Christmas shows

Being as we have a visitor for Christmas, on Friday we decided it would be rather nice to go out, perhaps to the theatre. We checked what was on at the Royal Opera House - The Nutcracker. And the London Coliseum - The Nutcracker. And at Sadlers Wells - The Nutcracker. At the South Bank it was at least something different, Slava's Snow Show, but not quite the sort of show we had in mind. At the Barbican Hall it was a Raymond Gubbay Christmas Spectacular and at the Barbican Theatre it was Duckie presenting their alternative Christmas. Frankly, none of these were things that we had in mind. We wanted something intelligent and entertaining, if it was Christmas themed then it had to be slightly different but not alternative, suitable for an older relative.

Over at St. Johns Smith Square they were doing Handel's Messiah, performed by Polyphony and the Academy of Ancient Music conducted by Stephen Layton. That was more like it, but the show was of course sold out. So a quick check of the Wigmore Hall web-site showed that they were doing Christmas from Sweden, so at least the carols would be different. So on Friday we are having a Swedish Christmas and looking forward to it. But oh, why do theatre administrators seem to think that people lose their sense of discrimination at Christmas. Can the English National Ballet really manage fill all those performances of Nutcracker (one or two per day from 8th December through to the end of the month). At least at the Royal Opera House, if we'd flexible over date, we could have seen  Die Meistersinger or Sleeping Beauty.