7 Performances Sure to Be a Treat This December
New works, well-known music and—of course—The Nutcracker: There are plenty of performances to choose from as the winter holidays approach. Here are seven that caught our eye this month.
Nothing Ever Lasts Forever
NEW YORK CITY For the final production of this year’s Next Wave Festival, Brooklyn Academy of Music presents the U.S. premiere of Emanuel Gat’s LOVETRAIN2020. Created during the pandemic, the work sets a cast of 14 dancing to—and sometimes singing along with—songs by Tears for Fears in an eccentric, intensely physical celebration of togetherness. Dec. 1–3. bam.org. —Courtney Escoyne
Mixing Up Medea
LONDON Lost Dog artistic director Ben Duke is no stranger to classic literature. He’s adapted Milton’s Paradise Lost, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities into shows blending theater, dance and comedy. His recent Cerberus, for Rambert, a meta and comical yet sentimental meditation on death, marked a shift for Duke from his usual stomping ground of the English literary canon to more ancient matters. For his latest work, Ruination, he reimagines the myth of Greek sorceress Medea, challenging the narrative that she killed her children to wreak revenge on her husband. Premiering at The Royal Opera House’s Linbury Theatre this month, it’s being billed as a humorous, festive alternative for those who have seen The Nutcracker one too many times—a transformative take on the notoriously bloody and murderous myth. Dec. 1–31. roh.org.uk. —Emily May
Hands, Touching Hands
NEW YORK CITY When Neil Diamond started singing, no one knew that the Brooklyn songwriter would ride hits like “Cherry, Cherry” to 50 years of gold and platinum recordings, sold-out arenas and the phenomenon that is “Sweet Caroline.” But 130 million album sales later, a Broadway show was inevitable. A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical stars Will Swenson, who performs the music while an older Diamond recounts his life to a therapist. Reports from the Boston tryout suggest that Steven Hoggett has provided his usual deft choreography, and those who saw American Idiot also saw that he and director Michael Mayer know how to elevate jukebox musicals. The Broadway opening is set for Dec. 4 at the Broadhurst Theatre. abeautifulnoisethemusical.com. —Sylviane Gold
Stream of Consciousness
NEW YORK CITY Tere O’Connor Dance gives its first New York City performances since 2018 this month. On tap is the premiere of Rivulets, in which the philosophically minded, cerebral choreographer, in collaboration with a cast of eight dancers, examines the unruly nature of consciousness, set to a musical score created by O’Connor. Co-commissioned by Baryshnikov Arts Center and Danspace Project, the work appears at BAC Dec. 7–10 and 14–17. bacnyc.org. —CE
Back to the Future
NEW YORK CITY Stephen Petronio Company brings its Bloodlines/Bloodlines(future) initiative to Danspace Project. Petronio’s RE New New Prayer For Now and a reconstruction of Steve Paxton’s 1982 Jag vill gärna telefonera (I Would Like to Make a Phone Call) join a trio of new works: The Adventures of Mr. Left Brain and Ms. Right, from Tendayi Kuumba and Greg Purnell (aka UFly Mothership), Davalois Fearon’s Finding Herstory and Johnnie Cruise Mercer’s Process memoir 7 (Vol 8): ‘back to love.’ Dec. 8–10. danspaceproject.org. —CE
Bharatanatyam and Belonging
SAN FRANCISCO What does it mean to belong in America? Bharatanatyam company Nava Dance Theatre digs into this question through the lens of the labor of South Asian women immigrants in artistic director Nadhi Thekkek’s Rogue Gestures/Foreign Bodies, which premieres at ODC Theater Dec. 9–11. odc.dance. —CE
An Afternoon Nutcracker
NEWARK, NJ State Ballet Theatre of Ukraine interrupts touring of its Sleeping Beauty to bring The Nutcracker—a production that debuted in Dnipro, Ukraine, in 2020—to New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Dec. 18. njpac.org. —CE
