New York’s holiday stage stretches from Dickens told four different ways to a burlesque Nutcracker, with a radio play, a family opera and a circus in between. Here is what is playing from mid-November into the new year, where to find it and when each run ends.
A Christmas Carol, four ways
A Christmas Carol comes back to the Perelman Performing Arts Center for a second holiday season, from November 20 to January 3, 2027, with opening night on December 3. Andy Karl plays Scrooge this time. The text is Jack Thorne’s, the staging is Matthew Warchus’s, and the production started at the Old Vic in London before it won five Tony Awards on Broadway. Our report on the full company has the rest of the casting.
A Christmas Carol the Musical is a Village tradition by now. Be Bold! Productions brings it back to the Players Theatre, 115 MacDougal Street, for an 18th year, from November 29 to December 30, with evening shows Thursday to Saturday and weekend matinees.
Drunk Christmas Carol is the Drunk Shakespeare Society’s seasonal show at the Ruby Theatre, 35 West 39th Street, from November 12 to January 3, 2027. Before each performance one actor downs five shots of whiskey and then tries to get through Dickens anyway, while four sober colleagues keep the ghosts on schedule. It runs about 90 minutes, and the room is 21 and over.
A Kidman Carol, Kevin Zak’s awards-season spin on the story, runs at New World Stages from November 16 to December 30, with its official opening on November 30. Josh Sharp is Cate Blanchett in the Scrooge role and Marla Mindelle is Nicole Kidman, who turns up as all three spirits. Skylar Fox directs. Our earlier report has the details.
New holiday shows on Broadway
Blue Man Group “A New Holiday Surprise” is two firsts at once: the company’s first holiday show in 35 years, and its first time in a Broadway house. It runs at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre from November 12 to January 3, 2027, with opening night on November 17. The three Blue Men put familiar seasonal music through their custom-built instruments and go looking into the season’s rituals, and its small absurdities.
It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play brings Joe Landry’s adaptation of the Frank Capra film to the Broadhurst Theatre, with previews from November 4, opening night on November 18 and a final performance on January 3, 2027. It is staged as a 1940s radio broadcast, with a Foley artist working in plain view. Andrew Rannells is George Bailey, Megan Hilty is Mary and Tituss Burgess is Clarence, and Jerry Zaks directs. Our casting report has more.
Burlesque, opera and circus
Nutcracker Rouge is Company XIV’s grown-up take on the holiday ballet, back at Théâtre XIV, 383 Troutman Street in Bushwick, from November 12 to January 30, 2027. Austin McCormick turns the story into baroque burlesque, with circus, music and dance. It is strictly 21 and over, and ID is checked at the door.
The Magic Flute returns in the Met’s holiday presentation: Julie Taymor’s staging, abridged to about 90 minutes and sung in English, with families in mind. There are 12 performances at the Metropolitan Opera House, from December 11 to January 2, 2027.
I’mPossible Holiday Wonders brings Brooklyn’s own Omnium Circus to the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House for four days, December 10 to 13. It is an aerial and acrobatic show for all ages, from a company whose work sets out to change how audiences think about disability and access.
Off the usual track
The Dead, 1904 is Irish Repertory Theatre’s immersive staging of James Joyce’s story, adapted by Paul Muldoon and Jean Hanff Korelitz and played inside the American Irish Historical Society’s townhouse at 991 Fifth Avenue. It runs from November 21 to January 3, 2027, with Maggie Lacey, James Russell, Judy Kaye and Mary Beth Peil in the company. Irish Rep first produced it in 2016, and this is its fifth season.
KEVIN!!!!!, Recent Cutbacks’ handmade puppet parody of Home Alone, runs on SoHo Playhouse’s Main Stage from December 5 to January 3, 2027. Four actors and a live Foley artist get through the whole film in about an hour, and the theater recommends it for ages 5 and up. Our report has the full company.
Parcel from America starts the season early. The Irish holiday musical, about the Christmas parcels that emigrants sent home to west Limerick in the 1950s, is at Theatre Row through November 22.
Across the Hudson
A Christmas Story: The Musical, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul’s stage version of the 1983 film, stops at State Theatre New Jersey in New Brunswick for one weekend, November 20 to 22.
For families over the break
The New Victory Theater has Tilt! An ’80s Circus Thrill Ride from December 5 to January 3, 2027. On Broadway, The Lion King at the Minskoff Theatre and Aladdin at the New Amsterdam Theatre have no closing date, so either one fits around family plans.
Planning past the holidays? See which shows are closing soon and which are coming soon, and how to enter the rush and lottery draws.
