So friends, what is playing in your city that looks interesting/ what have you seen that you would recommend. (full disclosure: I am traveling to London in two weeks and need a recommendation).

me at a play production 20 minutes in.

I was just going to try to find a plays thread since I read this play called Jack Goes Boating. It was originally written for Philip Seymour Hoffman's theater company with him in the title role. Basically about these two pothead limo drivers in NYC and them trying to set up Jack with this chick. Really hilarious and not stagey at all.

I was thinking about starting a Theatre thread actually!
London is the Theatre capital of the world and I make the most of it

2 weeks?
damn, I was going to recommend a couple of plays that are on at the Royal Court at the moment but one finishes this week (Shades) and the other next week (The Stone)

There's nothing else I've seen recently that's still on but:

There's always plays worth checking out at the National Theatre (and they have day seats, from £10 front row, on sale at 9.30am every day so even if it's sold out you got a chance). I'm going to see Burnt By the Sun there on the 3rd.

Seeing Duet For One at the Almeida (another theatre always worth checking, the 'restricted view' £6 seats are excellent value, they also do day seats) this Saturday, I'll let you know how it goes.

Donmar (day seats also) is also one worth going to. At their main house there's a play with Ian McDarmid (the Emperor!), which I'm going to see on the 9th. In their residency in the West End, Twelfth Night with Derek Jacobi is finishing on the 7th (not seen it but it got excellent reviews, might try for day seats next weekend), then on the 13th Madame de Sade with Judy Dench starts.

I seldom go to the commercial theatres, let alone musicals (too expensive for decent seats, plenty enough to see at the high quality repertory theatres like the ones mentioned above), but Three Days of Rain or A View from the Bridge might be worth a look.

I'd recommend NOT buying from touts and west end ticket agencies (which are touts really), there's lot of scams and problems (I worked front of House at the Lion King few years ago, and we regularly had double bookings from way overpriced agency tickets).
Check the Half-Price Booth on Leicester square instead, online through the theatre or go directly to the theatre's box office (even if sold out, there's always returns in London, and often day seats, you just might have to queue up a bit).

http://www.theatremonkey.com is a great site for checking out which seats to avoid and which are good value in any given theatre.

Pegasus, I'm leaving a week from today. Sorry about that mate, so anything from Thursday through Sunday. Thanks for the response.

I saw Samuel Beckett's "Endgame" performed in Cambridge last weekend; it was phenomenal. Next up is David Mamet's "Romance" but that is not until May.

i love to act in plays, but for the life of me I cannot figure out why people watch them.

i went to the theatre once

was it a stimulating experience trying to view the actors faces?

That is what bothers me when acting in plays. The damn audience can't see your face close up. How the hell would they know what good acting is?

i barely made it out alive

My parents forced me to go to Showboat when I was 13. I thought it was aight. Dawg

you can totally see people's face!
and good acting is with the whole body and the voice just as much anyway.

I do find musicals boring on the other hand.. but then I hate musical films too (not talking about suondtrack but the song and dance type).

But watching a good theatre performance is like going to a great gig, film can't touch teh fact you're not THERE.

no no, I don't buy into that whole, "being there with the actors" bullshit that I listen to most actors and audiences say, partly because they fear the theatre community will call them a sell out. But thankfully an actor like Daniel Day Lewis agrees with me. Suprising since he comes from English theatre.

And voice and body are part of acting too, sure, but when an actor exaggerates on stage with his voice and bodily movements, it takes me away from the reality that I am trying to invest in with the characters.

And yes you can see their faces, if you're in the first couple rows, otherwise in the cheap seats all they see nothing. The eyes tell a story, and it is not told in theatre.

Marlon Brando agreed too. Awesome. I'm in good company

I saw Les Misérables and Cats in London back in like 1989/1990 when I lived there....Les Mis had it's moments....I remeber liking how it started...I don't rememer Cat's at all I was mostly staring at the actresses asses....I was 13. I do remeber on the way back home on the the train a guy gave us crap for being damn foreigners....he was drunk....or pissed if you like.

I was at the theatre about 35 times in both 07 and 08 (that's slightly more than gigs, even including PJ ones) and have already booked that many for just the first half of this year...and hardly been to the cinema in that time.
You just don't know what you're missing.

It's like saying there's no point in going to see a gig because the quality of the acoustic is better on a CD. Sure, but that's not the point!
There's something else you get from the physical presence of the performers and immediacy that is irreplaceable.

and I can (and do) get cheap seats close enough to see actors eyes darling (I just avoid the big commercial theatres)

although I know Les Mis very well, I've actually never seen it, need to go someday.
But you 'd have to pay me good money to go see Cats.

Lets not confuse theatre and musicals... it's like comparing clubbing to a gig.

I think you're wrong. Plays are great in that you actually get to see a full performance from beginning to end. There are no cuts and there is no piecing together a performance. Obviously there is great film acting and terrible stage acting, but as an actor stage work is the real deal. I love plays and the only ones I've ever fallen asleep in were bad ones.

Exactly..much easier to give a good performance when you can do 20+ retakes.. there's no retakes on stage!

I think it's a lot harder, actually. Film acting was always much more of a challenge for me than the stage. Usually a much harder environment (with the lights, crew, etc.) and there's no continuity.