It’s A Wonderful Life, Eric & Little Ern, London
White Christmas is already running in the West End and now another seasonal movie staple opens in a new pub theatre in Penge. The Bridge House Theatre is staging It’s A Wonderful Life (SE20, to 4 Jan), based on Frank Capra’s iconic 1946 film about the idealistic George Bailey and his epiphany in a small New York town after the Depression. Here, the uplifting tale is staged by Guy Retallack as a live radio play in front of a studio audience. Back in the 70s, Morecambe & Wise were another permanent fixture on TV screens at Christmas, and the Olivier-nominated Eric & Little Ern (St James Theatre, SW1, Tue to 11 Jan), recreating the much-loved double act, returns to London for another run.
MC
Old Mother Goose, York
One of the oldest panto stories has been chosen by two British theatres who are among the best for traditional pantomime: London’s Hackney Empire and York’s Theatre Royal. York’s panto is such a huge draw that the show always continues well into the new year. Some of the most celebrated panto dames, including Dan Leno, have played the role of the poor but honest Mother Goose, a woman lucky enough to befriend a goose that lays golden eggs, but who ends up desiring not just wealth but youth and beauty too. Renowned dame Berwick Kaler (who also wrote this version) should ruffle a few feathers in this eggstravaganza, which boasts more than its fair share of magic, mayhem, topical jokes and sheer silliness.
Theatre Royal, to 31 Jan
LG
The Devil Masters, Edinburgh
It’In Victorian times, Dickens wrote regularly about the disparity between London’s rich and poor. For some, the streets of the capital were paved with gold; for others, they were a cold and unwelcoming place to sleep. Now, writer Iain Finlay Macleod and director Orla O’Loughlin turn their attention to the gap between the haves and have nots in contemporary Edinburgh with a satirical black comedy. Lawyers Cameron and Lara Leishman appear to have it all: successful careers, a posh New Town flat and the lifestyle to go with it. Yet their beloved mutt is being held for ransom and, as tensions rise, the class war becomes more pronounced, right and wrong begin to blur, and everyone behaves very badly indeed.
Traverse Theatre, to 24 Dec
LG
The Shoemaker’s Holiday, Stratford-upon-Avon
Shoemaker Simon and his wife Margery are upwardly mobile in Elizabethan London, until their rise is interrupted by the arrival of aristocrat Rowland Lacy. Attempting to avoid being sent to war by his father, Lacy has assumed the disguise of a Dutch shoemaker, although he’s less interested in shoes than winning the hand of Rose Oatley, a nice middle-class girl. Her parents, meanwhile, believe Rowland is a bad boy and don’t approve of the match. Can Lacy persuade them otherwise? Thomas Dekker’s seldom-performed 17th-century comedy is given an outing by director Philip Breen, who should ensure it’s not all cobblers.
Royal Shakespeare Theatre, to 7 Mar
LG
Sleeping Booty!, Noël Coward’s Christmas Spirits, London
Camp as Christmas, as the saying goes, so if you’re after kitsch rather than carols, adult panto Sleeping Booty! (Leicester Square Theatre, WC2, to 17 Jan) may be the answer. From the fine people who gave us Dick!, it’s another filthy festive frolic, with the formidable Miss Dusty O as The Evil Mangelina heading a cast of characters that includes Tit Bit and Prince Willie Wontie. You get the picture… For some more restrained campery, Nick Hutchison’s blitz-set play Noël Coward’s Christmas Spirits (St James Theatre, SW1, to 23 Dec) offers a bittersweet festive journey of song, poetry and prose, as summoned up by medium Madam Arcati.
Various venues
MC
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, On tour
The National Theatre is setting out on tour with its massive London and Broadway hit. Simon Stephens’s adaptation of Mark Haddon’s much-loved book about Christopher, a teenager with Asperger’s syndrome who discovers his neighbour’s dog brutally murdered, is very cunningly constructed as a play within a play. Add to that Bunny Christie’s brilliant design, Paule Constable’s terrific lighting and Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett’s choreography, and you have a show that allows you to see the world through Christopher’s eyes. Funny and heart-breaking, it’s also full of truths about parenting and the adult world, as Christopher’s investigation leads him to uncover lies rather closer to home.
LG
