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We've compiled the best of the best in Covent Garden - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
Hollywood stars often enjoy performing at this not-for-profit theater in diverse and daring new works, bold interpretations of the classics, and small-scale musicals. Heavy-hitters like Nicole Kidman, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Ewan McGregor have all graced the Donmar stage.
An architectural extravaganza of Edwardian style, this baroque-style theater has a magnificent 2,350-seat auditorium and a rooftop glass dome with a bar and great views. As one of the city's most venerable venues, the Coliseum functions mainly as the home of the English National Opera, which produces innovative opera, sung in English, for lower prices than the nearby Royal Opera House. In recent years the company also has presented musicals, sometimes featuring star opera singers. During opera's off-season (including summertime and during winter holidays), the house hosts the English National Ballet and other troupes. Guided tours offering fascinating insights into the architecture and history of the building take place on selected dates at 11 am.
Along with Milan's La Scala, New York's Metropolitan, and the Palais Garnier in Paris, the ROH is one of the world's great opera houses. First established in 1732, the Royal Opera House has staged countless spectacular performances during its illustrious history, while recent shows have tended toward a more contemporary repertoire. Whatever the style, the extravagant 2,250-seat auditorium delivers a serious dose of gilt and glamour. The famed Royal Ballet performs classical and contemporary repertoire here, too, and smaller-scale works of both opera and dance are presented in the Linbury Theatre and Clore Studio. A small allocation of tickets for each performance of main stage productions for the week ahead—even those that are sold out—goes on sale online at 1 pm every Friday. If you wish to see the famed auditorium but are not able to procure a ticket, you can join a backstage tour or one of the less frequent tours of the auditorium; they book up several weeks in advance.
