Talk:West End theatre

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WikiProject London     (Rated Start-Class) This article is part of WikiProject London, an attempt to expand, improve and standardise the content and structure of articles related to London. If you would like to participate, you can improve the article attached to this page or sign up and contribute in a wider array of articles. Start This article has been rated as Start-Class on the quality scale. High This article has been rated as High-importance on the importance scale. WikiProject Musical Theatre Start Class Musical Theatre Portal West End theatre is part of WikiProject Musical Theatre, organized to improve and complete musical theatre articles and coverage on Wikipedia. You can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks. Start This article has been rated as Start Class WikiProject Musical Theatre tasks: Help out with one of the WikiProject Musical Theatre tasks below. You may add your name to the Participants list to the right. edit this Open Tasks template Collaborate and work on the Collaboration of the Month Articles needing a content fork Mainly, these are articles on films and either their source or subsequent musicals. There are a couple where the musical needs to be "forked" from the source material. Feel free to add or remove as necessary. Important: If you split an article, please make sure that you move all the relevant links from the first article to the new one. To find which links to move, click on "What links here" at the old article and look through the list to see which links should be pointed to the film related link (for example, articles on actors in the film). Then, click on those links and update them to point to the film article. Thanks! Don't Play Us Cheap Roberta How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying I Married an Angel Lady in the Dark The Band Wagon - musical adaptation will to be forked after it opens in April.

West End theatre was the UK Collaboration of the Fortnight for the fortnight starting on December 19, 2004. For details on improvements made to the article, see Past Collaborations and History

Contents 1 Longest running W.E. Musical still on stage 1.1 List of musicals to be added in the list but exact details/references not yet sourced 2 List of current Musicals 3 List in "Theatreland" paragraph 4 Big names 5 References for the first paragraph 6 External Links

[edit] Longest running W.E. Musical still on stage

I searched this on Google and each of the top ten results said it was 'Les Miserables', however, having seen the article on 'The Mousetrap' it's obvious this was written first. However, is it certain that the mousetrap has been showing non-stop in London's West End for all those years? That would explain why many websites list Les Mis and Phantom as being longer running. Grunners 00:28, 6 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Les Mis and Phantom are the longest running Musicals I believe. The longest continuously running play in the world is The Mousetrap. It opened at the Ambassador's Theatre on Nov 25th 1952 and transferred to the St. Martin's Theatre in 1974 - It's now in it's 53rd year! History Martin TB 18:20, 6 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I have updated the longest running shows on the West-end and added opening dates of the first showing - not the first showing of the current theatre it is in. Opening dates have been sourced so there is no ambiguity in the numbers years and it can be updated easily on a yearly basis. I have also added Cats in the list - which despite running for 20 years was not in it... BenyG 13:26, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] List of musicals to be added in the list but exact details/references not yet sourced

• Oh! Calcutta! - ran for 5-6 years, started in 1969
• The Rocky Horror Show (original 1973 production) ran for 6 years ish, reprised many times since.--BenyG 15:42, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] List of current Musicals

Would it not be nice to put a list of current running west end productions in this article? Check out Broadway to see what i mean. Basreuwer 20:24, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

I agree. Shouldn't be too difficult to do, either. Russell Brown 13:36, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

The list of current/coming West End productions can get quite long, see example on [UKTW], this could be made more meaningful by restricting it to shows running for, say, 1 month or more ... shouldn't just be musicals as implied by the title of this thread though Robertiles 08:28, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] List in "Theatreland" paragraph

What's the common factor in the rather disparate list at the end of this paragraph, please? --Old Moonraker 18:15, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

None at all as far as I can see. An anonymous editor put it in ages back,I've removed it. -Dhodges 19:03, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

Great. WP:BOLD! --Old Moonraker 19:14, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Big names

The West End has attracted "big names" for decades - so why are only the last few years of "big names" listed? Moreover, why are they listed at all - it makes the introduction to the article read like an advertisement. While it may be interesting to present a List of West End performers by year, I suggest that it is moved to such an article - it's out of place here. Waggers 11:45, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

I tend to agree, in the meantime, it could be moved downpage to an appendix. The How to ... section is just a second attempt to add wikispam, this time embedded in text. I'd suggest remove it completely. Kbthompson 11:51, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] References for the first paragraph

Can I see references for the first paragraph? It's probably right, but it should be referenced with inline citations. Dr. Submillimeter 16:40, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] External Links

Hello everyone

I would like to raise an issue that I have with the external links section of this article. I recently tried to post several links to Official sites for some of the West End's biggest shows. They were then taken down because of commercial reasons, but I don't feel this is fair. This is because this page is for West End Theare. And so external links should have the url's of the West End's shows. But also, these sites are about 95% content and 5% ticket sales, and so are more about giving information about the show than selling tickets. My other issue with this is that below the external links, there are live url's that click through to Ticket Tout sites, that are not giving any official information and are SELLING tickets.

I would like your views on this and if possible a way that this can be resolved. The shows that I am wanting to post are Wicked, Avenue Q, Lord Of The Rings, Theatre Royal Haymarket, etc. Please feel free to check them out.

Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by DigitalMediaMatt (talk • contribs) 10:19, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

See WP:EL for policy on external links. Also external links to Wicked, etc are not appropriate because they have their own articles on wiki, therefore should be internally linked. A link to Wicked on West End theatre is not relevant, exactly the same link on Wicked is (depending on consensus at that article's talk page).

As to tout sites, if you see them, please feel free to remove them. ... and by the way, thanks for discussing your use of external links. Kbthompson (talk) 10:47, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

Here is the link I removed. It has been inserted seven (E&OE) times, by two separate editors (DigitalMediaMatt assured me that there is no sockpuppetry going on) and removed by three separate editors—in my view a clear case of spamming. DigitalMediaMatt also complained to me that "there are several URL's that go through to ticket booking and yet they remain..." Perhaps these need a bit of a trim as well. --Old Moonraker (talk) 10:57, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

Afterthought: previous discussion with DigitalMediaMatt referred to above is here. --Old Moonraker (talk) 12:06, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks very much for your replies. I'm glad we can clear this up. All I really wanted to sort out was that the reference url's on this article are not the official sites, and so I would prefer, and I'm sure so would most users, the reference be from the official show site, where all text, video & music content is straight from the producers of the show. If you are going to remove those tout sites, then could we possibly have a compromise and have the official show url's in their place? They would then be relevant to the article, as they are the right place to get all the information, all the "tout" sites have done is copied and pasted their info from them anyways. Thanks.

• Worst of the remaining violators removed. --Old Moonraker (talk) 21:58, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

Nice - I've been meaning to do that for a long time. I am, though, going to re-add the Society of London Theatre site - as the closest thing the West End has to a trade body, I think it's a valid link on this article. -- Dafyd (talk) 11:17, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

That seems fair enuff ... Kbthompson (talk) 11:51, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

No problem with just one more... --Old Moonraker (talk) 12:42, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

This is all great work guys! but in the notes section, those are not official sites for tickets either. they are links to pages selling tickets. I am informed that some are tout's. Is there any way we could lose these too? Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by DigitalMediaMatt (talk • contribs) 16:08, 4 March 2008 (UTC)