West End Live Takes Over Leicester Square, 21 Jun
Where in London can you see the casts of Avenue Q, Buddy, Chicago, Dickens Unplugged, Dirty Dancing, Grease, High School Musical, Into the Hoods, Jersey Boys, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Lord of the Rings, Mamma Mia!, Never Forget, The Sound of Music, Stomp, We Will Rock You and Wicked performing for free? Just make for Leicester Square this weekend – Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 June 2008 – when West End Live returns for the fourth year running.
Last year’s free two-day festival attracted more than 150,000 people over the course of the weekend. This year West End Live looks set to attract just as many visitors eager to catch the showbiz buzz, when Leicester Square is transformed into a huge open-air venue with a giant stage showcasing the best of Theatreland.
In addition to the big musicals, there will be performance excerpts from the West End production of hit comedy The 39 Steps – which just won two Tony Awards this week for its Broadway transfer – Noel Coward screen-to-stage play Brief Encounter and musicians from the King Lear band from Shakespeare’s Globe playing rare medieval instruments.
The event, organised by Westminster City Council, also features street entertainment (pictured), live broadcasts, arts workshops and interactive exhibitions from some of London’s top museums and tourist attractions, a Notting Hill Carnival preview, and additional performances from the Players’ Theatre, the Sylvia Young Theatre School, the National Youth Music Theatre and many others.
The What’s On Stage team will be alive and kicking in Leicester Square too – manning our stand and, with a team of volunteers (thank you!), distributing 20,000 free copies of our monthly print magazine and giving away a great new Superbreak prize for The Lion King – alongside a variety of other major companies and organisations, including the Society of London Theatre (SOLT), Capital FM and Totally London.
Theatreland has certainly got plenty to celebrate, off stage as well as on. Attracting 12 million visitors each year and contributing £1 billion to the UK economy, the West End has the highest concentration of theatres of anywhere in the world. West End Live takes place in Leicester Square from 11.00am to 6.00pm on Saturday 21 June and from noon to 6.00pm on Sunday 22 June 2008.For more information, visit www.westendlive.co.uk.
-by Terri Paddock
