Holiday Shows!

Time is running out, but here are some holiday shows that I have recommended to friends & family. We’re lucky in Seattle and the Puget Sound region that we have a wide variety of holiday shows to choose from, and we’ve got shows to tempt sentimental traditionalists, countercultural hedonists, literature aficionados, and everyone in between. Your calendar is probably as stuffed as a Christmas goose, but whether you’ve been naughty or nice, you deserve an entertaining and diverting night out. Here are some holiday shows, I hope one of them might bring you some joy:

The world can seem like a cruel and uncaring place. Is redemption possible? How do we maintain our connection to one another in the face of all that drives us apart? Do you want to rekindle an earnest compassion for your fellow human beings? Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is so culturally pervasive it seems like it should be familiar in every detail, but it can and should be filled with wonder and mystery. ACT Theatre has staged a production each December for your entire adult life, and if you’ve never seen one, it will be worth your while (Nov 29 – Dec 27; www.acttheatre.org). Harlequin Productions in Olympia is also staging a version (Nov 29 – Dec 24; www.harlequinproductions.org). And if a fully Dickensian Christmas is a bit too earnest for you, Unexpected Productions at Pike Place Market is offering an improvised version of the tale based on audience suggestions (Dec 6 - 23; www.unexpectedproductions.org).

Are your holidays a scramble? Feel like the holiday spirit is getting thrust upon you, like it or not? Do you enjoy the “let’s put on a show” movie musical genre? Snowed In, Again at ArtsWest may tease some holiday joy from the tangle of seasonal demands (Nov 21 – Dec 22; www.artswest.org).

Do you wish someone competent was in charge? Is your idea of holiday cheer a stiff bourbon and soda? You should enjoy Happy Christmas, Jeeves at Taproot Theatre in Greenwood (Nov 27 – Dec 28; www.taproottheatre.org).

Maybe your literary bent is more Austen than Wodehouse, or your British aristocracy fantasy of choice is Downton Abbey. Are you just dying to know how the holidays play out in Pride and Prejudice’s Pemberley? This is no stuffy happily-ever-after, though. You do want to know the fate of the marriage of coercion between degenerate George Wickham and the youngest of the Bennett sisters, don’t you? Of course you do. The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley is one of three interlocking plays, and is offered this season at Redmond’s SecondStory Rep (Dec 6 – 29; https://www.secondstoryrep.org).

Or, your holiday focus might incline more toward the bourbon, hold the soda, with a small serving of literature on the side. I’ve enjoyed Rob McPherson’s performance as The Drunken Tenor, and this season he is offering A Very Drunken Christmas Carol at Seattle Opera. This will likely sell out, so get tickets now if you’re interested (Dec 11 - 22, www.seattleopera.org). 

Are carols and community central to a joyful holiday experience? Your heart may be warmed by Langston Hughes’ Black Nativity, the much-loved long-running Intiman winter production that has experienced a post-COVID reincarnation, just as the Intiman Theatre itself has (Dec 4 – 29; www.intiman.org).

Would you prefer walking barefoot through glass to holiday sentimentality? Do you think observing the true spirit of the holiday season involves explosions and shootouts and rescuing hostages? Seattle Public Theater’s A Very Die Hard Christmas might speak to your depths (Nov. 22 – Dec. 22; www.seattlepublictheater.org).

Want to laugh yourself silly and mock everything about the holiday experience? You’ll find some likeminded folks at The Second City’s The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Sweater at Seattle Rep (Dec 3 – 15; www.seattlerep.org). 

Do you view the whole Santa mythology with a skeptical eye? Perhaps you feel like the official St. Nick story is a little too convenient. You’re not a conspiracy theorist, you’re just asking questions. In that case, you might like Sugar Plum Gary at the Annex Theatre, that Capitol Hill home for the offbeat and bizarre, in which a kind local Santaist donates his time to answer our questions about the dark and sordid truths of the season (Dec 13 – 24; www.annextheatre.org).

I hope you get to see one of these, or something else entirely. I’d love to hear about it if you do! Happy holidays to you all.