With somewhat less of a fanfare, the musical Betty Blue Eyes also opened in March for a limited run and is currently extended unti at least October 2011. Betty Blue Eyes is the story of a household surviving in post World War 2 Yorkshire by raising a pig to avoid the bacon  rationing. Betty Blue Blues is in fact the name of the pig!

Ghost The Musical is the big one, just opened in June in London after try out in Manchester and a showcase at West End Live 2011. The dazzling new musical GHOST, is based on the phenomenal Oscar winning Paramount Pictures film of the same name, and features great rock music by Eurythmics writer Dave Stewart with the help of Glenn Ballard. If you only see one new musical this year, go and see Ghost

Lend Me A Tenor is an old fashioned Vaudeville style musical, which transferred from Plymouth and stars Matthew Kelly

London Tube escalators are full of adverts for The Million Dollar Quartet, a story of fame, friendship, discovery, divided loyalties, professional jealousy and incredible music as four of the music industry’s most extraordinary talents, all in their creative prime, made music together for the first and only time in their careers. A true story of the electrifying night in 1956 when Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis came together to make music and ended up making history.

Rock of Ages doesn’t actually start until next month, August 2011, but we had a preview of the soft rock, 1980s style juke box musical at West End Live.

And last but by no means least, we had the opening of Shrek The Musical with Amanda Holden, a major blockbuster of a film and musical which looks set to be a favourite family choice for theatre breaks in London for many years to come.

But then on Sunday 3rd of October, the day after the end of the Barbican run, a third, star-studded Les Miserables Special with elements from the casts of both London versions, will turn up at the enormous O2 venue in London’s Greenwich peninsula Docklands.

These extra Les Miserables are all part of the show’s 25th birthday celebrations.

Les Miserables Theatre Breaks

The show opens in March 2010.

Happy New Year for 2010 from the Theatre Breaks LTB blog team.

It’s been a great year in London’s West End with some surprise hits and some unfortunate flops as well, and we look forward to 2010 especially with the opening of the Phantom of The Opera sequel Love Never Dies and the new Wizard of Oz.

I’m just running through a few options here for a London theatre break. It’s going to be fun and I’m getting excited already at the thought of going back up to the West End for what seems like the first time in ages. The last time we went to see a big musical was around this time last year when we went on a short London theatre break to see Oliver. Jodie Prenger was great and Fagin was good too, I think we caught the show at a good time after they’d all relaxed into their parts and before the Fagins kept changing. Still you can’t blame any of these people for whom the London stage is perhaps not their main sphere of activity for not wanting to carry on and do really long runs. It was definitely the singing and classic song that made the show so I think that makes up my mind which genre I’d like to book up this time around.

Musical London Theatre Break

Much as I do appreciate a bit of Shakespeare , Oscar Wilde, Pinter or Beckett if I’m going to splash out on the whole London theatre break thing with a posh hotel, meal out and everything like that then I like to know with absolute certainty that I’m going to laugh and cry and dance in my seat, and come away with several great chorus lines ringing in my ears so once again it’s going to be a Musical London theatre break this year. Now there would appear to be about 25 musicals on offer in theatreland at present so that doesn’t really narrow down the choice of show very much does it? I’ll list them down, then cross off the ones that aren’t really my cup of tea shall I?

Avenue Q, Billy Elliot, Blood Brothers, Chicago, Dirty Dancing, Dreamboats And Petticoats, Grease, Hairspray, The Jersey Boys, Legally Blonde, Les Miserables, Lion King, Mamma Mia, Oliver, Phantom of the Opera, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, Sister Act, Stomp, Thriller Live, We Will Rock You, Wicked

So what does that look like? Well obviously we can cross out Oliver as we saw that  one last year. Out of the rest, I think it’s got to be either Phantom or Grease. Different ends of the spectrum in some ways, but we know some of the songs from Phantom after hearing the CD whereas Grease is a musical we could perform half of by heart without any mugging up at all! OK, we plumped for Phantom  of the Opera, and if it comes up to expectations then we might just go and see Love Never Dies for next year’s London theatre break, or even earlier if some of my investments come through in time. Next we need to choose a Hotel and dates. That’s the slightly precarious part because it all depends on availabiity.

Choice of  Hotel for a London Theatre Break

I like to be near the City of London, which is a bit further east from the West End but only a short cab ride away, but I’m going to be flexible and if something comes up in Holborn, Westminster or the Strand that’ll be fine for a weekend London theatre break. We are lucky enough to be able to take Mondays or Thursday off too though, or any day really, so access to the City next day would be convenient, if I can get away with it. Right, I’m off to check the online theatre breaks booking sites now, wish me luck!

This was a guest post by a reader from London Theatre Break who wishes to remain anonymous

Kerry Ellis (Wicked, We Will Rock You) has being lined up to take over from Jodie Prenger as Nancy in the current West End production of Oliver! at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane.

Kerry Ellis as Elphaba in Wicked

1) Try to be flexible about your dates.

This is really going to help you get to see the show that you want at the the price you can afford so even if there is a special anniversary coming up or something like that it’s well worth investigating several days either side of the exact date. It’s also worth think carefully about whether your London theatre break really needs to be on a weekend or a weekday because the difference can be surprising and it’s not always in the direction that you might think.

2) How important are the seats?

Not all seats are created equal by far, and for some people the experience sitting in the middle of the stalls is much superior to that at the back of the circle. I think it comes down to personal preference and experience though, so think carefuly about your previous theatre experiences and then check out which kind of seats are being offered as part of your theatre break. Some offer “Best seats available” which sounds like it could mean anything but actually that’s one of the better offers. Others offer “Top Tickets”  or “2nd price and 3rd price” but if there is a seating plan then with a little bit of imagination you can get a pretty god idea of what your seats are going to be like. Don’t forget also that there’s a huge difference in the size of some of these London theatres, with quite small intimate vintage theatres in listed building in the heart of theatreland, and then some quite huge auditoriums for the really big shows like Wicked and We Will Rock You.

3) Transport to London.

I know how much people value their own personal space in their car but London really is the exception in our car-dependent world. Getting around cantral London can seem like a jungle to the unaccustomed driver and there’s nearly always nowhere to park. So you’ll end up in some undergound car park that costs nearly as much as a theatre ticket and you’re still miles away from the theatre. So the best bet is usually to arrive by train and the get about on foot, by taxi or even on the tube.

4) Musicals or Plays.

You might have a show in mind when you start looking online but don’t be put off if you can’t get the most famous musical on the dates you planned, there are always new shows coming into the West End and sometimes it’s more fulfilling to go and discover something new that hasn’t been reproduced on tour or elsewhere yet. One of the best things about the London scene is that you can often get to see some very famous actors and actressese performing in classic plays by the great authors, so that’s something to consider as a change from the latest blockbuster music revival with the original Broadway cast.

For more tips and advice to get the most out of London Theatre breaks you might visit the Theatre Breaks Magazine

Political theatre in London has had more than its share of problems and the latest venue at risk is The Tricycle theatre in north London, which has staged a series of productions based on recreations of seismic political events such as the Scott inquiry, the Nuremberg trials, the Stephen Lawrence inquiry and the Bloody Sunday inquiry.

The Tricycle’s misfortunes follow hard on the heels of the collapse of several other radical theatres. The 7:84 theatre company in Edinburgh closed in January after funding problems, and the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow was said to be in discussions with its local authority and could be facing cuts in a “week of bad news” for arts organisations in Glasgow.

Some of Britain’s leading artists, including Paula Rego and Antony Gormley, said this weekend that they intend to help save The Tricycle by donating works for auction later this month.

“It is very important to have political theatre,” said Gormley, “where recent events, or attitudes to events, are reflected on.”

Rego added: “English theatre is the greatest in the world and the plays in smaller theatres are often the ones that the larger venues shy away from.”

Other famous names to donate include the actor Sir Antony Sher, the illustrator Ralph Steadman, the artist Maggi Hambling and Sir Peter Blake, who designed The Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper album cover.

The theatre, which has also produced acclaimed plays about Guantanamo Bay, Deepcut – the Army barracks where four soldiers died of gunshot wounds – and the Hutton inquiry, needs £2.75m a year to stay afloat, only a third of which comes from ticket sales.

The Tricycle’s artistic director, Nicolas Kent, said that, while Tricycle productions have transferred not only to the West End but to other stages around the world, and it has hosted world-renowned actors such as Vanessa Redgrave, audiences have preferred more light-hearted work during the recession.

“The pressure on us because of the recession is twofold,” Kent said. “The cash we raise from charitable trusts has gone down enormously, and there has been less money coming in from individuals.

“Last autumn people were worried and tended not to spend money on going to the theatre, particularly serious theatre. They were opting for more light-hearted shows. We put on Deepcut and got great reviews but it did not do as well as we hoped at the box office.

“Musicals have been doing stormingly well, but all serious theatres rely on donations and they have been drying up.”

As if to hammer home the point, the Hackney Empire, which also has a strong political track record, has announced it will close early in the new year for nine months amid financial difficulties.

War Horse at The National

The theatre published its annual report for 2008/09, which showed that its box office reached 93% capacity, with 817,000 paid attendees, the highest total attendance in the last seven years. The theatre staged 25 productions in the year, of which 17 were new.

It achieved a £456,000 surplus for the financial year and turnover increased to £55 million. The biggest earner for the year was the First World War story War Horse, which took £2.7 million at the box office and had a 99% capacity.

War Horse in the West End

War Horse National Theatre

War Horse is based on the celebrated novel by Michael Morpurgo. The First World War is the backdrop for this exciting tale of bravery, and the extraordinary bond between a young recruit and his horse.