Showing 1-24 of 24 results
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Almeida Theatre
A plush venue that can be relied on to provide the city with an essential programme of imaginative theatre, the Almeida, under its creative artistic director, Michael Attenborough, attracts directors like Richard Eyre and Rufus Norris, and stages plays such as The Mercy Seat and the acclaimed Dying For It . Check out the Conran restaurant opposite.
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Arcola Theatre
Arcola's East End location makes it a bit of a trek, but many still flock to this innovative theatre whose director Mehmet Ergen has been staging adventurous and eclectic programmes since 2000. A season focusing on Turkish writers and plays about Turkey was met with acclaim in 2007, so check the programme for more cutting-edge, international productions.
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Battersea Arts Centre
This is a friendly, down-to-earth community theatre where staff chat to you and the actors mingle in the bar with the audience post-show. Playwrights see it as a valuable nurturer and crucible of new plays and talent. Artistic director David Jubb's infamous Scratch programme is an excellent exercise in learning about the writing process: a developing play is shown to increasing audiences until it's finished.
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Bush Theatre
For what is essentially a pub theatre, the Bush is exceptionally good and encourages new writing. Its success is down to strong writing from the likes of Tina Brown, Jonathan Harvey, Conor McPherson and Stephen Poliakoff. It also attracts top actors.
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Donmar Warehouse
This tiny theatre carries a lot of baggage; it was here Nicole Kidman administered 'theatrical Viagra' by stripping in Sam Mendes' Blue Room in the 1990s. However, current artistic director Michael Grandage is also writing a wonderful new chapter, with excellent productions by David Mamet and Patrick Marber, plus heavyweight hits like Frost/Nixon . It's a wonderfully intimate little space.
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English National Opera
The ENO's new music director, Edward Gardner, is promising better years ahead, and God knows they need better years. Generally renowned for making opera modern and relevant, the ENO has been suffering a miserable few years of bad reviews, financial difficulties and media flak (not helped by Gaddafi: The Opera in 2006). Five hundred around £10 -and-under tickets are available for all weekday performances. All opera at the ENO is sung in English.
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Hampstead Theatre
Not only is this Ewan McGregor's favourite London theatre, the Hampstead is famed for putting on new writing and taking on emerging directors. It staged Harold Pinter's new work way back in the 1960s, which shows they know a good thing when they see one. The theatre is in a modern building, with two auditoria. One seats 80, the other 325.
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Laban
This is an independent dance training school, which also presents student performances, graduation shows and regular pieces by its resident troupe, Transitions, as well as other assorted dance, music and physical performances. Its stunning around £22 home was designed by Tate Modern's architects, Herzog & de Meuron.
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Lyric Hammersmith
The Lyric is a great venue that turns classics on their head, staging Greek tragedies through mixed-media, with film projection, dance and music. A modern glass entrance takes you to the historic, plush auditorium (seating 550), and a smaller (180-seat) studio. The studio is aimed at audiences under 20.
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Menier Chocolate Factory
Theatre and chocolate, two of life's major passions, have never been as gloriously paired up as they have here - a theatre inside a gorgeous conversion of a 19th-century chocolate factory. To make matters better, the theatre's superb restaurant makes for great combination deals (around £20 per person for a two-course dinner and a ticket).
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National Theatre
England's flagship theatre showcases a mix of classic and contemporary plays performed by excellent casts. Its outstanding artistic director, Nicholas Hytner, is not only using exciting stagings and plays to attract new audiences but has also slashed ticket prices. Look forward to Ralph Fiennes in Oedipus in 2008 and a new play by David Hare, commissioned by the NT.
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Notting Hill Coronet
This fin-de-siècle stunner is one of London's most atmospheric places to watch a film. Indeed, a lovesick Hugh Grant munches popcorn here while watching Julia Roberts on the big screen in Notting Hill . The wonderful Edwardian interior, including a gorgeous balcony and even boxes, recalls the glory days of cinema, when filling a 400-seat house for every showing was easy.
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Old Vic
Never has there been a London theatre with a more world-famous artistic director - Kevin Spacey looks after this glorious theatre's programme, which although not meeting with the best reviews all the time, bowled the public and the critics over with the Howard Davies 2006 production of Eugene O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten , with Spacey as Jim Tyrone. The production moved to Broadway and left the Old Vic with a deserving confidence boost.
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Opera Holland Park
This is England Jane Austen-style, with picnics on the grass, opera and frightfully posh surroundings. Sit under the 800-seat canopy, temporarily erected every summer for a nine-week season in the middle of Holland Park, and enjoy the fabulous setting and good performances. The programme mixes crowd pleasers such as Tosca and Fidelio with rare works such as L'Arlesiana and attracts a wide range of guests.
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Place
One of the most exciting modern dance venues, the Place was the birthplace of modern British dance. It concentrates on challenging, contemporary and experimental choreography. Behind the late-Victorian façade you'll find a 300-seat theatre, an arty, creative café atmosphere and six training studios. The Place sponsors an annual dance award, 'Place Prize', which strives to seek out and award new and outstanding dance talent.
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Prince Charles
You'd be right to think that ticket prices at Leicester Sq cinemas are daylight robbery, so wait until the first-runs have finished and moved to central London's cheapest cinema (tickets generally cost from around £1 to around £4 , with the best deals on Monday Madness night). There are also mini-festivals and Q&As with film directors. Famously, the cinema also transformed The Sound of Music into a phenomenal - and very camp - sing-a-long hit.
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Royal Ballet
Although the Royal Ballet's programme has been fluffed up by modern influences, classical ballet is still its bread and butter. This is where to head if you want to see traditional performances such as Giselle or Romeo & Juliet , performed by stars such as Sylvie Guillem, Irek Mukhamedov and Tamara Rojo. There are same-day tickets, one per customer, and half-price stand-by tickets.
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Royal Court
Forever associated with John Osborne's Look Back In Anger and similar revolutionary postwar pieces, the Royal Court continues to concentrate exclusively on fresh, surprising new writing. The company's own theatre, the Jerwood, was refurbished during the latter half of the 1990s and now has two comfy modern auditoria, upstairs and downstairs.
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Royal Opera House
Acccused of being stuffy and exclusive a few years back, the Royal Opera House is now attracting a younger, wealthy audience. Its around £210 million redevelopment in 2000 has given the classic a fantastic setting, and coming here for a night is a sumptuous prospect. The renovated Floral Hall is now open to the public during the day, with free lunchtime concerts at on Monday, exhibitions and daily tours.
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Sadler's Wells
The theatre site dates from 1683 and is one of the most eclectic and modern dance venues in town. It stages Rambert's excellent productions, Pina Bausch is a regular on the programme, there are experimental dance shows, hip hop conventions, and an annual flamenco festival . Sylvie Guillem and Akram Khan were made associate artists to the theatre in 2006 and staged the acclaimed Sacred Monsters . The Lilian Baylis Theatre puts on smaller shows.
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Shakespeare's Globe
The Globe is a near-perfect replica of the building on this site where Shakespeare himself worked in from 1598 to 1611. Even if the particular production you attend comes across a bit 'theme-park Shakespeare' - and they occasionally do - you'll never forget being in this up-close-and-personal open-roofed theatre in the round.
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Soho Theatre
The Soho Theatre Company dedicates itself solely to the noble task of finding new writing talent, having put on hundreds of new plays since it started operating from its smart Dean St premises in 2000. It has innovative programmes to support and develop new writing, and also showcases comedy and gets kids penning drama. This is the place to see where London drama is heading.
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Southbank Centre
The Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room are regular venues for the Dance Umbrella citywide festival, as well as hosting independent dance productions year-round.
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Young Vic
One of the capital's funkiest and most respected theatre troupes - bold, brave and talented - the Young Vic reopened in early 2007 to great acclaim, grabbing audiences with arresting plays such as Vernon God Little (as adapted from DBC Pierre's novel) and the fantastic The Big Brecht Fest season. There's a gorgeous bar/restaurant with a little summer balcony upstairs.
Showing 1-24 of 24 results
