Coppelia
Strictly Ballroom
Sleeping Beauty
As expected, Wales’ capital city is the home of festive theatre this winter: Cardiff’s New Thea- tre has Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs as its annual panto, the cast of which includes rugby legend Gareth Thomas. See it from Sat 10 Dec- Sun 8 Jan. Elsewhere, on Tue 27 and Wed 28 Dec, Cardiff International Arena (previ- ously the Motorpoint) is hosting a stage adap- tion of the modern-classic Christmas film Elf, where a human raised as one of Santa’s elves (played by Will Ferrell) who goes in search of his real dad in New York. Elf – A Christmas Spectacular is an explosive show full of song, dance and Christmas joy that promises you’ll leave feeling like Buddy The Elf himself.
Meanwhile, the Sherman Theatre is put- ting a darker, alternative spin on traditional Christmas fare with its production, Tales Of The Brothers Grimm. Want to show your kids where their favourite fairy tales originated? Catch it from now up until New Year’s Eve.
For lovers of dance, St David’s Hall is, of course, bringing back its ever-popular annual ballet programme. This year, a trio of ballets are being performed by Varna International Ballet in their debut UK season, brought to the stage by artistic director Daniela Dimova and music director/chief conductor Peter Tulesh-
kov. First up is Coppélia (Sat 17 and Sun 18 Dec), a lighthearted ballet centred around a young woman whose love interest is enam- oured with a life-size doll. It’s a great option for those who are already overly familiar with the venue’s other ballets this year, which in- cludes The Nutcracker, (Mon 19-Sat 24 Dec), and another of Tchaikovsky’s masterpieces running just after Christmas: Swan Lake (Tue 27-Sat 31 Dec). A ballet that steals the hearts of audiences year after year, Swan Lake’s beauti- ful score, impeccable choreography and tragic story of romance that could not be means this ballet is never one to be missed.
If you’d rather skip the chaos of Christmas altogether, you can still get your theatre fix in the new year. Wales Millennium Centre has a great selection of productions in January 2023. The first of these is the well-loved Bugsy Malone, based on the musical mafia comedy film with an all-child cast, and playing from Sat 17 Dec-Sat 21 Jan. Following that is anoth- er film-turned-stage production of Baz Luhr- mann’s Strictly Ballroom, which will be teach- ing Welsh audiences to tango from Mon 23-Sat 28 Jan. Fans of Strictly Come Dancing will be pleased to know that this production stars the BBC show’s Kevin Clifton and Maisie Smith. Finally, to wrap up this theatre selection, there
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is one final ballet of the season at the WMC from critically acclaimed choreographer Mat- thew Bourne: his version of Sleeping Beauty comes to Cardiff Bay from Tues 31 Jan-Sat 4 Feb. Having brought modernised versions of Cinderella, Nutcracker and Swan Lake to Wales for years now, Bourne’s imaginative choreography and staging remains a fresh op- tion for fans of dance to this day.
Raymond Gubbay
Johan Persson
/ 4 tickets to Tales Of The Brothers Grimm.
Scan to enter
2 tickets to Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty
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