Charing Cross Theatre

Step through a brick archway in a dank covered passage, tucked away behind Charing Cross station, and you'll find yourself in this atmospheric but resolutely unglamorous theatre. It started life as a raucous Victorian music hall in 1864, and it still throws a rollicking good knees up, courtesy of the very popular Players Bar, where musical theatre fans gather round the old Joanna for nightly singalong sessions. 

The theatre itself offers none of the frills and furbelows that you'll find on the nearby West End. Charing Cross Theatre has a small raked auditorium, with a 265-seat capacity. Its current artistic director, Thom Southerland, came on board in 2016. Since then, he's had a degree of success using the venue to stage an offbeat and keenly priced collection of chamber musicals. The biggest hits to date have been 'Titanic', which turned the theatre's small stage into the teeming decks of the all-too-sinkable ship, and a stage production of cult film 'Harold and Maude', starring Sheila Hancock.