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% [?]

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% [?]

By Theadora Brack in Paris—

Studio 28 in Paris. Photo by Theadora Brack.

When the sun sets in Paris, what’s an insomniac Cheapo to do? Why not take in a film? After all, cinema is as French as camembert cheese.

With almost 400 theaters in Paris showing 600 films on any given day, choosing just one film can be daunting.

First things first: Get your hands on a Pariscope, the weekly entertainment guide available at any newsstand, or visit Allocine.com. (In cinema listings, “v.f.” stands for “version francaise,” meaning it’s dubbed in French with no subtitles. “V.o.” is “version originale,” which means the film is presented in its original language with subtitles in French.)

Spotlight on… Studio 28

My own favorite cinema is little Studio 28, the only movie house on the hill of Montmartre. With just 170 seats and about ten screenings a week, it has earned a special place in the Parisian filmscape.

Founded in 1928 (hence the name), it immediately carved a niche in history as the world’s first avant-garde art theater. Studio 28’s fame was secured when Salvador Dali and Luis Buñuel premiered one of the first surrealist films there: “L’Age d’Or” (The Golden Age).

Before you go

Amelie at Studio 28; Photo courtesy of Miramax

Today, Studio 28 provides a delightful experience while remaining relatively inexpensive, compared to other Paris movie theatres. During July, it offers a special reduced-fare series featuring international classics like “Rebel Without a Cause”, “East of Eden”, “Roman Holiday”, and “Double Indemnity”, among others.

The cinema offers a rare opportunity to experience films the way they were before the multiplex—it’s no wonder that Audrey Tautou’s “Amélie Poulain” headed to Studio 28 every Friday.

Also to note: Studio 28 maintains a rotating display of artwork, and showcases the hand- and footprints of famous actors and directors who have premiered films there.

A bar at the end of the lobby opens onto a small beer garden (enclosed in winter) where you can sit and have a drink or some snacks before the show. Once you’ve entered the auditorium, settle into your plush red seat, let your eyes adjust to the dark, and make sure you check out the old piano nearby. It last saw serious use when Charlie Chaplin showed his movies here. The large set of surrealist light fixtures in the same auditorium were created by artist/film director Jean Cocteau.

Practical info: Studio 28 is located at 10 rue Tholozé in the 18th arrondissement (Metros Abbesses or Blanche). Phone: 01 46 06 36 07, or check online for current listings. Tickets are usually €7.50 (students €6.30)

Other cinemas of note

La Pagode (57, rue de Babylone, 7th arrondissement), looks like a Japanese temple. It was built for the wife of the founder of Au Bon Marché, the oldest department store in the city.

Le Balzac (just off the Champs-Elysées at 1, rue Balzac) will make you feel like you’re on a steamship bound for a distant land, thanks to its porthole-and-riveted-steel-hatchways ocean liner decor.

At La Péniche Cinéma that particular aesthetic is carried even further, as the theater actually is a ship—well, a barge, anyway—docked at Parc de la Villette each winter, and then moored at La Villette canal basin all summer.

Le Grand Rex is by far the city’s largest and flashiest theater. Located at 1, boulevard Poissonnière (between Metros Grands Boulevards and Bonne Nouvelle), this humongous movie palace was erected in 1932 at the height of the Art Deco movement. It can seat audiences of 5,000.

Do you have a favorite Paris cinema? Tell us about it in the comment section below!

About the author: Theadora Brack is a writer working in Paris. Her fiction has appeared in more than 30 literary publications, including 3AM International, The Smoking Poet, Beloit Fiction Journal, Mid-American Review, and the Haight-Ashbury Literary Journal.

Popularity: 9% [?]

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% [?]

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% [?]