From record-breaking blockbusting musicals to the tiniest two- handers in the back rooms of pubs, almost every day of the year except Sundays the city puts on an astonishing variety of stage performances on a scale unmatched anywhere else on the planet. The heart of all this activity is still very much the West End. Long criticized for pandering to the bottom denominator with a numbing array of tacky musicals, the competition for audiences has become so fierce that producers are now often much more adventurous. But it’s often the smaller theatres and production houses that take the pulse of current theatre practice. A very small selection of the city’s major players are listed below. The official half-price West End ticket booth is on the south side of Leicester Square, T 020-7557 6700. Almeida Almeida St, T 020-7359 4404. Expensively refurbished Islington HQ for the most fashionable film crossover producing theatre in London. Book well ahead. Donmar Warehouse, 41 Earlham St, T 020-7369 1732. The most innovative and happening small-scale theatre in the West End, its reputation confirmed by former director Sam American Beauty Mendes. Seats need to be booked well in advance. Haymarket Theatre Royal, Haymarket, T 020-7930 8800. The classic West End theatre. There’s been one on this site since 1720, famous for staging Oscar Wilde’s Ideal Husband. Old Vic, The Cut, T 020-7928 7616. Built in 1817 and later known as the ‘Bucket of Blood’ because of the cheap melodramas staged here. Now run by a board of affectionate trustees headed up by Kevin Spacey. Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Sq, T 020-7565 5000. Most famous for starting the ‘kitchen sink’ school of drama under George Devine in the 1950s with plays like Osborne’s Look Back in Anger and still pursuing an adventurous policy of commissioning new writing. The Royal Court Theatre Upstairs stages experimental small-scale work (same box office number). Royal National Theatre, South Bank, T 020-7452 3000. Denys Lasdun’s terraced concrete ziggurat opened in 1976, the new home for the National Theatre Company. It has 3 stages: the Olivier, the largest, with an open stage, steeply raked auditorium, and massive revolve. The Lyttelton, slightly smaller, is the most traditional. The Cottesloe, round the side, is a much more intimate studio theatre for experimental productions. Soho Theatre and Writer’s Centre, 21 Dean St, T 020-7478 0100. An exciting base for new playwriting. Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Catherine St, T 020-7494 5000. One of London’s oldest theatres, founded in 1663, managed by David Garrick in the 18th century and rebuilt in the early 19th century after 2 disastrous fires. Enjoyable backstage tours.
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