Musical theatre fans, get ready for what some are calling the Glastonbury of the musical theatre calendar: West End Live is back! It's the two day outdoor festival that turns some of the most expensive forms of entertainment in London into the cheapest fun going. Each year, casts of some of London's best West End musicals emerge blinking into the open-air for a weekend of free alfresco performances in Trafalgar Square, accompanied by fun photo ops, merch stalls, and bags of showbiz atmosphere.
Expect pretty much every musical in London to be represented in the two-day event, with members of the casts performing a song or two from their show in the allocated timeslots.
It tends to be the case that the biggest name performers play first thing on Saturday (late morning and early afternoon) so they can get their duties done before that afternoon’s matinee show. This does mean that the festival is not only front-loaded, but that people tend to queue through the night to get the best spots. This year organisers the Society of London Theatre are at least potentially making an attempt to push back against that with an online lottery that’ll bag you a queue jumper spot – we can see this having problems of its own, but let’s give them a chance eh?