West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's "Theatreland", the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. Seeing a West End show is a common tourist activity in London.
Total attendances first surpassed 12 million in 2002 and 13 million in 2007, setting a new record for the West End. Since the late 1990s there has been an increase in the number of famous screen actors on the London stage.
Read more about West End Theatre: History, Theatreland, Long-running Shows, List of West End Theatres, London's Non-commercial Theatres, Producing Houses, Other London Theatre, Awards
Famous quotes containing the words west and/or theatre:
“It is queer how it is always one’s virtues and not one’s vices that precipitate one into disaster.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“The theatre is the best way of showing the gap between what is said and what is seen to be done, and that is why, ragged and gap-toothed as it is, it has still a far healthier potential than some poorer, abandoned arts.”
—David Hare (b. 1947)