plan. Currently in Portsmouth, the ship would be moored in the Royal Docks near City Airport to comply with noise-pollution rules. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1358880/Ark-Royal-new-future–floating-helipad-Thames.html

Photo: HMS Illustrious at Greenwich

Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogArc Royal to extend London City Airport

Related posts:Mercedes Marilyn and Ella at Theatre Royal Stratford To us, it’s an obscure shift of tax law. To the City, it’s the heist of the century

I hate popcorn in cinemas too, the noise and the smell of it, but shooting people is wrong. I don’t know about Latvia but in London there are one or two cinemas or picture houses with no popcorn. The Barbican centre in one of them.

This article titled “Man shot dead in Latvian cinema for eating popcorn too loudly” was written by Catherine Shoard and agencies, for guardian.co.uk on Monday 21st February 2011 13.17 UTC A man has been shot dead at a cinema in Latvia after a fellow movie-goer objected to the volume at which he was eating his popcorn. The assailant, 27, reportedly had a brief argument with the man, aged 43, who was sitting next to him during a screening of Black Swan in the Forum cinema, one of the largest in the city of Riga.

When the credits rolled, the younger man pulled out a legally registered firearm and shot the other man dead. Other audience members then phoned for the police and an ambulance. The younger man – a graduate of the police academy who holds a doctorate in law from the University of Latvia – waited to be arrested.

The most recent incident of cinema rage in the UK was in 2009, when a teenager threw bleach over a woman who tried to quieten a group of youths during a screening of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in Leeds.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogMan shot dead in Latvian cinema for eating popcorn too loudly

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I hate popcorn in cinemas too, the noise and the smell of it, but shooting people is wrong. I don’t know about Latvia but in London there are one or two cinemas or picture houses with no popcorn. The Barbican centre in one of them.

This article titled “Man shot dead in Latvian cinema for eating popcorn too loudly” was written by Catherine Shoard and agencies, for guardian.co.uk on Monday 21st February 2011 13.17 UTC A man has been shot dead at a cinema in Latvia after a fellow movie-goer objected to the volume at which he was eating his popcorn. The assailant, 27, reportedly had a brief argument with the man, aged 43, who was sitting next to him during a screening of Black Swan in the Forum cinema, one of the largest in the city of Riga.

When the credits rolled, the younger man pulled out a legally registered firearm and shot the other man dead. Other audience members then phoned for the police and an ambulance. The younger man – a graduate of the police academy who holds a doctorate in law from the University of Latvia – waited to be arrested.

The most recent incident of cinema rage in the UK was in 2009, when a teenager threw bleach over a woman who tried to quieten a group of youths during a screening of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in Leeds.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogMan shot dead in Latvian cinema for eating popcorn too loudly

Related posts:Three dead swans in Dorset had Bird Flu Small earthquake in Kent, not many dead. The world wide web is shrinking

I tend to bang on about rail travel as preferable to driving, but theatre breaks by coach offer a different kind of experience altogether. People over a certain age may well have bad memories of coach journeys back in the bad old days when there were no onboard facilities, long uncomfortable journeys around bendy trunk roads with groups of badly behaved people and children. I know I do. But modern coaches have air conditioning, plush comfortable seating, traffic news by radio and sat nav, personal entertainment and are a fast and relaxing way to travel hundreds of miles from city centre to city centre. When you arrive in London on a theatre break by coach, you are not left to yourself to find the hotel and the theatre because you are part of a coach party who are all going to the same show and you usually get picked up outside the theatre by the coach which then drives you all directly to the hotel after the show. That can make the whole stopover a lot more manageable for some people. Theatre Breaks by Coach - Theatre Breaks Magazine Another thing I’m really excited about being able to offer now that we have Coach Theatre Breaks available through the Magazine Readers Offers is the opportunity to book a theatre break for one. Yes, there is a single room supplement to cover the extra hotel costs, but it’s a lot better than being confronted with a booking form that asks you to select the number of tickets required starting at two! And if you go on a coach trip to London’s West End as a single person then you have the perfect choice as to whether you want to keep yourself to yourself or socialise a bit with other people who are coming from the same town as yourself and will be around at the hotel and on the coach journey home again after having seen the same show.

Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogTheatre Breaks by Coach

Related posts:Theatre breaks in London Theatre Breaks Magazine London theatre breaks by rail

Part 1 of a 3 part series of ideas for Midweek Breaks on a Budget The midweek breaks problem: You have a week off work coming up soon and you want to take full advantage. Neither of you can afford anything really expensive. With a budget of around £500 between you just what is possible? Here is the first of 3 ideas that will give you a good break but won’t over stretch the budget. This one might surprise you! London theatre breaks mid week I can just imagine your reaction, “London? Isn’t that going to be really expensive? Shows? Are you nuts?” Well, I’m not nuts and I’m about to try to prove it. A midweek break for 2 in London, 2 nights in a hotel and, tickets for a West End Show and rail travel from somewhere like Leeds could cost you as little as £140 each. You’d actually do better spending a little more on the hotel and getting one right in the centre near the theatres. Much more fun and the less time you spend on the tube the better! That would start at about £200 each and often includes a full English breakfast. Places to eat in London on Midweek Breaks It’s true, you can easily spend a fortune eating out in London but you don’t have to. And I don’t mean just eat nasty take-aways either. London, even in the West End or Covent Garden is full of pleasant, reasonable places to eat. In fact it can be easier to find such a place in London than in somewhere like Leeds or Manchester! There are good chains like Cafe Rouge, Giraffe and Eat but you should be able to find something a bit more adventurous. restaurants for midweek breaks Book one meal with your break When you book a theatre break with hotel stay and show tickets included, it’s easy to add a pre-show dinner, either at the hotel where you will be staying or at a suggested nearby quality restaurant. These meal deals or add-ons are all set up to make sure you have an relaxed restaurant dinner and can still arrive at the theatre in plenty of time to take you seats well before the show starts. The restaurant bill is then included in the total cost of your break and it’s usually very good value. Find restaurants for yourself I could recommend a few West End restaurants but in London things change constantly. Places change hands, cooks move on, old favourites close and new ones open. You can find every style of food from French to Japanese via Vietnam and Cornwall! Here are some tips to consider before walking in off the street:

Have a good look at the menu display board. Is is the kind of you food you fancy? Is there a special menu deal and if so what exactly is included Are you happy with the price? Check there are no hidden’extras’(VAT, Service etc) Don’t be shy! Peer in through the windows and see who is already eating. If nobody at all, that’s not always a bad sign if it’s still very early evening but some places are crowded from late afternoon with people coming straight out from work. If there are diners eating within sight, or waiters carrying food to table then have a nosy glance at the food itself. In just a second you can often get an impression if it looks appetising, artistic, not quite right, too big or too small. Look at the tables and chairs offered to see if you think you will be comfortable and not too squashed together. Once inside make sure the table you are offered isn’t too near the door or, worse yet, the toilets. If it is just say refuse it, you will usually be offered another one and nobody takes offense.

There’s no reason why you can’t eat well and not spend too much even in the heart of London. Read more about this topic at our sister site Theatre Breaks Magazine 5 Things to Do in London on Midweek Breaks Well, there are just so many and lots of them cost either very little or nothing at all. If you are on a tight budget then it might be wise to avoid the shops. London shops pay top prices for their rents so they can be a little expensive. A little window shopping won’t hurt though, just don’t get tempted. Here are just a list of 5 suggestions for things that cost very little or are free: River cruises are quieter on midweek breaks

A hop on hop off Thames river cruise. A great way to see the city and costs very little. Art Galleries – they are free! Tate Modern is a favourite. There is usually something interesting and often fun(!) in the Turbine Hall. It is also ideal if you combine it with the river cruise. From the Tate walk over the Millennium Footbridge, get one of the best views of the river and go and have a look round St Pauls. It really is quite stunning. The Houses of Parliament and Big Ben are really best viewed from the river. The roads and pavements around them will be heaving with people mid-week so you get a much better view from a boat. A walk in St James Park. Costs nothing but will provide you with some great views and a little oasis of calm and quiet in the busy city.

One more tip, if you are feeling like exploring more of London get yourselves Pay-as-You-Go Oyster Cards and learn to use the tube.  You can even hop on a Routemaster bus with it! Just avoid the busiest stops and peak times if you don’t like being squashed.

Love Never Dies By the time many people read this the free tickets competition will be over, so I’ll write about why I think you might like to consider Love Never Dies theatre breaks anyway. I guess you may have already seen The Phantom of The Opera ? The most successful piece of live entertainment ever, it’s been on long enough. Or maybe your parents enjoyed it thirty years ago when Michael Crawford played the Phantom. Well Love Never Dies is a continuation of the story, but with completely new twists. The scene is set ten years after the incident at the Paris Opera House, and the Phantom is now presiding over a huge entertainment complex at Coney Island, New York. He manages to manipulate Christine and Raoul into sailing across the Atlantic and into his lair. But there’s much more than that…

Some of the music in Love Never Dies comes from the operetta genre, some from light entertainment and some even from a rock background. This is the fusion which Andrew Lloyd Webber does so well. The staging, sets and costumes are magnificent, so you really do see a big musical theatre event up there on the big stage. This is certainly not one of your small cast and minimalist aesthetics plays, like many even in the West End, not that there’s anything wrong with that. Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess are both star quality singers in the lead roles and it’s nice to hear the full orchestra getting a proper work out. Did I mention the free tickets? Love Never Dies Tickets Competition One pair of top price tickets have been donated. That’s worth around £180 normally. Now, you’d need to be able to get to the London Adelphi Theatre for tomorrow night, Saturday 9th October 2010. So if you are in London anyway, and can clear out all of your prior engagements to be free then you’d do well to nip over and quickly enter the simple competition on the Love Never Dies blog. The odds are not against you! Here’s the link again… http://www.loveneverdiesphantom.co.uk Love Never Dies Theatre Breaks If you don’t have easy access to the capital then buying London theatre breaks packages with the tickets and convenient hotel room plus optional discount rail travel is nearly always the best way to go.

Other London Theatre Breaks to see West End Musicals

Theatre Breaks The Wizard of Oz The Phantom Of The Opera Les Miserables Ghost

Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogLove Never Dies London Theatre Breaks

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Deathtrap at the Noel Coward Theatre Deathtrap The Play Yesterday I wrote a glowing review for the revival of Ira Lewin’s comedy thriller Deathtrap at the Noel Coward Theatre. But when I read it back, I thought how unexciting it was compared to the play! So I thought maybe I’d do something a little different. Instead of a written review, here’s a quick audioboo file in which I talk about the play, it’s less than 5 minutes long, and a bit more interesting perhaps?

** book Deathtrap Theatre Breaks ** Deathtrap The Play – wiki Deathtrap was originally posted at London Theatre Breaks blog

The best theatre breaks deal this month is with Show&Stay. From now (August) until September 21st you can choose from 13 of the top shows in  a free hotel package. Prices start from just £50 per person including your hotel, and they are good tickets too! Shows The following shows are included in the offer but act fast as some of these will go quickly:

All the Fun of the Fair Blood Brothers Billy Elliot Burn the Floor Chicago Dirty Dancing Dreamboats and Petticoats Grease (with Lauren Samuels, Over the Rainbow runner-up) Hair Jersey Boys Sweet Charity Sister Act (with Whoopi Goldberg!) We Will Rock You

Find out more The free hotel room offer is available for booking until 21st September. Upgrades One of the best things about this offer is that you can upgrade to a 4* central hotel from just a tenner each! Buy two theatre tickets for any show in the offer and enjoy a 4-star hotel stay from just £10pp The other great upgrade is  that you can stay an extra night from just £30 per person. This gives you the chance to see some great shows and have a mini-holiday at a very reasonable price. Here’s that link again: Check if your dates are available

Theatre Breaks with Free Hotel Offer was originally posted at London Theatre Breaks blog

Here’s the news today, Theatre Breaks have launched their summer offer with a 10% discount off everything on the website! Theatre Breaks site wide Summer Sale kicks off today, June 15th and lasts for the whole of June. Every theatre break booked will be at a saving of 10%… All Shows, All Hotels, All the Extras… All at 10% Off. Here’s the link for the 10% discount: Theatre Breaks with 10% Off Everything So you can tailor make your break as usual with your choice of show, hotel and dates and create yourself a bargain! *Book today for big savings – Theatre & Hotel Packages from just £55.80 per person! *Book today and upgrade to a 4 or 5 star hotel – with the money you save. *Book today and plan ahead – secure your Summer Holiday, Half-term getaway, Christmas do or New Year’s bash – all at a great reduction. The discount will run until 1700hrs GMT, June 30th – leaving you only a few days to take advantage of a great saving on your next trip to London, whenever that might be. Theatre Breaks Here’s the link again for the 10% discount: Theatre Breaks with 10% Off Everything 10% OFF all Theatre Breaks was originally posted at London Theatre Breaks blog