Pretheater

We picked up our tickets and stopped next door to have a pretheater drink.

Metrazur, in Grand Central Terminal, throws in a free miniature "suitcase" with its pretheater meal, filled with cookies to munch on during intermission and a $3 MetroCard for the commute to Broadway.

If time just doesn't allow for a pretheater restaurant dinner, some places -- Broadway Sal's is one -- can arrange to deliver dinner right to your theater seat.

It's not necessary to be an expert on British royals before you see one of Shakespeare's history plays, but a little pretheater preparation never hurts.

Even though a la carte prices aren't outrageous, we recommend the three-course pretheater menu.

During the early, pretheater period (ca. 700-1350), both religious and secular performing arts prospered.