Outside the Boom Chicago comedy club. Photo by ramblingrovers.

By Amy Goemans in Amsterdam—

You’ve been to all the famous Amsterdam attractions—the zoo, the Van Gogh Museum, and other popular spots. But what about Amsterdam’s beloved comedy club scene?

Stand-up gigs, improvisation shows, and all other forms of comedic performance are immensely popular in this city. As it is, you will come across a number of Amsterdam shows by famous comedians like Eddie Izzard. Unfortunately, these will most probably be sold-out and a tad expensive.

On the other hand, there are a number of regular acts and visiting shows in well-known clubs which, with their affordable rates and popularity amongst the locals, are definitely worth checking out. Here are a few of Amsterdam’s most noteworthy comedy clubs:

Comedy Cafe

Max Euwplein 43-45
Phone: 020-638-3971
Show starts: 8 pm
www.comedycafe.nl

This cozy little cafe is a great place to drop by for a few drinks and a good show. Most of the shows are in Dutch, but there is an English show every Sunday named “Hole in the Boat.” The English-language act consists of two comedians, Gerry and Martijn, putting on a great improvised show. With an entrance fee of €13, this cafe’s shows involve music, anecdotes, plenty of creative thinking, and input from the audience.

Boom Chicago Comedy Club

Leidseplein 12
1017 PT Amsterdam
Phone: +31 20 423 0101
Show starts: Check site for details
http://www.boomchicago.nl/en/

If you are going to try out Boom Chicago, be sure to arrive early and plan ahead. This club, with its group of talented comedians, is cherished by many fans and thus, shows are usually packed. There are often a few shows running, based on different themes. As for their style, it is mainly improvisation, with a good number of sketch comedy acts as well.

The rates at Boom Chicago can range from €20 to €40. For a taste of their style, why not try the cheaper late-night improvised show for €13? Visit their website for full details of dates, show details, and opening times.

Comedy Theater in de Nes

Nes 110
1012 KE Amsterdam
Phone: 020 - 422 27 77
Starting time: Varies
http://www.comedytheater.nl/en/

Comedy Theater in de Nes is one of Amsterdam’s biggest and most popular comedy clubs, making it also one of the hardest tickets to get. This lovely theater presents a wide variety of comedy acts, both local and international. Keep an eye out for “Comedy Explosion” shows at the theater. These are hilarious shows by skilled comedians, be it improvisation or stand-up gigs. The tickets themselves are usually €13.

Note about food

Most of the comedy cafes and clubs offer food, which will usually be paid for with the ticket price. Since this can be a bit hard on the wallet (averaging a hefty €33), it might be a good idea to grab a quick bite beforehand, maybe at Maoz or even some of the street food like loempias or Turkish pizzas. Then, hop over early for the show and relax with your favorite drink as the show starts.

Popularity: 4% [?]

FITC's 2008 production of "The Fantasticks!" Photo: FITC.

By Marc Anani in Florence—

Just over the Arno river is a little-known treasure for the international crowd that I bet isn’t in your Florence tour book. It’s a little place to sustain your vacation’s quest for culture while adding a contemporary twist to your day. I speak of the Florence International Theatre Company (FITC).

International theater in Florence

The FITC, founded in 2005 by actress Bari Hochwald, is where the local art universe celebrates international theater. The company offers a full range of world-class shows ranging from adaptations of the classics to poetry productions to one-man puppetry.

Most performances take place at the Teatro di Cestello—a quaint theater located in Piazza Cestello in Florence’s Oltrarno neighborhood—where a friendly English-speaking staff will welcome you to the evening’s performance. There is also a bar for those wishing to loosen up before or (and) after the show.

This year the theater also launched its own contribution to the Florence nightlife scene with “Late Night with FITC: Teatro Per Nottambuli.” These one-hour theater pieces start around 11:30 PM, following the evening’s main production and offer the spectator a unique experience in late night entertainment. It’s a perfect event for after dinner. Ticket prices are €12 (€10 for students).

Where to Go After the Show

Regardless of which performance you attend, you will be in need of liquid materials afterward to kick back and discuss. Not to worry, there is no need to go far, as super-cool La Libreria Café La Cité is located just a few streets away.

This bookshop café by day/bistro bar by night is set in a two-story loft held up by book stacks and scattered with wooden tables, retro chairs and couches. You’ll find a mixed crowd of students, artists, and locals overflowing onto the street outside to catch a cigarette (all bars in Italy are now non-smoking). Live music ranging from folk to tango can be heard almost any night, so be sure to check the website to see what’s on. Drinks are affordable, starting at €4, and the bar is open until early morning.

About the author: Marc Anani lives in Florence with his dog José.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Kickin' cupcakes. Photo: Magnolia Bakery

As the weather gets colder and New York gears up for the holiday season, we’re daydreaming about sugary treats and high-kicking entertainment. We were happy, then, when we learned that two of our favorite city traditions are pairing up to offer a sweet deal.

Magnolia Bakery (the cupcake boutique made famous in “Sex and the City”) has joined forces with the Rockettes to offer a 25% discount for tickets to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular with the purchase of a special “Rockette Red Velvet Cupcake.”

The cupcakes (pictured here) cost $3.50 and are only available at the bakery’s Rockefeller Center location (which is convenient if you plan to pop into Radio City afterward to purchase your tickets).

Full-priced tickets to the “Christmas Spectacular”, currently in its 76th year, run $45-$250, making the Magnolia discount especially welcome. This year, the show runs from November 13, 2009 through December 30, 2009. The cupcake deal is valid for the entire run.

We don’t know about you, but we think this is one offer that has legs.

Popularity: 4% [?]

The Metropolitan Cinema. Photos by Claire Chaffey.

By Claire Chaffey in Rome—

Undeniably, Rome is a remarkable city with a thousand things to see and do. It’s not difficult to spend an entire day pounding the cobblestones taking in all that there is to experience. So when night falls, it’s often nice to just chill out and let yourself be entertained.

Here are some of the best (and cheapest) ways to do just that!

Cinema

Unless you’re lucky enough to speak the local lingua, chances are you’ll be looking for a movie house that shows films in English. While there are quite a few scattered around the city, these two are the most accessible:

Metropolitan Cinema
Via del Corso, 7 (Just off Piazza del Poppolo, Metro Flaminio)

The Metropolitan (pictured, above) is a friendly, old-school little cinema that has not entirely succumbed to the Italian penchant for dubbing absolutely everything that is not a product of Italy. It shows at least two English language films at any given time, and if you go on a weekday afternoon, or Wednesdays at anytime, you’ll only pay €5.50. Otherwise, tickets are €7.50.

Warner Village Metro Cinema
Piazza della Repubblica, 44 (Metro Repubblica)

Live music and drinks at the Scholar's Lounge.

You can’t miss this large, swanky cinema, which is the place to come if you want to see a blockbuster. However, it usually only shows one English language film at a time, so your options will be limited. Tickets are €7.50 (€5.50 for students).

Check out this useful website for programs and session times for both cinemas.

Tip: If you can speak Italian, take advantage of free films aired at “Casa del Cinema” at Villa Borghese. The films are mostly documentaries or old, obscure Italian films. For details, check out the website.

Live Music

There are plenty of pubs and bars in Rome which offer a huge variety of live music, but this is our favorite for both music and atmosphere:

Scholars Lounge Irish Pub
Via del Plebiscito, 101b (near Piazza Venezia)

The cosy and charming Scholars Lounge is host to live music almost every night from 10:30 PM. If it’s not a cover band doing the Chilli Peppers, Springsteen, or Oasis, it’s traditional Irish music, Reggae or karaoke (come on, you know you love it!). For the cost of whatever you want to drink, you can kick back with a congenial mix of locals and travelers and enjoy the vibe.

Last-minute theater tickets.

For a list of what’s on, check out the pub’s live music schedule.

Theater

Rome has an extremely vibrant dramatic scene with scores of theaters scattered all over town. It is generally not cheap to see a performance, but it is well worth the experience, especially when there are half-price tickets available at Last Minute Teatro, situated at Via Bari, 18 (Metro Policlinico). It sells unsold tickets for performances showing that night, and if you are not too fussy about what you see, there are huge savings to be made! Open Tuesday to Saturday: 2 PM-8 PM, and Sunday: 12 PM-4 PM.

About the author: Claire is a freelance journalist currently eating and drinking her way through Rome following a stint as a reporter in West Africa. Claire’s work has appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald, TNT Magazine, Way2Go Magazine and the Ghanaian Times.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Billy Elliot makes a splash; photo by chrisjohnbeckett

By Justin Bergman in London—London’s many stages and playhouses have countless plays, musicals and operas on offer all summer long—and unlike in New York, tickets here can be had for a song if you know where to look.

As far as prices go, think under 10 pounds. In fact, at one theater, tickets go for 10 pence a head (more on this later)! Here’s how to find the best deals:

Scoring half-price seats for the splashy West End shows-

Chances are if you’re thinking about taking in a show in London, you’re going to want to get the most for your money, i.e. a big-time musical (Billy Elliot, Sister Act) with magnificent production values and perhaps a B-list celebrity star. There’s nothing wrong with that. Just read the reviews and choose wisely as there are more than a few stinkers on the West End. (We’re hearing that Priscilla Queen of the Desert the Musical, for instance, just doesn’t live up to all the sequin and rhinestone hype.)

Tickets for the biggest musicals—especially the most in demand—can run upwards of 60 pounds ($100) apiece. But there are a few ways to save.

1) First, check for discounts online at ticket broker websites. The best aggregator out there is comparetheatretickets.com, which lists all the discounted tickets available from numerous online brokers for every show. For example, a search for Avenue Q tickets on July 23 turned up an 11-pound ($18) ticket in the upper balcony from the retailer Seatem.

Checking out the TKTS offerings; photo by Andyrob

2) Another sure bet for discounts is the TKTS booth in Leicester Square (Tube to Leicester Square, Piccadilly or Northern line), which sells half-priced tickets for most West End shows the same day of the performance. For the best shot at a wallet-friendly price and a non-nosebleed seat, get there when the booth opens at 10 AM Monday through Saturday (noon on Sundays).

Get thee to the theater!

Individual theaters also offer reduced prices for tickets as part of a concerted effort to bring in a younger crowd. As we reported earlier this year, the National Theatre puts on an annual Travelex 10-pound ticket season in which tickets for quality plays like Richard Bean’s England People Very Nice and Hanif Kureishi’s The Black Album start at just 10 pounds ($16) apiece. Tickets are sold via the National Theatre’s website. The current season runs through the fall.

Some theatres even give away a limited number of free tickets for people under age 26. Yup, you read that right. Free. At the National Theatre, for example, all you have to do is sign up for an Entry Pass online and your first ticket to one of the theatre’s shows is absolutely free (after that, you pay 5 pounds per ticket, about $8). There are a ton of off-West End theatres with the free-tickets-for-under-26 deal, including the Donmar Warehouse, Hampstead Theatre, Soho Theatre, Arcola Theatre, Bush Theatre, and Gate Theatre.

Stand up for great theater!

You’d be surprised how many venues in London will let you stand and be counted for incredibly low prices. Both the Royal Opera House and the English National Opera sell standing room tickets in the back of the house starting at 4 pounds ($6.50) and 10 pounds ($16), respectively. At Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, you can experience As You Like It as a groundling would have in the 1600s—standing in front of the stage (cost: 5 pounds or $8). The National Theatre also offers standing tickets for 5 pounds for most shows.

Drum roll please…lest we forget those 10 pence seats-

And here’s the best deal I’ve seen in awhile (aside from the free tickets, of course): At the Royal Court Theatre in Sloane Square, eight standing, restricted-view tickets are sold for only 10 pence (16 cents) apiece an hour before the show. Sure, you have to stand and you may not be able to see the entire stage, but 16 cents is one heck of a deal!

Popularity: 10% [?]

A concert at Amsterdam's Concertgebouw. Photo by ioniriq

By Audrey Sykes in Amsterdam—

The Dutch thrive on a passion for deal-making, and Amsterdam’s lively theater and music scene is, fortunately, not immune to great deals. Locals in search of half-price tickets to a wide-variety of entertainment events (from high to low-end), head straight to the Last-Minute Ticket Shop.

Always half off, no more, no less

Located at the southwest corner of the Leidseplein (Leidseplein 26, trams: 1, 2 and 10 from Central Station), the Last Minute Ticket Shop offers same-day half-price tickets to the theater, classical and rock concerts, cabaret acts, comedy shows, movies, and more.

It’s wise to show up early as tickets are limited (hours are daily from 12.00 to 19.30), yet ticket lines are rarely long. Chances of getting tickets are good, as you are only able to snag the half-priced tickets from the shop in person. Note that the shop’s ticket phone line (+31 (0) 900-0191) and website are reserved for those paying full price. (However, you can check out the website to view the day’s half-priced offerings.)

At the shop, large computer screens list available shows, listing artists, show times, locations, genres, language options, prices and ticket availability. The helpful staff is ready to answer questions about translation and events. Individuals may be limited to the number of tickets they can purchase, depending on availability. Cash, major credit cards, and EU debit cards are accepted, and the shop charges a €1 service charge per ticket.

An all-Amsterdam affair

Participating venues range from Amsterdam’s most famous concert halls to local stages. Whether it’s opera at the glamorous Concertgebouw or rock fests at Melkweg, the Last-Minute Ticket Shop offers a wide variety of options… at a great discount. Classical orchestra performances for €22, local comedy theater for €7.50, and feature flicks at the Filmmuseum for €5 are just some of the many offers we’ve seen.

Tell us: Have you ever bought a discounted seat or know other ways to score cheap tickets in Amsterdam? Leave your comment below!

About the author: Audrey Sykes hopped across the pond from the US three years ago for a Masters degree in global journalism. Since then, she’s lived all over Europe, reporting and editing for music sites, snowboard mags, and travel media.

Popularity: 11% [?]

The National Theater in London. Photo by Sizemore.

We were thrilled to read that the National Theater will again be hosting its extensive Travelex £10 ticket season in early 2009.

London’s theater scene is among the most celebrated in the world. Ticket prices, happily, are already more reasonable than their counterparts in New York, and half-priced same-day tickets from the TKTS booth at Leicester Square make them even more affordable. The National’s festival is a great addition to the city’s affordable theater offerings.

Cheapo productions at the National

Held annually since 2002, the National’s £10 ticket season runs from February to May. This year, theater buffs can enjoy productions like the brand new England People Very Nice; other productions include Death and the King’s Horseman, Burnt by the Sun, Dido, Queen of Carthage, Time and the Conways, and Berlin.

Buy tickets online

All productions are held in the Olivier Theatre. Although tickets can be purchase online, they can only be sent to UK post addresses and must be ordered at least a week before the show. You can also pick up your tickets at the box office.

Popularity: 14% [?]

Photo by brdparker

This Sunday (May 2007), catch a free breakfast at the Theatre du Rond-Point located in the heart of Paris in the 8th arrondissement from 9 a.m. until noon. All you have to do is sign up on the Web site.

Dieticians will be available to offer advice on nutrition as you snack your way through the samples, which will include everything from muesli to chocolate- and honey-coated flakes. Restaurant du Théatre du Rond Point can be found at 2 bis, avenue Franklin Roosevelt, 75008 Paris. Metro: Franklin Roosevelt.

Nearby is the Grand Palais Museum, where you can visit “The Golden Age of Classical India” (through 25 June) which brings together 110 sculptures on loan from Indian museums dating from the 4th to 6th centuries AD. It’s the first time an event devoted exclusively to the art of Gupta India has been organized anywhere in Europe. Entrance costs €10.

Popularity: 3% [?]

The fourth annual Dublin Gay Theatre Festival (DGTF) began yesterday and continues on until May 20, 2007, with 35 productions entertaining audiences at ten venues across downtown Dublin.

This year’s festival presents productions that either have a gay element, theme, or relevance. Theatre troupes from the UK, USA, Canada, Spain, South Africa, and the Ukraine are taking part and Award winning Broadway sensation Rick Skye is making his Dublin debut in the Irish premiere of A Slice O’Minelli, a high energy cabaret set to have audiences rolling in the aisles.

Tickets prices for DGTF events vary. Discounts are available for students, the unemployed, those with disabilities, and senior citizens. But with tickets starting as low as €14, and some events going for free, you won’t have to break the bank to attend.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Oh. My. God.

“2,” Athens’s latest everyone-is-talking-about-it stage production, choreographed by Dimitris Papaioannou (the genius behind the magnificent opening ceremony of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games) is inimitable. Showing at the recently renovated Pallas Theater (5 Voukourestiou Street, +30-210-321-3100), “2” is the kind of production one might see at any of the finest theaters in London, New York, or San Francisco.

Delving into issues surrounding male identity, sexuality, and relationships to everything from work and women to self without so much as one line of dialogue, “2″ resonates with a broad audience on a visceral and intellectual level, and has drawn packed houses every night.

To obtain a ticket, go to Ticket Shop and see “2″ advertised on the home page. Scroll down a bit and click on “????? ? ????????? ?? video (2,35MB),” written in red, to see a montage from the production. Click on “???????????? (??????? – ?????),” also in red, to see seating options and prices. We highly recommend splurging and buying a ticket close to the stage. Tickets begin at €10 and top out at €100.

Due to its popularity, “2” has been held over. It is currently scheduled to run through March 4.

Popularity: 3% [?]