Holiday Shows for All Ages and Persuasions

Show-Score | By Raven Snook

Get into the spirit of the season with these festive productions. 

'Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes' 'Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes' | By Photo courtesy of the production

Regardless of what or how you celebrate, there's a seasonal show for you. As always there are a lot of variations on Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol.' However, other winter holidays get their due, too, in multicultural productions like 'The Three Bears Holiday Bash' and 'Sing! A South African and American Musical Holiday Celebration.' There are multiple merry options for children, like stage adaptations of the TV special 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' and the film 'Home Alone.' Looking for adults-only revelry? The 'Imbible: Christmas Carol Cocktails' comes with alcohol, 'Nutcracker Rouge' offers skin and sensuality, and 'Santasia' serves up snark. Even Scrooge couldn't cry "humbug!" at this delightfully diverse lineup.


Shows are in opening/closing date order.

Directed by Tony award winner Bartlett Sher, this new Broadway revival of Bock & Harnick's classic musical follows Jewish milkman Tevye, who strives to maintain "Tradition" as his daughters fall in love.

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The original production won ten Tony Awards including a special Tony for becoming the longest-running Broadway musical of all time. The revival, from the creative team behind 'The King and I', will be based on the Tony Award-winning original conception and choreography of Jerome Robbins, and will feature choreography by Israeli-born artist Hofesh Shechter. This heartwarming musical is the story of fathers and daughters, husbands and wives, and the timeless traditions that define faith and family.


Obie-winning South African performer Thuli Dumakude (a longtime Rafiki in Broadway's 'The Lion King') leads an international ensemble of female singers in this multicultural holiday celebration.

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'Sing!' combines traditional American holiday music with the joyous songs and dances of a South African township Christmas celebration. Songs are performed in English and Zulu, and accompanied by a live band.


In this solo puppet show for kids, singer Melanie Gall provides the voice of Tiny Mouse, a spirited rodent who loves to croon. A special holiday edition of the show returns to Soho Playhouse.

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Tilly Mouse lives under an opera house, and she just loves to sing! Her dream is to perform onstage. But whenever anybody sees her, they scream and run away. With determination, imagination, and help from her friends, Tilly proves that even a mouse can be a star. In honor of the holiday season, this seasonal edition of the show features music from Tchaikovsky’s 'Nutcracker' and Handel’s 'Messiah' along with arias by Mozart and Puccini.


Six performers play 37 characters in Blessed Unrest's revival of its raw, physical, and darkly comic take on the Christmas classic.

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In 1843, in lieu of publishing a political pamphlet entitled 'An Appeal to the People of England on behalf of the Poor Man’s Child,' Charles Dickens wrote 'A Christmas Carol.' This adaptation returns to the story’s original intent as an examination of an unjust socioeconomic system that benefits a few at the top while the masses struggle to meet their basic needs. It shows the capacity of an individual to overcome fear, expand their perspective, and take action for others.


Radio City Music Hall presents its annual holiday extravaganza featuring the legendary Rockettes!

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Radio City's iconic 'Christmas Spectacular' stars more than 140 performers in a heartwarming revue about finding the spirit of season in your heart. Headlined by The Rockettes, the famed precision dance troupe known for its synchronized routines such as "Rag Dolls" and "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers," the show also features actors, singers, dancers, Santa, high-tech interactives, and a climactic Living Nativity complete with animals. A New York Christmas tradition for the whole family since 1933.


93
Avg Score

Both spoof and tribute, Recent Cutbacks' highly theatrical parody of 'Home Alone' is intensely physical, imaginative, and silly, using only rudimentary props and costumes to recreate iconic moments from the film.

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The folks who brought you 'Hold on to Your Butts' and 'Fly, You Fools!' tackle their most ambitious project to date, featuring live projections, puppets, and a four-person choir, all told in Recent Cutbacks’ signature style of humor, nostalgia, and theatricality. Discover the true meaning (maybe) of Christmas this year with "KEVIN!!!!!!"


A modern riff on the classic holiday tale that's a hedonistic fusion of nightlife and theatre. 

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This sexy reimagining of The Nutcracker is infused with elements of opera, circus, vaudeville, and burlesque, and is told with erotic, sensual, and opulent flair. The wide-eyed heroine is now an adult named Marie Claire, and the world she discovers is a wintry realm of half-naked dancers and acrobats, gyrating and performing physical stunts that send her into a state of ecstasy.


88
Avg Score

Irish Rep revives its immersive adaptation of James Joyce’s novella about a holiday gathering in 1904 Dublin, staged in a historic Victorian mansion.

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At the party are students, friends, a celebrated tenor, a lost alcoholic, and a couple: Gabriel and Gretta Conroy. Over the course of the evening, there are conversations, music, dancing, and dining. There are speeches and disagreements–polite and impolite–and when it is all over, Gabriel learns something about his wife that changes his sense of who she is and who they are to each other, and what it actually means to be alive–or dead. An audience of 40 guests attends the party alongside the actors, moving from room to room, and dining on a meal inspired by the menu in the novella. 


Radiotheatre presents its annual telling of yuletide hauntings set in downtown Manhattan. Stories are performed like an old-fashioned radio show, with orchestral music and sound effects.

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Escape the blustery winds of winter and enter into the spectral shadows of St. John's Sanctuary, which has sat quietly for 190 years in the heart of historical Greenwich Village. But now, lit by flickering candlelight and bathed in ghostly mist, the Radiotheatre players bring the building to life, hoping to warm your cockles or perhaps chill the marrow in your bones with scary seasonal stories. Different tales are shared at every performance. See the show's website for the complete schedule.


Roundabout Theatre Company presents a new musical inspired by the beloved 1942 film, featuring songs by the legendary Irving Berlin. Starring Tony nominee Bryce Pinkham and Corbin Bleu of 'High School Musical' fame.

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Jim leaves the bright lights of show business behind to settle down on his farmhouse in Connecticut, but life just isn’t the same without a bit of song and dance. Jim’s luck takes a spectacular turn when he meets Linda, a spirited schoolteacher with talent to spare. Together they turn the farmhouse into a fabulous inn with dazzling performances to celebrate each holiday, from Thanksgiving to the Fourth of July. But when Jim’s best friend Ted tries to lure Linda away to be his new dance partner in Hollywood, will Jim be able to salvage his latest chance at love? Featuring a host of iconic songs including "White Christmas," "Easter Parade," and "Blue Skies."