Christmas shows in London 2014

roh.org.uk

Cats

London Palladium, Dec 6-Feb 28

Former Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger with her feline side as Grizabella the glamour cat in this revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s mega-smash-hit musical based on, yes, the poetry of TS Eliot. The show’s original 21-year run ended in the West End in 2002.

Fun for... a cross-generational group outing

catsthemusical.com/london

A Christmas Carol

Middle Temple Hall, Dec 20-30

Ebenezer Scrooge and Bob Cratchit meet again, this time in the imposing historic setting of Middle Temple Hall, whose cobbled surroundings are reminiscent of the London that Dickens wrote about.

Fun for... those who hanker after a Victorian Christmas

anticdisposition.co.uk

City of Angels

Donmar Warehouse, Dec 5-Feb 7

A revival of one of the most stylish 20th-century musicals, which uses Cy Coleman’s jazz-inflected score to tell of a screenwriter who loses his way in Los Angeles. Last year’s Evening Standard Theatre Award winner Rosalie Craig stars.

Fun for... grown-ups who don’t like tinsel

donmarwarehouse.com

Dick Whittington and his Cat

Lyric Hammersmith, Nov 22-Jan 3

Award-winning playwright Tom Wells dons his panto hat once more, after an acclaimed Jack and the Beanstalk here last year, to tell everyone’s favourite story of a callow youth coming to the capital to seek their fortune. This Dick is a northerner, hailing from Wells’s native Hull. Expect large rats.

Fun for... families with children brave enough for the Evil Queen Rat

lyric.co.uk

Edward Scissorhands

Sadler’s Wells, Dec 2-Jan 11

Matthew Bourne and his world-beating New Adventures company present his dance version of Tim Burton’s weird and wonderful film about a kind-hearted outcast with a taste for topiary.

Fun for... teens and adults in search of the more cutting-edge

sadlerswells.com

Golem

Young Vic, Dec 9-Jan 17

The 1927 company, whose previous show The Animals and Children Took to the Streets enjoyed three sell-out London Christmas seasons, returns with its deliciously idiosyncratic combination of animation, live music and performance to deliberate whether it is man or machine that rules the world.

Fun for... humbugs

youngvic.org

Grimm Tales for Young and Old

The Bargehouse, Nov 21-Feb 15

Five floors of the atmospheric Bargehouse building have been given over to this immersive production, in which Philip Pullman’s adaptations of the Brothers Grimm’ fairytales will be told by wandering players who the audience are directed to follow.

Fun for... agile adults and children who don’t scare easily

grimm-tales.co.uk

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Rose Theatre, Nov 28-Jan 4

CS Lewis’s perennially popular Narnia, where it is “always winter but never Christmas” until good triumphs over evil, arrives to enchant once more. A cast of local children from the Rose’s Youth Theatre form part of the cast.

Fun for... parents looking for something spiritual for their over-sevens

rosetheatrekingston.org

Lionboy

Tricycle, Dec 17-Jan 10

Award-winning company Complicité offers its first show for a family audience, blending circus and storytelling in this adaptation of Zizou Corder’s bestselling books about a young boy who employs his gift of speaking to cats to track down his kidnapped scientist parents.

Fun for... eco-minded families with school-aged children

tricycle.co.uk

Mother Goose

Hackney Empire, Nov 22-Jan 4

Oh yes, he is! Clive Rowe, the grande dame of panto performers, is back at Hackney, to rejoin the line-up of the most delightful — and successful — festive team going. Writer-director Susie McKenna is once more in charge, for this least-known of the traditional pantos. Expect cheeky exuberance.

Fun for... everyone! Likely to be the best panto in town

hackneyempire.co.uk

Noël Coward’s Christmas Spirits

St James Theatre, Dec 8-23

In the Blitz-beleaguered Christmas of 1940, Noël Coward (Stefan Bednarczyk) offers a selection of his own songs, as well as festive-themed writing from other authors.

Fun for... nostalgia freaks

stjamestheatre.co.uk

The Nutcracker and the Mouse King

Unicorn Theatre, Nov 21-Jan 4

The high-flying Unicorn children’s theatre, which likes to stimulate imaginations of all ages, revisits the original ETA Hoffmann story, the inspiration for the much-loved ballet, about a broken nutcracker doll left under a Christmas tree.

Fun for... literature-lovers and children over eight years old

unicorntheatre.com

The Railway Children

King’s Cross Theatre, Dec 16-March 1

A purpose-built 1,000-seat theatre behind King’s Cross Station is the new location for this Olivier Award-winning adaptation of the classic children’s story, based on the charming 1906 book by E Nesbit. A real steam train is promised.

Fun for... trainspotters of all ages

railwaychildrenlondon.com

Raymond Briggs’s Father Christmas

Lyric Hammersmith, until Dec 31

Raymond Briggs’s cherished 1973 picture book, about Santa’s busiest day of the year, is brought to life with the help of music and puppetry.

Fun for... little people who believe in Santa

lyric.co.uk

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Richmond Theatre, Dec 5-Jan 11

Jerry Hall will be asking the mirror-mirror-on-the-wall about comparative levels of fairness, as she dons the vampish red dress of the Wicked Queen in this traditional family panto.

Fun for... panto regulars who like to see celebrities in fancy dress

Treasure Island

National’s Olivier, Dec 3-April 8

Innovative director Polly Findlay and adapter Bryony Lavery provide a female-centric creative fulcrum for Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale of masculine derring-do on the high seas.

Fun for... 10-year-olds and older

nationaltheatre.org.uk

White Christmas

Dominion Theatre, until Jan 3, 2015

Aled Jones and Tom Chambers lead the cast in this adaptation of the 1954 Bing Crosby film about two former army friends trying to save their general’s Vermont ski lodge by putting on a show.

Fun for... lovers of that song

whitechristmasmusical.co.uk

Read our review of White Christmas

The Wind in the Willows

Vaudeville Theatre, Nov 26-Jan 17

Will Tuckett’s handsome, Olivier Award-winning dance-theatre production of the gentle Kenneth Grahame classic, with Alan Titchmarsh narrating.

Fun for... junior first-time theatre-goers

roh.org.uk