FringeTheatre Network
Dedicated to the London Fringe. Not only does this carry a what's
On guide, but there are lots of details about hiring the various venues
(and about the venus themselves), a Newsletter and a members-only
section.
Fringe Report
Reviews and news from the London and Edinburgh Fringes, plus addrresses
and phone numbers of London theatres.
Grants Net
A site which aims to enable those in the arts and other areas to find
details of foundations and other grant awarding bodies.
The Green Room
Gossip, fact and rumour about UK theatre all combine in this frequently
updated page.
The Guide to Musical Theatre
This was formerly the NODA North West Site, but, while still retaining
the original features, it has grown enormously. There's a huge amount
for the music theatre fan, including the indispensible Guide to the
Rights Holders for musicals and a large number of potted biographies
of MT luminaries from Ivor Novello to Bob Fosse.
The Guide to World Drama
Another site from David Lewis, who runs the Guide to Musical Theatre.
It aims to be nothing less than an online encyclopedia of world drama,
which is arranged in playwright order. It's very much a work in progress
but there's an awful lot there already. This should develop into a
major resource.
Humbug's
Guide to London Theatre
Reviews by an "experienced, non-professional theatre goer." Divided
into musicals and plays, the reviews are quite short. There are also
some anecdotes and an invitation to "Ask Humbug" about theatre.
The Internet Theatre Database
At long last someone has taken their courage in both hands and started
a theatre equivalent of the IMDb! At the moment all they have is Broadway
plays since 1975 and most Broadway musicals for the last fifty years,
but the site is growing all the time. If you can help by providing
details of shows, there's an online form to make it easy.
Irish Theatre Resources
So Irish theatre isn't British theatre, but they have developed so
closely that theatre in Ireland is inevitably of great interest to
British theatre-lovers. This site attempts to list all Irish theatre-related
sites and provide a guide to theatre companies and venues in the Republic.
It does it well: it's a well-designed and easily navigable site, with
lots to interest the visitor.
Local Today
A listings site. Anyone can have their event listed free of charge
and visitors can choose the search the listings for events in their
local area (within 40 miles) by category. It's fairly new and, clearly,
depends very much on people submitting events. Currently come areas
of the country are better served than others, but it's a valuable
service and deserves to succeed.
London
Theatre Online News
Similar to the Green Room but restricted purely to London theatre.
Often beats the Green Room to the news.
London Theatre Online
The main page of the London Theatre Online site, leading to listings,
reviews, news, pictures, guides... everything, in fact, you need to
know about theatre in London, West End and fringe.
London
Theatre
This is part of a London site which includes sport and cinema. The
theatre section features reviews which vary from the simplistic (and
therefore not much use) to the detailed (and so much more useful).
It also offers online booking.
The London
West End Half-price Ticket Booth
This is where you can get West End tickets for half-price, plus a
£2 booking fee. Unfortunately they don't handle tickets for all shows
and you can only buy them at the booth, not online. Worth a single
visit if you're having a theatre holiday in London and you don't know
about the place, but that's about it.
Musical Stages
Musical Stages is the only UK magazine devoted to musical theatre
and, although this does try to sell you the mag, it does more than
that, providing news, reviews, gossip, West End and regional listings,
plus an international section. The frames have vanished and the design
overall is much more attractive than it was. A useful site.
Nottingham
Fringe Theatre
A site which concentrates on non-mainstream theatre in Nottingham.
It includes what's on, the HotHouse Showcase, the diary of a theatre
goer, companies, venues and scripts available for production. Constantly
recurring spelling mistakes are a bit of an irritant!
The Official
London Theatre Guide
Created by SOLT, this site has grown enormously & is now a wide-ranging
resource which allows you, among other things, to search for a show
by genre, date, name, theatre, keyword or letter. A vast range of
info about the West End.
Rogues
and Vagabonds
This site - which aims to be a resource for professional actors and
theatre-lovers - has grown considerably since I first visited. There
are a considerable number of pages, covering subjects such as news,
reviews, quotations, e-cards, merchandise, obituaries, interviews
and a dictionary of theatre - and more. Some of these resources are
off-site.
Show UK
Another ticket agency: a list of shows and concerts, togetehr with
details of group booking discounts, conference facilities, and seating
plans. The Hotels page doesn't exist!
Sold Out Event Tickets.com
Specialises in hard-to-get tickets for plays, musicals and operas
thoughout the UK, not just London. Covers music and sport, too.
The Stage
The UK's theatre and entertainment trade journal: a well constructed
site, with quite a few bells and whistles, including Java and a fair
amount of use of CGI. It has a searchable database of previous stories,
a few stories and a feature from the current edition (word for word!),
a history of the paper, show listings, some reviews, and job and audition
listings (but if you want details, you have to buy the paper!). It's
obvious, though, that its main aim is to sell the paper.
Stage
Internet Theatre magazine
This site is full of useful reviews and information relating to theatre
all over the UK, but its design is so appallingly bad that it is almost
impossible to use. Bright coloured backgrounds, with multi-coloured
text; large text sizes; an awful lot of underlining so you think there's
a link there, but there isn't - it is hideous!!! What a shame, for
this could be an excellent resource, especially since it is, they
tell us, updated every day - and they keep an archive of past reviews.
Theatre.com
A sister site to Broadway.com but aimed at the West End. A commercial
site (tickets, hotel packages etc.) which also includes news and features.
Theatre Direct
Theatre Direct is an American company and most of its site relates
to US theatre, especially Broadway. It does, however, have a London
section, which is similar to, but nowhere near as comprehensive as,
London Theatre Online.
Theatreguide London
Listings and reviews, categorised into drama, comedy, musicals, fringe,
dance/physical theatre, and out of London. There is also a section
on Edinburgh 2000 and an archive of reviews of shows which are no
longer running. The quality of the reviewing is very high.
Theatre Monkey
An Independent inside Guide to London Theatre and Concert Venues.
There's a "last minute availability" ticket service, updated
throughout the day in 'real time', offering last minute tickets (some
at discounted prices) to many big West End shows and Hotel / Ticket
packages are also available. There's also an email list, with updates
and ticket offers.
Theatre, Musicals and Actors
Web
A kind of catch-all site: listing of theatre and musicals in London
and Guildford (info from the Official London Theatre Guide) and pages
on the author's favourite actors and actresses . The actors and actresses
pages are useful (there are some for whom there are no other pages
elsewhere on the Web), and, indeed, have grown into a major resource.
Theatres Online
This site aims to provide a guide to every theatre in Britain. It
is not yet complete - after all, it is a major undertaking! - but
it has to be said it isn't terribly user-friendly: loads of frames
make it very busy and even a little confusing.
Theatrespeak
Theatrespeak is a very general site, consisting of news, interviews,
features, and items of general theatre interest. It also has a database
of actors (pay to be listed), a listing of jobs/auditions, a free
template for an actor's CV (plus covering letter) and four message
boards (not much there at the moment). It seems to be aimed mainly
at actors but there are items of interest to theatregoers. The design
is a bit "chunky".
Theatre Record
Theatre Record is a print publication which has become an invaluable
tool for theatre researchers. It consists of unabbreviated reviews
from all major national newspapers, full ast lists, technical crew
details, and photographs. It also has a listing of shows in the pipeline.
The site is only intended to sell the publication and there are no
extracts online. It's not cheap, but it is indispensible.
Theatre Reviews
A site by Brenda Kean, freelance theatre critic in the North West.
Quite a few short reviews, very much in the local press style.
