London Is Ticket to Award-Winning Theatrical Events

LONDON — If theater is your hunger, London is your horn of plenty.

No city on Earth approaches its vitality, variety or number of offerings. More than 40 major venues show first-rate dramatic comedy and musical productions daily. There are almost 50 smaller fringe and pub theaters, many featuring celebrated performers keeping their craft honed.

The thespians range from Rex Harrison, Alec Guinness and Maggie Smith to striving young beginners.

The theaters run a gamut from the fascinating Royal Haymarket, founded in 1720, to the National Theater and Royal Shakespeare Company in their newer homes.

The Haymarket hosts its own ghost, the NT and the RSC are technically state of the art. London’s Savoy was the first theater in the world to be lighted by electricity, in 1881.

Most of the creations of Shaw, Wilde, Gilbert and Sullivan, Coward and other vintage standards of the English-speaking stage made their debuts in London playhouses. To visit any of these mellow auditoriums is to commune with theater history.

At houses such as the Criterion, Her Majesty’s and Drury Lane, yesteryear’s graces glow in the architecture and ambience of plaster scrolls, red plush, escutcheons on royal boxes and woodwork of rich patina.

The intervals between acts mean amiable interludes at etched-glass bars. In all, a theater experience in London is a thoroughly civilized outing, rooted in a deep English tradition and affection for the stage and its people.

Piccadilly Circus

No leading theater is far from West End hotels. In the Piccadilly Circus environs alone are seven major houses. Six others are only a short walk away. The Royal Shakespeare, in the “City” neighborhood, and the National Theater across the Thames, are usually just a few minutes away by bus, Tube or taxi.

Most London theaters will accept phone reservations as long as 24 hours ahead, with tickets about $25 tops. The client must then appear an hour before the performance to pick up the tickets.

At Leicester Square is a special ticket booth at which one may buy reduced-price, same-day tickets for many of the shows--from noon for matinees, 2 p.m. for evenings. Word of these bargains has spread, thus the queue is long.

Booking in advance is recommended for RSC and NT plays, as most of their offerings are heavily subscribed. A few same-day tickets are made available before 10 a.m. at both RSC and NT box offices.

Stratford-on-Avon

With scant doubt, the Royal Shakespeare and the National are the world’s most respected theater companies. The RSC was founded in Stratford-on-Avon more than 100 years ago, and its showcase at Shakespeare’s birthplace is still a mainstay of the town.

Millions of people have thrilled to its productions, and noted actors such as Olivier, Gielgud, Finney and Burton refined their art on its stages at Stratford and London’s Old Vic.

The RSC’s London home is a fine new theater in The Barbican, a massive apartment and cultural center in the East End. Some of its international successes in recent years (in addition to a continuing repertory of Shakespeare) have been “Educating Rita,” “Nicholas Nickleby” and “Les Miserables.”

The National Theater parallels the RSC’s popularity with more emphasis on venerable works other than The Bard, plus modern classics and experimental plays.

The NT operates three theaters at its South Bank complex: the large, open-space Olivier, the traditional-proscenium Lyttelton and the smaller, adaptable Cottesloe. Its stagings run from “Guys and Dolls” and Chekhov, Shaw and O’Casey to Coward, Ayckbourn and contemporary American dramatists such as Neil Simon and Sam Shepard.

U.S. Shows Popular

Some of the most popular shows on the London boards are U.S. musicals such as “42nd Street,” “Kiss Me Kate” and “South Pacific.”

Among the city’s best theater bargains are its ubiquitous pub and fringe offerings. Typical of these is the Kings Head in the Islington area. The shabby Edwardian saloon is a favorite hangout for colorful folks and is host to one of London’s oldest and most active fringe theaters.

Frequently, you see star actors from the RSC and NT in lunchtime or evening efforts by new playwrights. Prices are reasonable for tickets, pub grub and drinks.

For the most dedicated aficionados, London now boasts a Theater Museum in Covent Garden. It is a remarkably rich harvest of theater memorabilia from Shakespeare to Harold Pinter, displaying costumes, manuscripts, posters, playbills, props and other items spanning the prolific centuries of the British stage.