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Musical theatre in England's West End, fabulous (most of the time).

As an avid theatre goer I have seen many plays where, okay, it was not the best play, but the atmosphere of the West End is just so great and I suppose being a Londoner, I don't always get an opportunity to appreciate some of our culture as much as I should, and I doubt if I am alone here, but to me a night out in theatre land is just wonderful, an early dinner and followed by a play.

Most London theatres have been going for centuries and even in this modern age, manage to achieve some of its traditional style and also haunted aspects.

If you take the Theatre Royal at Drury Lane, it has a 300 year old history originally built in 1663 - it went through a major fire, bankruptcy and at one point a murder. Amongst its participants at the theatre are Grimaldi the clown and Nell Gwynne who as we know was the famous mistress to King Charles II.

There are many theatres, some bigger than others such as Victoria Palace Theatre, Phoenix Theatre, Duchess theatre, Lyric Theatre (my favorite) and Theatre Royal.

Some musicals such as Les Miserables have been running for many years (although admittedly Les Miserables has only been at the Queen's since 2004, having moved from the Barbican, which although a more modern building is not my favorite place for a musical theatre. It has no atmosphere.

Phanton of the Opera which is still showing at Her Majesty's theatre and first opened in 1986 and has won 3 Olivier awards, 7 Tony awards including best musical, 7 drama desk awards and other awards not so well known, but it still brings thousands of people each year to see it. Something of interest to note, that it takes 2 hours to put the phantom's make up on and 30 minutes to take it off.

There are various other factors that sometimes us theatre goers forget to realize is the amount of hard work that the back stage production team take to putting on a musical, from costume changes, to props such as dry ice and candles, fog machines and then the set scenery itself. Les Miserables, is one incredible set in itself.

Musical theatre trends may change slightly, but all in all, everyone loves the old favorites, no matter how tacky or out of date they may appear. I think technology today has advanced the sound quality of the musicals.

I think the musical theatre today caters for every generation, we have some more upbeat musicals like Grease and Chicago (also one of my favorite musicals) to the slightly less raunchy such as Peter Pan and The Sound of Music.

Theatre trends may change as regards what it brings to the theatre so as to keep up with the times, but it is the heart of London's capital.

Learn more about this author, Holly Golightly.
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