Theatre in London

THERE IS ONE MARVELOUS THING about the theater in London-the most expensive seat in the house is cheaper than the cheapest seat in a New York theater. In many theaters a gallery seat costs only the equivalent of 35 cents. There, unfortunately, the list of good things about the London theater ends. The West-end theaters produce for the most part trashy commercial vehicles, revues, and musicals-in short, pretty much the same thing as may be seen at any time in the Broadway theaters. But the New York theatergoer is never starved for good plays. There is always the off-Broadway theater with anywhere from ten to twenty little theaters presenting good drama-plays by promising new authors, avant-garde experimental theater, classics, and revivals of worthwhile failures which deserved a better fate. London has practically no counterpart to the off-Broadway theater. Only the Royal Court, the Theatre Royal, The Tower, and the Unity can compare with New York's live-wire theaters; and of these the latter two are non-professional.