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Millions of People Attend a West End Stage Show

By: Peter Chadwick

London's West End is highly thought of for exceptional stage shows. Together with New York's Broadway, Westend theatre is frequently considered to deliver some of the best shows in the world. Seeing a West End show is incredibly popular entertainment especially among tourists. Countless stage shows and in particular hit musicals are performed in the large venues of London's Theatre Land. Millions of people go to a Westend theatre show every year. Westend Theatre Breaks are also tremendously common in the United kingdom. Theatre Breaks are often booked as a weekend treat to celebrate a special occasion. A West End show is the focal entertainment however booked together with accommodation and often restaurant reservations for a special meal.

London's main theatre region consists of about forty venues and was renamed by Westminster Council and the Society of London Theatre as "Theatreland". It is situated in the heart of the Westend of Central London and is historically defined by Oxford Street to the North, The Strand to the South, Regent Street to the West and Kingsway to the East. Prominent theatre streets are Drury Lane, Shaftesbury Avenue plus The Strand. Most of the works staged are musical theatre, comedy performances and classic drama.

London's West End theatre region started to be established with the opening of countless small venues about 1806. The expansion of the West End entertainment region gained pace with the Theatres Act 1843 which relaxed the conditions for the performance of plays. In the following decades, many new theatres were opened. The pattern continued until the first world war. For the duration of the 50s and 60s, lots of plays ended up being produced in theatre clubs so as to evade the censorship at that time exercised by the Lord Chamberlain's Office. However, the Theatres Act 1968 finally abolished censorship of the stage.

Many West End theatres are of late Victorian or Edwardian construction and the majority are privately owned. The bulk of them have great character and the biggest and best maintained include grand neo-classical, Romanesque or Victorian façades and luxurious detailed interior design and decoration. On the other hand, leg space is often cramped and audience amenities like bars and public conveniences are usually much smaller than in modern venues. The protected status of the buildings and their confined city locations, combined with economic constraints, mean it is very difficult to make extensive improvements to the level of comfort offered.

Many of the long running theatre shows staged in the Westend have profitably played to audiences for many years. Some of the most well-liked musicals include We Will Rock You which is set in a futuristic world where rock music is banned, Les Miserables which is a worldwide award winning musical about an epic story of passion and destruction, Chicago is about a girl who has killed her lover but is acquitted, The Lion King that is an adaptation of the Disney film, The Phantom of the Opera which tells the tale of the phantom that terrorises the Paris Opera, Billy Elliot which is the touching story of a schoolboy who loves ballet, Dirty Dancing which is the stage version of the classic movie, Sister Act is another adaptation of a hit movie, Mamma Mia is about a mother and daughter and three possible dads, and Stomp which is a fast paced combination of music, tap dance and percussion. The list is endless as there are so many West End theatre productions to choose from. There really is a show that would appeal to everyone. A West end Theatre show is a truly superb night out to remember.

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