London's West End

The United Kingdom has had a long and noble tradition of theatre and British actors, directors and writers continue to have a disproportionately large impact on the wider stage of world drama.  The focus of Britain’s theatrical energy, today, is London’s West End, the home to theatres large and small ever since the Theatre Royal first opened on Drury Lane way back in 1663. 

During the following 350 years, it has been demolished once, burned down twice, accumulated a dozen or so ghosts and, all the while, it has seen British theatre become evermore more entrenched within the area now commonly known as “the West End” or, sometimes, “Theatreland”.

The area, to the west of the City of London [link to the City of London article], is considered to encompass the entertainment hotspots of Leicester Square, Soho, Covent Garden and the shopping destinations Oxford Street, Bond Street and Regent Street. Wider definitions of the West End might also include Bloomsbury, Fitzrovia, Holborn, Marylebone, Mayfair  Seven Dials, St. James and Westminster.  The term “West End” to describe this theatre-heavy area only really came into common usage in the 1820’s.

Of course, your West End experience will probably revolve around the grand theatres, the most popular of which are:

• Coliseum Theatre
• Apollo Victoria Theatre
• London Palladium
• Royal Opera House
• Theatre Royal
• Dominion Theatre
• Lyceum Theatre
• Prince Edward Theatre
• Victoria Palace Theatre
• Adelphia Theatre
• Palace Theatre
• Shaftesbury Theatre
• Piccadilly
• Cambridge Theatre
• Her Majesty’s Theatre
• Queen’s Theatre
• Aldwych Theatre
• Prince of Wales Theatre
• Savoy Theatre
• New London Theatre
• Novello Theatre
• Phoenix Theatre
• Peacock Theatre
• Lyric Theatre
• Gielgud Theatre
• Theatre Royal, Haymarket
• Noël Coward Theatre
• Harold Pinter Theatre
• Apollo Theatre
• Playhouse Theatre
• Wyndham's Theatre
• Vaudeville Theatre
• Garrick Theatre
• Duke of York's Theatre
• Criterion Theatre
• St Martin's Theatre
• Duchess Theatre
• Fortune Theatre
• Ambassadors Theatre
• Trafalgar Studios 1
• Arts Theatre
• Trafalgar Studios 2

You may be more familiar with New York’s Broadway, so, let’s look at some of the similarities and, then, some of the differences (apart from the fact that you crazy Americans spell the word theatre as “theatre”).

Like Broadway, the West End is not only a place but also, more importantly, an aspiration for thousands of actors, writers and other theatrical types.  Becoming involved in a West End Show is a dream come true for most of them, a vindication that they have “made it”, even if they were just playing the part of “second spear-holder to the left”. 

A career in theatre is always a gamble and the fact that reputations can be made or squandered overnight adds to the excitement of the industry and, just like Broadway, you can feel that electricity in the air of the West End.

Another similarity is that West End shows tend to be large, expensive productions, often featuring well-known actors or, at least, designed to appeal to mainstream audiences.

Standards of dress are about the same for Broadway and the West End, there is no dress code, smart casual will be fine although no-one will stop you turning up in sweatpants if you have recently had a taste bypass. 

Some theatres do attract an older audience and, of course, they tend to dress more formally for these occasions but, again, no-one will bat an eyelid if you turn up in hot pants and a Jackson 5 wig.

The first big difference you will notice is that tickets for West End shows, though pricey enough, are nowhere near as stratospherically expensive as most Broadway shows.  It also tends to be easier to get discounts deals, even for the most popular shows. 

The generally lower price is down to a number of factors: the vast majority of UK theatres and the majority receive some form of government subsidy, productions tend to be lower key and less expensive, the theatres tend to be somewhat older and threadbare than Broadway’s, and leading British actors to command far lower fees than their American equivalents.

 
As, in any country, you should avoid buying tickets from touts on the street, they are quite likely to be scammers.  Be wary, too, of online sellers, unless you have done enough research to confirm that they are legitimate dealers. 

The best way to buy tickets is, of course, directly from the theatre’s box office or their website - but, again, do a small amount of research to confirm that it is the real website for that theatre, any scammer can set up a website or even a telephone sales line.

The second difference you will notice is that British plays tend to have a slower pace.  Renowned English actor Alan Rickman discusses that, along with other differences between Broadway and the West End in this video:  

If you visit the West End theatres in the summer, do not expect American standards of air conditioning - London can get surprisingly hot and some of those old theatres can get stuffy.

The fourth difference you will notice between Broadway and the West End is that London audiences tend to be much quieter and less energetic in expressing their appreciation of a good performance. 

This doesn’t mean that they are any less entertained than their American cousins, they simply take a more intellectualised approach. 

British performers know how to read their audiences and will derive much satisfaction from the a polite minute or two of applause that denotes a job well done, whereas an American performer might feel somewhat depressed not to receive at least a few enthusiastic shouts or cheers.

Standing ovations do happen but only when a performance has been truly outstanding.  If an audience has enjoyed a show the actors will usually get a second curtain call but British reserve, both on the part of the audience and the actors, usually means that these are quick affairs about the American equivalent, where actors tend to bask for longer in the waves of audience adulation.

West End audiences also tend to have more eclectic tastes and pay less attention to reviewers, unlike Broadway where a bad write-up in the New York Times has been known to close shows down overnight. 

The West End’s more tolerant, somewhat less acidic environment has allowed some riskier endeavours to take root, sometimes resulting in massive hits and, ironically, went on to be long-running successes on Broadway too.

An example of this unusual symbiosis between the West End and Broadway would be the musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber, including Cats, Joseph and the Amazing, Evita and The Phantom of the Opera, which have dominated the West End and Broadway with their quirky charm for over four decades.

It is fair to say that, no matter how many millions they earned on Broadway and regardless of the impact they have had on American musicals, it is hard to imagine a production such as Jesus Christ Superstar ever originating anywhere in the United States.

Incidentally, it is worth noting that Lloyd Webber, who has a personal fortune of over ten billion dollars, is one of the most spectacularly ugly men you will ever see who hasn’t been personally involved in an IED explosion. 

I wouldn’t usually mention this in a travel guide but, seriously, this guy is so aesthetically challenged that I am willing to make an exception.  He has now been married 3 times, which only goes to show that love is not blind enough.