The end of the year marks the return of eggnog and latkes, gifting and regifting — and holiday-themed shows to bask in tradition, communal spirit and, yes, fun. In New York, we can always count on well-timed offerings on stages of all sizes.
One of the biggest, the Marquis Theater, is hosting “Elf the Musical” (through Jan. 4) in which Grey Henson gets the title role “delightfully, entirely right,” according to Laura Collins-Hughes’s review for The New York Times. And then, at the cavernous Theater at Madison Square Garden, Whoopi Goldberg’s Miss Hannigan will do her darnedest to prevent the darling orphan girls of “Annie” from enjoying Christmas at Oliver Warbucks’s mansion (Dec. 4-Jan. 4, with Goldberg joining the cast on Dec. 11).
In the middle is the Big Apple Circus, which once again pitched its tent in Damrosch Park at Lincoln Center. The company members may come from all over the globe, but the new show, “Hometown Playground,” is about New York City (through Jan. 5). And don’t overlook the jewel box New Victory Theater, which is presenting “Yuletide Factory” (through Dec. 29) by Cirque Mechanics, a Las Vegas troupe with, as Alexis Soloski described it in her review, “a giddily steampunk aesthetic.”
And there is more, so much more — with some selections from around the country because New York can’t have all the fun.
Uptown and downtown with Irish Rep
Like an old friend who turns up with the gift of a comfy sweater, Irish Repertory Theater is reviving not one but two popular seasonal productions. The more elaborate, pricier offering is “The Dead, 1904” (American Irish Historical Society, through Jan. 5), Paul Muldoon and Jean Hanff Korelitz’s adaptation of the James Joyce novella. Directed by Ciaran O’Reilly, this immersive, site-specific show takes place in a Fifth Avenue mansion, where audience members mingle with the cast — led this year by Kate Baldwin, Christopher Innvar and Mary Beth Peil. Theatergoers who splurge on upper-tier tickets will also share a meal with the actors.
Many blocks south and, it feels, a world away, Irish Rep’s downtown space is hosting “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” (Dec. 4-29), an adaptation of Dylan Thomas’s holiday reminiscence interspersed with songs.
Classics oft told
One of the most produced holiday shows is the tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, who is taught a thing or two about what really matters. Across the country, spins on Charles Dickens’s story abound, some of them quite imaginative. In New York, a solo version is built on the premise that Dickens himself (John Kevin Jones) performs his own text during a visit from Britain in 1867. The intimate production takes place in the Greek Revival parlor of an 1832 building for maximum period realness (Merchant’s House Museum, through Dec. 29). Worth noting is that the show can be streamed on demand until Dec. 30.
The version by Chicago’s Manual Cinema, a storied company whose work incorporates puppets and projections, is certain to stand out thanks to that institution’s visual and narrative inventiveness (Studebaker Theater, Chicago; Dec. 13-29).
The Round House Theater in Bethesda, Md., goes in a rather different direction with the new “A Hanukkah Carol, or Gelt Trip! The Musical” (through Dec. 29), in which Scrooge is now a nefarious millennial influencer named Chava Kanipshin (Samantha Sayah). Finally, the Isaac Bashevis Singer short stories “The Mirror,” “The Last Demon” and “Kukeriku” are adapted for the stage (and presented in Yiddish with surtitles) as “Bashevis’s Demons” (Out of the Box Theater, Dec. 18-Jan. 5). As in “A Christmas Carol,” the show dwells in a universe in which the supernatural is part of everyday life.
Transgressive tinsel
Fine, not all shows are appropriate for the entire family — the holidays are also a time when adults can take off on their own to mix the naughty with the nice. A good example is “The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Show,” written by and starring Jinkx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme (who also directed). The pair have gotten so popular that they are now touring their seasonal mix of songs and comedy across the country — the local pit stop is at Kings Theater, in Brooklyn, on Dec. 5. Jinkx, in particular, is growing into a musical-theater force, as evidenced by stints as Mama Morton in “Chicago” on Broadway, a memorable performance of “One Day More” at the Miscast 2024 benefit and her casting as Ruth in Roundabout Theater Company’s upcoming “Pirates! The Penzance Musical.”
Over in party-friendly Bushwick, Brooklyn, Company XIV brings back Austin McCormick’s “Nutcracker Rouge” (through Feb. 1), a sexy circus-ballet-burlesque version of everybody’s favorite dance about toys coming to terrifying life and a monstrous mouse. The show is in its 15th season so it must be doing something right — that McCormick is also credited for the cocktail menu could be taken as a hint.
Traditions old and new
The “Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes” (Radio City Music Hall, through Jan. 5) has been a perennial favorite since its creation in 1933. And with good reason: This is a fantastically outlandish production that delivers a kind of large-scale razzmatazz that has become rare — no skimping here. The “Spectacular” has cannily evolved over the decades, and now juxtaposes high-tech features like drones and sprawling animated projections with the Rockettes, the high-kicking troupe that keeps precision showmanship alive.
At the other extreme in terms of scope and age is “Wreck the Halls: The Second City New York’s Guide to Surviving the Holidays” (through Dec. 28). The Chicago improv company Second City opened a Brooklyn outpost in February, and now that venue is unleashing a seasonal interactive comedy revue: What better way to put your stamp on an expansion than starting new traditions there?
Finally, directors like Jacob G. Padrón are known for thinking outside boxes. Literally outside of them, because the institution Padrón leads, Connecticut’s Long Wharf Theater, gave up its physical headquarters to embrace itinerancy as a way to better connect with the communities it serves in and around New Haven. Padrón’s latest production is a revival of the classic Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick musical “She Loves Me” — which, lest we forget, is set in 1930s Budapest around Christmas time — and will be performed at the Lab at ConnCORP in New Haven (Nov. 30-Dec. 15).
Come to the holiday cabaret
If you time it right, you can make a double bill of two of the finest holiday shows at Joe’s Pub, long an epicenter of the alt-cabaret scene, on the evenings when Justin Vivian Bond and Murray Hill succeed each other onstage.
Now decades into a rich career, Bond — a recent recipient of the MacArthur “genius” fellowship — is the rare performer who seems incapable of doing the same show twice, even with the same official set list, so “Flakes” should deliver a different charge every night (Dec. 12-15 and 18-22). The best banter in the business doesn’t hurt.
Luckily for us, Murray Hill finds the time to bring back the holiday show, “A Murray Little Christmas” (Dec. 12-14, 16, 17, 19-20), despite expanding screen activities that include the breakthrough role of Fred Rococo on the HBO series “Somebody Somewhere” and the Hulu reality series “Drag Me to Dinner.” Don’t be surprised if fun guests pop up — Hill has accumulated a lot of friends over the years.
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