London Theatres

Here is one resource https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/. While one can get tickets last minute for some shows, I always like to reserve before we travel.

I always buy tickets at lunchtime on the day of the performance at the TKTS kiosk in Leicester Square.

Do you want a serious play, a musical etc?

I've done what Jennifer does. If you don't have a specific play you just have to see it works well.

Be careful about the selection day-of-performance at the discount booth. A seat in the first couple of rows may seem like a steal. But in many cozy London theatres, especially those not playing host to big international musicals, the front row may be so close to the lip of the stage that you would have to tilt your head to see anything above the performers' kneecaps. That's why those seats are available last-minute. For lots of London theatre info, including comments on partially obscured seats, I use theatremonkey.com

I think we are probably thinking one of the bigger productions, "kinky Boots" or "Dreamgirls"

I'll also suggest LOVEtheatre as a good website, I picked up decent priced tickets Mamma Mia about a week in advance. The link was on the theatremonkey website so I knew it was legit.

Also note that for a number of shows the TKTS kiosk does not sell discounted tickets at all but ones at full price.

For these, and others not sold through TKTS the way to get cheap tickets which involves good luck and getting up early is to go to the theatre box office on the day of performance for returns and/or day seats

We saw Kinky Boots in September, it was fantastic. We had two seats in the Stalls, great seats. I’ve used....londontheatre.co.uk. Kinky Boots is at the Adelphi Theatre. Or you could just go to the theatre website and book tickets, I’ve done that before, worked out well.

Kinky Boots seems to be routinely available at a discount at the TKTS booth. If you want to see some of the shows that might be available at a discount, you can check their website
https://officiallondontheatre.com/tkts/

Thanks everyone for the fast and very appropriate reply's. We booked our tickets using "LondonTheatre.co.uk" after researching there and "theartremonkey". I liked how I could load several different price location into the Cart and then compare the seat location prior to booking one. We are all set for "Best of London" followed by "Best of Spain". Hope to run into you along the way or at least read of your favorite trips. One of our favorites was "The Adriatic" ie.. Slovenia, Croatia and that day in Bosnia.

If there is something I must see, I book ahead. The 1/2 price ticket booth type arrangements are great for long running shows (Like Mamma Mia or Kinky Boots).

Depending on what you want to see, another option is to set up an account on the National Theatre website and try for the Friday lottery. Every Friday they offer a limited number of seats for whatever is on the following week. https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/fridayrush But it never hurts to check on the day of the show as well. Also the lottery for Hamilton tickets 10 pounds each - you'll know a couple of days ahead.

You might still be in time to see performances at Shakespeare's Globe as well. Also check out the RSC at the Barbican.

I'm going end of October, and booked everything I really wanted to see Hamilton (before the original cast starts leaving, I hope), Harry Potter & the Cursed Child - still a very hot 2 tix, and a new production of Company - with Patti LuPone! Spendy, but stuff I really want to see.

One minor drawback of the TKTS booth is for solo travellers, it can often be quite a long line and that's valuable vacation time ticking away. If you're travelling as a couple or with others, then it is fine. One person can stand in the line while the others can at least go off and do something else.

My recommendation regarding what to see is find a performance that can only be seen in London. Seeing a musical that has performances in the US (or whatever country is home for you) seems like such waste.

The price of theatre tickets for the same play in NY is twice that in London.