Part 2: "Let's all go down the strand"...Music Hall. "The music hall is dying, and with it, a significant part of England. some of the heart of England has gone; something that once belonged to everyone, for this was truly a folk art." John Osbourne - 1957. Music Hall helped to shape the entertainment scene in London. It's even had a bit of a revival of late, with music and supper clubs like the......

Anyone who has ever surfed the internet in a quest for enlightenment about British theatre will undoubtedly have come across the West End Whingers’ blog. By now, Andrew and Phil have become internet blogging stars, doing for theatre what Belle de Jour did for prostitution with only slightly less lubricant. Andrew and Phil have ranted against ticket prices, bar prices, fringe theatre and the general state of affairs since 2006, accumulating a huge fan......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 7th May 1663: The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane opens for the first time. There have actually been four theatres on this site since the 17th century, and the first one didn’t even last 9 years before burning down in 1672. The second was built in 1674, but demolished in 1791. The third lasted from 1794 until it burned down in 1809 (flammable things, these theatres). Finally, the......

This week, a trip down Whitechapel Road, courtesy of reader Konstantin Binder. His images show the Pavilion theatre and music hall around 100 years ago and - in the modern image - the gaping maw where once it stood. The Pavilion stood at 193 Whitechapel Road from 1894, replacing two previous Pavilions on the same site that both succumbed to fire. Its heyday was in the early 20th Century, when it was so popular......

Think 'Drury Lane' and you think theatre and culture and lovey stuff like that. You don't think scandal, litigation and domestic violence. At least you didn't, not until Drury-News-Gate (note to self: need better name for this). Yes, it's been revealed today that the anonymous fax which reignited the whole McCartney divorce furore with its allegations of domestic violence, spouse-on-spouse cruelty and breast-related selfishness was sent from an innocent-looking establishment in Covent Garden known......

The sun is shining, the music is high... why walk when you can dance? There are loads and loads of events taking place between today and the last night of the Big Dance Festival on Sunday, so many that we can't list them all here. Most events are free and range from taster classes in ceroc, lindy hop and tango to dance displays at places like the Trocadero to big shows at Sadlers Wells......

Londonist brings you triple-decker theatre news for a Friday afternoon, of the good, good Lord! and good grief... varieties. First of all, of the "good" variety, Eddie Izzard is to play Sally Bowles in a production of fishnet-tastic Cabaret next summer. The much loved cross-dressing comedian is only in talks at the moment for the role at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane but with any luck, we'll see L'Izzard strutting his stocking and suspenders......

You know the green revolution is starting to catch on when even construction sites have hanging baskets. These shots were taken at the junction of Kemble Street and Drury Lane, where we were surprised to find orange cones and pot plants living side by side in blissful harmony. Reminds us of Londonist’s old student flat, only without the farty smells and Gillian Anderson posters. We suspect that the excessive foliage was the brainchild of......

Going to the theatre is a potential minefield of inconvenience. Uncomfortable seats, overpriced ice-cream and a mile-long queue for the toilets – how can that compete with the comfort of your living room sofa, home cooking and 666 channels of homogenised fluff on Sky? If you pick a duff show to boot, you’ll probably be sat there (in aforementioned uncomfortable seat) mentally listing these very aggravations, fantasising about your remote control. If you pick......

Just as people of a certain age can always remember where they were when they heard that Kennedy had been shot (as comedian Steven Wright put it, ‘I remember where I was, I was on the sixth floor of a book depository....’) so Londonist imagines that most people can remember the first time that they saw the Mel Brooks movie The Producers, particularly if they had the benefit of not being told what the......