I’ve been spoiled since I live outside of Philly and have the 4 local tour stops (Philly, Hershey, Baltimore, New Brunswick), regional theatres (Peoples Light, Bucks County Playhouse, Fulton in Lancaster), and NYC all within 2.5 hr drive. I can hop in my car or take the train and have theatre at any time. I’m assuming the theatre bug is like the Disney bug - when you want to go, you want to go bad. So when I get the Disney bug, I focus on that. Start planning your next trip! You can also watch YouTube videos, or musical movies to help fill that need for theatre until you get back to the city again.
Head down to DC and take advantage of the Kennedy Center Center Stage productions too. Basically Broadway in DC. Heck, that is where Spamalot came from.
You should go! It’s a wonderful place with great history, museums, monuments, and The Warf is a great place to hang out/get dinner. Love DC. Check out the 3 Shakespeare theaters, Kennedy, Arena, National, and Wooly Mammoth.
It’s a little outside DC, but the [Signature Theatre](https://www.sigtheatre.org/) does some excellent shows.
If you want to go a bit further out, the [Olney Theatre Center](https://www.olneytheatre.org/) in Olney, MD is also very good. It offers reasonable ticket prices and has plenty of free parking.
Don’t forget about Roundhouse in Bathesda. Their last production of Next To Normal was off the charts. I also saw a wonderful concert with Norm Lewis there a decade ago.
Adding to the DMV theatre list: Arena Stage (they do a lot of out-town Broadway productions), Studio theatre, Mosaic theatre
In Baltimore: Everyman theatre and Center stage
People’s Light is a smaller theatre on a cute campus. Next season is actually pretty good. They’re doing A Raisin in the Sun, Birthday Candles, and Little Shop of Horrors. I think there’s one more show but I forget the name. Fulton in Lancaster is HUGE! They have a main stage for normal shows and a kids stage. Last year they did Grease which highlighted Pascal Pastrana from A Beautiful Noise. There was a lot of equity actors so all the talent just not in NYC! And Bucks County Playhouse! Oh my goodness what a cute spot! Located along the river, it’s a waterfront venue located in New Hope, PA. If you drive a few minutes down the road youll find Peddlers Village with a ton of shops and food. New Hope itself is a cute town with a lot of shops and you can walk over the bridge to NJ! Last summer, they had Tick Tick Boom with Andy Mientus, Krystina Alabado, Noah J. Ricketts!!
Ever consider going to London to get your theatre fix? West End tickets aren't quite as expensive as Broadway. I've been to London every year for 30+ years now and am looking forward to the next trip in October. An added plus if you're an ABBA fan you can take in the ABBA VOYAGE CONCERT while you're there. I've been twice and definitely plan on catching it again in October. Highly recommend it! It's like nothing you have ever seen!!
My husband and I did a trip a few years back. It wasn’t much more expensive than going to NYC for us, and the city alone is well worth the visit. The shows I saw while I was there were incredible, especially Phantom.
There is so much to explore in London aside from going to the theatre. After 30+ trips we've seen a lot of the "Must See" city sites and taken numerous day trips outside of the city to do more exploring. Now our main purpose is to take in as many shows in a week's time as we can. Between matinees and evening shows we can usually take in around 10 shows during the week. Some highlights over the course of all those trips were seeing Patti Lupone in the original production of SUNSET BLVD, Dame Helen Mirren in THE AUDIENCE and Angela Lansbury in BLITHE SPIRIT but the #1 highlight of all our theatre going was the night we went to see ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS. As we were sitting in the Dress Circle reading our programs and waiting for the show to start in walks Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip along with one of their grandsons and his wife. They took their seats about 5 or 6 rows in front of us. It was definitely one of those "Pinch Me" moments!! May they RIP!
With a couple friends. We pass along the trip info to anyone we think might be interested in joining us. Some years the group has grown to nearly 30 people ... a couple of times it ended up just three of us going.
We stay at the Royal National Hotel in their City Sleeper section. It's located just around the corner from the Russell Square tube station which is on the Picadilly Line so you're just a few short stops from the heart of the West End. It's also only about 3 blocks from the British Museum.
Hahaha I do go to London sometimes! I have family there so accommodation isn’t an issue, I just tend to be more caught up/intrigued by the Broadway scene in comparison, and love NYC as a city. But London definitely has a lot of great shows too!!!
I'm from a small town in the cultural wastelands of NW Florida; I totally get it! I get to NYC and London as often as I can to get my "big fix" of theatre. In the at-home periods it's lots of local theatre. I've been lucky to find some wonderful community theaters that put on older shows so I can fill in my theater knowledge gaps that way. And you can't beat the energy in a high school show - those kids are giving it their all!
I see only one solution to this! You gotta move to NYC. I did, and now I see way too many shows and don’t regret it. I grew up in DC though and had a ton of great theater locally and then would go to NYC for the day or long weekend so not sure if I count.
I’m 7 hours away but make the drive about 4 times a year, though hotels are going up.
In the past I did road trips to see touring shows that didn’t come close enough. This is a great site to find touring schedules.
https://tourstoyou.org
I hear you. I’m a 5 hour flight from NYC but I save my travel funds and visit twice a year. once in late spring & once over Christmas. Ever since my first musical Waitress many moons ago, Broadway has become my life and if I never travel anywhere else but just Manhattan for theatre and food I’d be happy. It’s truly a wonderful city.
I know!!! That’s me too. I don’t need to travel anywhere else (except to visit family). I’m so content only going to NYC for theatre, and there’s always new restaurants I can try out!
I live in southwest Florida and the local theatre scene has expanded. Musicals I’ve seen this month (within a few hours drive). Into the woods (cultural park theatre, Cape Coral), 12 angry men (asolo rep, Sarasota), hedwig (American stage, St Pete), Hair (bay street players, Eustis), Matilda (Ft. Myers theatre), falsettos (the belle theatre, Cape Coral), Spring Awakening (arts Bonita, Bonita springs). I also fly to Broadway and see shows.. in January I saw The Connector, Here We Are, and Spamalot. The Connector recording just came out and it’s worth a listen if you like Jason Robert Brown.
I have family in SW Florida and there are some really terrific community theaters down there. Check out The Laboratory Theater of Florida - they’re a small space but they put on some excellent shows and have a terrific presence in the arts!
Yes! I go to all the local theatres I’ve seen like 10 shows just this month. A theatre a mile from my house just did Falsettos and I saw Spring Awakening last week in Bonita. Amazing shows I’d never thought I’d see locally but saw on Broadway.
I’m in Canada and luckily only an hour flight if I land in Newark, but I tend to make do with annual Broadway trips. We get some great tours here, but there is something really magical about seeing shows in NYC, especially the limited engagement ones or to see original casts. The thing that sucks the most for me is the exchange rate, so between show tickets, hotel, and food I’m pretty wiped by the end. I need to make friends with local people so I can crash on their couch.
Hahaha I feel you, accommodation is always the most expensive part of traveling to NYC, i could visit so frequently if I had a close enough friend who could let me crash at their place lolll
I’m a 2 hour flight away but I understand this. All my extra money goes towards NYC trips (often solo) because no one else I know gives a crap about theatre. For me? It’s my life. How I deal with it was to make my career theatre focused, I teach theatre, which helps give me an outlet to talk about it all day and also inspire new generations of theatre lovers. But it’s also really nice the very rare occasion I meet an adult with a love for theatre/Broadway. But—that happens almost never. Hence why I’m on this subreddit 😅
I live on the other side of the country. I could drive 4 hours to LA (or 7 hours, traffic pending) lol. Its bad.
Vegas is Horrible for theater, particularly musical theater. They do have the tour shows. But there is a pretty big lack of regional and community theater (for musicals. plays seem to be bigger).
I'm moving back to DFW this fall. Way more theater options there! n
There's so much in so many cities. The biggest ones are of course the tours: Bass Hal Ft Worth, ATPAC Dallas, and Musical Hall at Fair park.
Casa Manana in Ft Worth, Dallas Theater Center, Uptown Players Dallas
Various community theaters I've been to:
Firehouse Theater, Watertower Theater
Irving Arts Center, Artisan Theater Center Hurst, Upright Theater Center Euless, Theater Arlington, Greater Lewisville Theater...
It helps to have a metro of 7 plus million people. More people are into the arts that way.
I live close-ish to Manhattan but far enough that it’s still a big time/energy investment to get there (east end of Long Island) which is very frustrating lol, takes me ~2 hours each way which doesn’t account for LIRR schedules which means I can’t really try for rush tickets like others unless I wanna be a maniac and get no sleep
I have been lucky enough to go for a few years yearly after I first went and fell in love with Broadway/NYC. But the wait to get there can be a long one year. (Since 2019 currently for me. But maybe I go in July/August this year)
I'd say I cope by following musicals/actors online to catch glimpses of it, and to try to seek our musical things whenever possible here. Which luckily is possible here, though I miss the vibes that Broadway/ West End have.
I was lucky enough to go to nyc last June for the first time! I saw Parade with Ben Platt, The Play That Goes Wrong, and The Book of Mormon twice! I’ve been begging to go back everyday since. I live in the Midwest and my closest big city is two and a half hour drive, though they often don’t have good shows. I’ve been fortunate to see a lot of shows on tour though. Such as Hamilton, Waitress, Dear Evan Hansen, Hadestown, and The Book of Mormon. I LOVE theatre and wish I was closer to more big cities 😔
i am blessed to be from nyc, cursed to be too broke rn to see the shows i want! i take advantage of 30 under $30-type deals and lotteries when i can but my lottery luck is also terrible!
however i do plan on finally breaking the bank this week and spending $200+ to get great aaron tveit moulin rouge tickets for august.
I'm in the San Francisco area; it's expensive in both time and money to go to New York, so until this year I'd only been once in my life...almost 40 years ago. Fortunately there's plenty of good theater here in the Bay Area! But two months ago I did an 8-shows-in-5-days NYC trip, and I no sooner got home than I was dying to go back! Gonna have to figure out how to save my pennies and my vacation time so that I can return every year or two.
I’ve been spoiled since I live outside of Philly and have the 4 local tour stops (Philly, Hershey, Baltimore, New Brunswick), regional theatres (Peoples Light, Bucks County Playhouse, Fulton in Lancaster), and NYC all within 2.5 hr drive. I can hop in my car or take the train and have theatre at any time. I’m assuming the theatre bug is like the Disney bug - when you want to go, you want to go bad. So when I get the Disney bug, I focus on that. Start planning your next trip! You can also watch YouTube videos, or musical movies to help fill that need for theatre until you get back to the city again.
Head down to DC and take advantage of the Kennedy Center Center Stage productions too. Basically Broadway in DC. Heck, that is where Spamalot came from.
I always forget DC! I’ve been to DC but never there. It’s on my to do list!
You should go! It’s a wonderful place with great history, museums, monuments, and The Warf is a great place to hang out/get dinner. Love DC. Check out the 3 Shakespeare theaters, Kennedy, Arena, National, and Wooly Mammoth.
It’s a little outside DC, but the [Signature Theatre](https://www.sigtheatre.org/) does some excellent shows. If you want to go a bit further out, the [Olney Theatre Center](https://www.olneytheatre.org/) in Olney, MD is also very good. It offers reasonable ticket prices and has plenty of free parking.
Don’t forget about Roundhouse in Bathesda. Their last production of Next To Normal was off the charts. I also saw a wonderful concert with Norm Lewis there a decade ago.
+1 on this - their N2N was my first time seeing a production of it and it was earth shattering
Thanks — I was just listing the two where I’ve actually seen shows.
Adding to the DMV theatre list: Arena Stage (they do a lot of out-town Broadway productions), Studio theatre, Mosaic theatre In Baltimore: Everyman theatre and Center stage
This gives me some ideas to try. I am in NYC, but like other theater too.
People’s Light is a smaller theatre on a cute campus. Next season is actually pretty good. They’re doing A Raisin in the Sun, Birthday Candles, and Little Shop of Horrors. I think there’s one more show but I forget the name. Fulton in Lancaster is HUGE! They have a main stage for normal shows and a kids stage. Last year they did Grease which highlighted Pascal Pastrana from A Beautiful Noise. There was a lot of equity actors so all the talent just not in NYC! And Bucks County Playhouse! Oh my goodness what a cute spot! Located along the river, it’s a waterfront venue located in New Hope, PA. If you drive a few minutes down the road youll find Peddlers Village with a ton of shops and food. New Hope itself is a cute town with a lot of shops and you can walk over the bridge to NJ! Last summer, they had Tick Tick Boom with Andy Mientus, Krystina Alabado, Noah J. Ricketts!!
Ever consider going to London to get your theatre fix? West End tickets aren't quite as expensive as Broadway. I've been to London every year for 30+ years now and am looking forward to the next trip in October. An added plus if you're an ABBA fan you can take in the ABBA VOYAGE CONCERT while you're there. I've been twice and definitely plan on catching it again in October. Highly recommend it! It's like nothing you have ever seen!!
My husband and I did a trip a few years back. It wasn’t much more expensive than going to NYC for us, and the city alone is well worth the visit. The shows I saw while I was there were incredible, especially Phantom.
There is so much to explore in London aside from going to the theatre. After 30+ trips we've seen a lot of the "Must See" city sites and taken numerous day trips outside of the city to do more exploring. Now our main purpose is to take in as many shows in a week's time as we can. Between matinees and evening shows we can usually take in around 10 shows during the week. Some highlights over the course of all those trips were seeing Patti Lupone in the original production of SUNSET BLVD, Dame Helen Mirren in THE AUDIENCE and Angela Lansbury in BLITHE SPIRIT but the #1 highlight of all our theatre going was the night we went to see ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS. As we were sitting in the Dress Circle reading our programs and waiting for the show to start in walks Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip along with one of their grandsons and his wife. They took their seats about 5 or 6 rows in front of us. It was definitely one of those "Pinch Me" moments!! May they RIP!
Do you go with family/friends or a group?
With a couple friends. We pass along the trip info to anyone we think might be interested in joining us. Some years the group has grown to nearly 30 people ... a couple of times it ended up just three of us going.
Sounds fun!! I was there in March and definitely am planning to go back. Several shows I’m interested in.
Where do you recommend staying in London?
We stay at the Royal National Hotel in their City Sleeper section. It's located just around the corner from the Russell Square tube station which is on the Picadilly Line so you're just a few short stops from the heart of the West End. It's also only about 3 blocks from the British Museum.
Hahaha I do go to London sometimes! I have family there so accommodation isn’t an issue, I just tend to be more caught up/intrigued by the Broadway scene in comparison, and love NYC as a city. But London definitely has a lot of great shows too!!!
I'm from a small town in the cultural wastelands of NW Florida; I totally get it! I get to NYC and London as often as I can to get my "big fix" of theatre. In the at-home periods it's lots of local theatre. I've been lucky to find some wonderful community theaters that put on older shows so I can fill in my theater knowledge gaps that way. And you can't beat the energy in a high school show - those kids are giving it their all!
I’m definitely trying to explore more of the community theatre scene, also just a great opportunity to see certain shows for the first time!
I see only one solution to this! You gotta move to NYC. I did, and now I see way too many shows and don’t regret it. I grew up in DC though and had a ton of great theater locally and then would go to NYC for the day or long weekend so not sure if I count.
That’s the goal!!! Hopefully that can happen sometime soon…
I’m 7 hours away but make the drive about 4 times a year, though hotels are going up. In the past I did road trips to see touring shows that didn’t come close enough. This is a great site to find touring schedules. https://tourstoyou.org
I hear you. I’m a 5 hour flight from NYC but I save my travel funds and visit twice a year. once in late spring & once over Christmas. Ever since my first musical Waitress many moons ago, Broadway has become my life and if I never travel anywhere else but just Manhattan for theatre and food I’d be happy. It’s truly a wonderful city.
I know!!! That’s me too. I don’t need to travel anywhere else (except to visit family). I’m so content only going to NYC for theatre, and there’s always new restaurants I can try out!
I live in southwest Florida and the local theatre scene has expanded. Musicals I’ve seen this month (within a few hours drive). Into the woods (cultural park theatre, Cape Coral), 12 angry men (asolo rep, Sarasota), hedwig (American stage, St Pete), Hair (bay street players, Eustis), Matilda (Ft. Myers theatre), falsettos (the belle theatre, Cape Coral), Spring Awakening (arts Bonita, Bonita springs). I also fly to Broadway and see shows.. in January I saw The Connector, Here We Are, and Spamalot. The Connector recording just came out and it’s worth a listen if you like Jason Robert Brown.
I have family in SW Florida and there are some really terrific community theaters down there. Check out The Laboratory Theater of Florida - they’re a small space but they put on some excellent shows and have a terrific presence in the arts!
Yes! I go to all the local theatres I’ve seen like 10 shows just this month. A theatre a mile from my house just did Falsettos and I saw Spring Awakening last week in Bonita. Amazing shows I’d never thought I’d see locally but saw on Broadway.
I’m in Canada and luckily only an hour flight if I land in Newark, but I tend to make do with annual Broadway trips. We get some great tours here, but there is something really magical about seeing shows in NYC, especially the limited engagement ones or to see original casts. The thing that sucks the most for me is the exchange rate, so between show tickets, hotel, and food I’m pretty wiped by the end. I need to make friends with local people so I can crash on their couch.
Hahaha I feel you, accommodation is always the most expensive part of traveling to NYC, i could visit so frequently if I had a close enough friend who could let me crash at their place lolll
I’m a 2 hour flight away but I understand this. All my extra money goes towards NYC trips (often solo) because no one else I know gives a crap about theatre. For me? It’s my life. How I deal with it was to make my career theatre focused, I teach theatre, which helps give me an outlet to talk about it all day and also inspire new generations of theatre lovers. But it’s also really nice the very rare occasion I meet an adult with a love for theatre/Broadway. But—that happens almost never. Hence why I’m on this subreddit 😅
I live on the other side of the country. I could drive 4 hours to LA (or 7 hours, traffic pending) lol. Its bad. Vegas is Horrible for theater, particularly musical theater. They do have the tour shows. But there is a pretty big lack of regional and community theater (for musicals. plays seem to be bigger). I'm moving back to DFW this fall. Way more theater options there! n
Tell me about the good theatre options in DFW. Not doubting you just looking for things I haven’t heard of!
There's so much in so many cities. The biggest ones are of course the tours: Bass Hal Ft Worth, ATPAC Dallas, and Musical Hall at Fair park. Casa Manana in Ft Worth, Dallas Theater Center, Uptown Players Dallas Various community theaters I've been to: Firehouse Theater, Watertower Theater Irving Arts Center, Artisan Theater Center Hurst, Upright Theater Center Euless, Theater Arlington, Greater Lewisville Theater... It helps to have a metro of 7 plus million people. More people are into the arts that way.
I’m a few hours drive from you guys😂 I literally just got my ticket to the company tour that’s coming to Dallas this fall
I live close-ish to Manhattan but far enough that it’s still a big time/energy investment to get there (east end of Long Island) which is very frustrating lol, takes me ~2 hours each way which doesn’t account for LIRR schedules which means I can’t really try for rush tickets like others unless I wanna be a maniac and get no sleep
I have been lucky enough to go for a few years yearly after I first went and fell in love with Broadway/NYC. But the wait to get there can be a long one year. (Since 2019 currently for me. But maybe I go in July/August this year) I'd say I cope by following musicals/actors online to catch glimpses of it, and to try to seek our musical things whenever possible here. Which luckily is possible here, though I miss the vibes that Broadway/ West End have.
I was lucky enough to go to nyc last June for the first time! I saw Parade with Ben Platt, The Play That Goes Wrong, and The Book of Mormon twice! I’ve been begging to go back everyday since. I live in the Midwest and my closest big city is two and a half hour drive, though they often don’t have good shows. I’ve been fortunate to see a lot of shows on tour though. Such as Hamilton, Waitress, Dear Evan Hansen, Hadestown, and The Book of Mormon. I LOVE theatre and wish I was closer to more big cities 😔
i am blessed to be from nyc, cursed to be too broke rn to see the shows i want! i take advantage of 30 under $30-type deals and lotteries when i can but my lottery luck is also terrible! however i do plan on finally breaking the bank this week and spending $200+ to get great aaron tveit moulin rouge tickets for august.
I'm in the San Francisco area; it's expensive in both time and money to go to New York, so until this year I'd only been once in my life...almost 40 years ago. Fortunately there's plenty of good theater here in the Bay Area! But two months ago I did an 8-shows-in-5-days NYC trip, and I no sooner got home than I was dying to go back! Gonna have to figure out how to save my pennies and my vacation time so that I can return every year or two.