Holiday shows take center stage between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve each year. Some of the plays, ballets, operas, concerts, musicals, burlesques, and hybrid entertainments have reappeared each December for decades. There is always some new holiday fare, including on Broadway (scroll to the bottom for some of the newcomers this year.) But the traditional annual shows loom large. Some are bracingly expensive; most are not. A handful are surprisingly raunchy; most are family fare. Some are so popular that they are already sold out (maybe you can plan early for next year.)
Any guide to holiday shows in New York must begin with the three staples of New York City holiday theatergoing: “The Radio City Christmas Spectacular,” “George Balanchine’s the Nutcracker” (and about a dozen sweet or sassy alternatives), and the many variations of “A Christmas Carol.”
Rockettes, Nutcrackers and Carols
Radio City Christmas Spectacular (Radio City Music Hall)
Now through January 5, 2025
Tickets are $71 to $659 , depending on where you sit and when you go (There are as many as five shows a day; the morning show is typically the least expensive — except on Christmas Eve (that’s the one that costs $659,)
The Mother of All Nutcracker Suites
George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker NYC Ballet (Lincoln Center’s Koch Theater)
Now through January 5, 2025
An annual tradition since 1954, New York City Ballet employs all of its 90 dancers, as well as 62 musicians, 32 stagehands and two casts of 50 young students each from the School of American Ballet to present this two-hour-long Tchaikovsky-scored ballet about a brave young girl who “turns the tide in a battle between toy soldiers and mischievous mice.” There’s also an onstage blizzard and a Christmas tree that grows to 40 feet.
Here is dancer Emma Van Enck performing (and explaining) the Marzipan Shepherdess number in the Nutcracker.
Tickets are $112.00 to $347.00, plus up to $12 additional fees per ticket,
Alternative Nutcrackers
Company XIV’s Nutcracker Rouge (Theater XIV, Bushwick)
Through February 1, 2025
An annual tradition since 2013, Austin McCormick and his erotic dance-theater group present the Burlesque version of the Nutcracker Suite in Bushwick, strictly for ages 18 and over.
“Nutcracker Sweets” Puppetworks Nov 30-Dec 30; “The Brooklyn Nutcracker” The Theater at City Tech Dec 12-15; “Nut/Cracked” The Bang Group at 92NY Dec 14 and 19; Francis Patrelle’s “The Yorkville Nutcracker” Gerald W. Lynch Theater Dec 19-22; “The Nutcracker“
Florence Gould Theater Dec 21 and 22; “The Hip Hop Nutcracker”Kings Theatre Dec 23
There are a slew of Nutcrackers you can see from home, thanks to the AllArts Nutcracker collection. On December 22, from noon on, AllArts will present on its broadcast channel The Nutcracker Marathon, starting with the Bolshoi Ballet’s version.
A Christmas Carols
The most produced plays throughout the country — second only to Shakespeare — are stage adaptations of Charles Dickens’ novella about Scrooge’s ghostly visits scaring him into dropping his miserly ways. Here are three long-running productions:
A Christmas Carol The Musical, (December 1-30) is celebrating its 16th annual holiday run at the Players Theater in Greenwich Village
A Christmas Carol at The Merchant House Museum (through December 29th), is celebrating its 12th holiday run.
A Christmas Carol at McCarter Theater (December 10-29) (McCarter is in Princeton, NJ)
The annual X-rated version, Filthy Lucre: A Burlesque Christmas Carol, has relocated to Lips on East 56th Street (5 performances December 4-22)
A Nutcracker AND A Christmas Carol
One holiday staple, now in its 21st year, combines both Nutcracker and A Christmas Carol: Los Nutz, aka “Los Nutcrackers: A Christmas Carajo” at the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance a queerLatino comedic play December 6-14 (also livestreamed on Dec 12 and 14)
Other Annual Holiday Traditions
Peter and the Wolf (Guggenheim)
December 6 – 8
Isaac Mizrahi narrates, directs and costumes Sergei Prokofiev’s children’s classic musical story, which in thirty minutes tells the story of a boy living in the Russian Wilderness, meeting a host of animal friends (each with different melody played by a different instrument) until his grandfather warns him of the dangers of the wolf
In what become a new annual tradition, Mizrahi and Nico Muhly have created “Third Bird,” with two performances December 14. The show features a cast of eight, including a flying bluebird, a swimming duck, and a running ostrich
The Magic Flute Holiday Presentation (Metropolitan Opera)
December 12 – January 4
An abridged, family-friendly version of Mozart’s musical fairy tale. Julie Taymor directed this 100-minute English-language version. She also created the costumes and the puppets.
The show is accompanied by an illustrated synopsis.
Seven in One Blow, or The Brave Little Kid (Axis Theater)
December 6-21
An interactive holiday show for children, now in its 2rdd year, based on the classic fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, in which a boy gets an unjustly fearsome reputation after swatting flies
The 14th Annual Joe Iconis Christmas Extravaganza, Dec 13-15, 54 Below, The performance on December 15 at 7pm will also be livestreamed.
The always huge, theater-heavy cast this year includes Krysta Rodriguez and Will Roland.
Times Square Angel (Theater for the New City)
December 16
The 25th annual holiday performance written and starring Charles Busch in his homage to holiday films from the 1940s. He portrays Irish O’Flanagan, a tough-as-nails nightclub chanteuse in 1940’s Manhattan who makes Scrooge look like a sentimental sap.
Alvin Ailey at New York City Center
December 4 – January 5
This dance company’s program changes from night to night, but they always make sure to include Revelations, a soulful dance that uses African-American spirituals, song-sermons, gospel songs and holy blues to explore the places of deepest grief and holiest joy.
The performances this year coincided with a retrospective at the Whitney Museum, Edges of Ailey , that also features a regular schedule of performances.
“New” (or non-annual) Holiday Shows
Elf the Musical (Broadway’s Marquis Theater)
through January 4
This is the third holiday run on Broadway– but the first in a dozen years — of the musical that adapts the 2003 Will Ferrell movie. Grey Henson (Mean Girls, Shucked,) portrays Buddy, a human being who was raised by elves at the North Pole, and who travels to New York City during Christmastime to find his biological father. My review of this production.
Annie (The Theater at Madison Square Garden)
December 4 – January 5
Whoopi Goldberg stars as Miss Hanagan in this touring production of the 1977 “The Sun will come out Tomorrow” musical based on the 1924 comic strip Little Orphan Annie comics, but long ago becoming its own cultural landmark.
Two companies that perform every holiday season in New York claim to be offering brand new shows
Big Apple Circus Presents Hometown Playground (Lincoln Centers’ Damrosch Park)
through January 5
Focus on the theme of New York City (with backdrops from city landmarks), the show features 14 circus and variety acts from around the world in addition to a company of local dancers and 8 live musicians, plus stunt poodles rescued from shelters across America,.
Yuletide Factory (Cirque Mechanics at New Victory Theater)
through December 29
The acrobats and clowns of the Vegas-based Cirque Mechanics transform a drab assembly plant with “festive flips” and “powerhouse stunts.”
