From the Love Never Dies blog

Niamh Perry’s blog

I’m back again to fill you all in on the past few days of rehearsals. Most of the cast began on Monday [4th January] morning but by next Monday [11th] the whole company from every department will come together for an eagerly anticipated “Meet and Greet”. Rumour has it that the design team have put together a powerpoint presentation… I can’t wait! We have already started to set a few dance numbers (which are looking fabulous) and you can sense the excitement in the air.

For me, finally starting to put this masterpiece into action has been pretty overwhelming. As I said in my last blog, I have been lucky enough to have been involved in Love Never Dies from the very first workshop over 18 months ago.

I have also been asked to fill you in on my back story. Many of you won’t know this, but I first met Andrew (The Lord) when I became a finalist for the BBC show “I’d Do Anything” which was the TV search for a new talent to play ‘Nancy’ in Oliver!, in which Andrew was the judge. And although I didn’t win (which I think is lucky, as I wouldn’t be involved in Love Never Dies!), I gained so much priceless support from the legend himself, Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber.

It is because of his support and encouragement that I am blessed with the chance to create the role of “Fleck.”

I had my wig fitting yesterday with an awesome man named Campbell who covered my head in cling film, sticky-tape and red marker- I looked hot- NOT. I’ve never worn a wig before so this is a new experience all together!

I must dash here, I have a costume fitting in a few hours. It feels like I’ve been waiting for this for months! The excitement is taking over. Maybe they will let me fill you in on a few secrets…

Till then, much love and too much excitement…

Niamh xx

via loveneverdies.com

London Theatre breaks to Love Never Dies are already on sale and teh expectation is mounting week by week, especially now that the proper rehearsals are underway.

See also Love Never Dies

Posted via web from London Theatre Breaks

Snow in London : Show goes on

Latest News: Weather update: Show goes on in London

First published: 06 Jan 2010

Despite the adverse weather conditions, as yet none of London’s theatres have reported performance cancellations today.

Theatregoers with tickets for matinee or evening performances today, 6 January, are advised to check with the theatre box office or their point of sale for the latest information.

Official London Theatre will endeavour to keep you updated throughout the day, so please check back regularly.

via officiallondontheatre.co.uk

Latest Weather News: Snow in London : Show goes on

Despite the adverse weather conditions, with yet more snow predicted, as yet none of London’s West End theatres have reported any performance cancellations for today, January 6th.

Theatregoers with tickets for matinee or evening performances today, 6 January, are advised to check with the theatre box office or their point of sale for the latest information.

London Theatre Breaks will endeavour to keep you updated throughout the day, so please check back regularly.

Posted via web from London Theatre Breaks

Theatre Breaks Agents Compared | London Theatre Breaks

Theatre Breaks Agents Compared

Theatre Breaks Agents

Theatre breaks agencies come in many shapes but here at the London Theatre Breaks blog we like to work with three in particular. We get a small commission from each reader who books a theatre break through our links and that helps to fund our blog. The theatre breaks agents offer somewhat differing services and the best one for you depends on what you are looking for when you start searching for a theatre break package.

You need to decide what your priorities are first before you look at the various deals on offer because you are not really comparing like with like. (If you need help with this have a look at this post on our sister site Theatre Breaks Magazine.) The agencies specialise and offer various options, they often work with particular hotels or a particular level of ticket. Some agencies have offers on rail fares which you can bundle in with the cost of your tickets, other optional extras like meals can also be added. Often agencies offer discounts on London attractions when they are booked with your theatre break.

We only work with reputable agencies where we can be sure that not only will you get a good deal but that your tickets and hotel room will be honoured. Some of the other theatre breaks companies add lots of hidden extras, like booking fees, on to your final bill. We think this is not acceptable so we only recommend the following package deals:

Show and Stay Theatre Breaks

Show and Stay is a long-established theatre package company. They are part of the larger Holiday Extras group and we have been working with them for the last 2-3 years. Feedback from customers has been very positive and we continue to recommend them. Show and Stay really specialise in getting you top quality tickets at a good price and combining them with a good choice of 3 or 4* hotels. They also offer a very good deal on rail tickets, with up to 40% discount as standard. Show and Stay often has the hot tickets that no one else has. For example when Jodie first appeared and Oliver! London was the hottest ticket in town, Show and Stay was able to offer Saturday night, best seats, when there was no other way to get them and everyone else said the show was sold out.

Now despite what I’ve said about them offering top quality tickets don’t assume that Show and Stay only do expensive theatre breaks. Their breaks are very competitive. For example someone just booked a midweek evening at Oliver! and 1 night in a 3* hotel for 2 people for only £213.96.

Superbreak Theatre Breaks

Superbreak is where you go for bargains. They offer a range of ticket prices so if you don’t mind being in the Upper Circle you can get a very good price indeed. They have more limited availability sometimes, than Show and Stay but if you are looking for particular dates rather than a specific show they can be very good value. The hotels they work with are just as good as Show and Stay and are usually 3 or 4*.

Superbreak are a large company and they do all sorts of London breaks and breaks to other cities too. They are less specialised than Show and Stay but they still offer a good service. Their web site can be a bit harder to find your way around, as it is so large, but if you persevere you can definitely get some great deals.

TheatreBreaks.com

TheatreBreaks.com is a smaller company established thirty years ago. They’ve been online for over ten years. They have pretty good availability, work with good 3 and 4* hotels but where they really excel is in their personal touch. They are they people to go to if your needs are at all outside the ordinary. Maybe you want to do a large group with an odd number to see Dirty Dancing on a specific weekend. Perhaps you have limited mobility and need to know that your hotel, and your theatre seats, are fully accessible. They are the best people to help you. You just phone them up quoting your reference number from the website and they will go out of their way to make sure your problems are sorted out.

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Tagged as: Dirty Dancing, holiday extras, hotel deals, Hotels, London Attractions, London Breaks, London theatre, London Theatre Breaks, Oliver, package deals, Rail, rail fares, reputable agencies, superbreak, theatre, Theatre breaks, theatre breaks blog, theatre package

This post looks at three of the main Theatre Breaks Agents, namely Superbreak, Show And Stay and Theatrebreaks.com looking at the different specialities and strengths.

London Weekend Breaks By Rail | London Theatre Breaks

Are you looking for more information about London weekend breaks by rail? That’s actually a very good starting point because you’ve already made the best decision as far as transport goes for arriving in London. Go by train and you’ll not have to be worrying about things like car parking, how to pay the congestion charge or long motor way traffic jams holding up coach journeys. The fast inter city trains are also the quickest way to get from most UK cities into one of the central London mainline stations.

London Breaks by Rail - Express Routes

Weekend breaks can be for a West-end theatre show on any Friday, Saturday or Sunday night combined with a hotel stay of one night or more, including the show date. The most popular break tends to be a one-nighter including the big Saturday night out, but getting away early on a Friday makes a lot of sense too. Traveling on a Friday and Saturday gives a clear run through but Sundays can be fine for getting home too, depending on which rail line takes you back. All I’m saying is, check for regular Sunday engineering works if the service that relays between your city and London is one that may be prone to scheduled maintenance on a Sunday.

Longer Weekend Breaks

If your weekend break means going home on a Saturday of course, the traditional weekend has only just begun but then again I’ve noticed that for some people around here, the weekend definitely starts to ramp up on a Thursday night! London can be a very pleasant play to stay on a Sunday with less of a hurried atmosphere but still plenty of things to see and do so staying on for the whole weekend and then booking to get back on a Monday during the daytime can make for an extremely satisfying London weekend rail break, more like a mini holiday really. You could even make it a three or four night stay with the weekend theatre trip included, especially worthwhile if you have a long distance rail journey from one of the smaller rail networks that lie beyond the core inter city services.

London Shows for Weekend Theatre Breaks

One of the advantages with buying a theatre breaks package is that you can get good tickets for any of the more popular shows, even on a busy Friday or Saturday night. I tried to get an impulse ticket from the famous half price ticket booth the other day and after a lot of waiting around I came away without making a purchase. That was because the shows on offer didn’t include two that I was most interested in, and because the prices offered are not anything like half price at all.

So supposing you’ve always wanted to grab a friend and go and see Hairspray, Dirty Dancing or Sister Act on a Saturday night but couldn’t find any available tickets except from the disreputable touts and so-called discount kiosks, well the answer is to do just a little bit of forward planning and organise a weekend break in London for just a few weeks down the line, then you can get on with life knowing there’s a fantastic treat in store for you to look forward to.

London weekend breaks by rail are also perfect for really special occasions such as a big anniversary or celebration. Never mind seeing Les Miserables from the back of the upper circle, with theatre breaks packages it’s often possible to get best available seats with a competitive price guarantee, because the tour agents buy blocks of tickets way in advance and can therefore hold the best seats open for people who are booking the whole London weekend theatre package thing with the hotel stay and return rail tickets included.

This is just one suggestion, but supposing you were a big fan of the Phantom of The Opera having seen it many years ago, and fancied repeating the experience in today’s West End. This gives you two possible shows for London Weekend breaks by rail because the new show with the Phantom opens in March 2010 and it’s going to be one of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s biggest shows ever, called “Love Never Dies“. By booking the rail tickets well in advance in combination with London weekend breaks, (that’s the show and hotel stay), you get the full discount on the rail tickets which can mean as much as a 70% saving off the regular return saver.

If it appears as if the only shows on in London are the big musicals then that’s certainly not the case. There are always a number of serious plays also on in the West end, usually for shorter runs but not always, and these are also available for London weekend breaks by rail. In 2010 there will be more Shakespeare, Pinter and Becket as well as modern American playwrights, and some comedy plays too.

So you’ve decided very sensibly to opt for London weekend breaks by rail, thought about which show you’d both like to see, and maybe opted for a Friday night or Saturday theatre ticket depending which suits you best and considered the best time and day for homewards travel. All that’s left is to balance the convenience of a central London hotel with the economy of staying a little further out, but there is always a good selection of options available when booking London weekend theatre breaks. Now let me see, what else is there to worry about?

Related posts:

1. Theatre breaks with discount rail (13.76)
2. Weekend Breaks with Basil (13.18)
3. Friday Theatre Breaks with Dinner and Hotel (12.073)
4. Free Hotel Offer with London Theatre Breaks (10.225)
5. Luxury hotel and theatre deals (9.865)

via usefulwiki.com

I think London Weekend Breaks by rail are going to be as popular as ever in 2010

Posted via web from London Theatre Breaks

London Theatre Breaks

I think the number of people wanting London theatre breaks is going to hold up even when there's not so much spending money about for some. The recession will hit some sectors more than others, and there's clearly a mood to wait for bargains. Longer holidays abroad are starting to wane in any case, with people wanting to take short breaks more frequently and UK short breaks with a West End Show hotel and rail travel all combined will continue to look tempting.
Not all of the current shows will survive though. Musicals come and go and plays have a shorter lifespan.

I'm in two minds about Sister Act Theatre Breaks for example, and not 100% about Oliver after the first year. Dirty Dancing, Mamma Mia and We Will Rock You and Hairspray will remain ever popular.