Hot Orange
Amal Khalidi and Tatenda Naomi Matsvai’s highly affecting play for over-13s is about love and basketball, which is poetically described as a “hot orange” whizzing from one pair of hands to another. The hourlong drama has all the pace of the court as it jumps back and forth 10 years to chart the relationship between two girls who meet in primary school. There are touching performances by Matsvai and Yasmin Twomey in this bittersweet delight which is among the offerings from Half Moon theatre.
Beauty and the Beast
After a run in cinemas, the ever-cheery CBeebies panto arrives on BBC iPlayer on 7 December. Filmed in front of a no doubt raucous audience at Edinburgh’s Festival theatre, this year it has a magical landscape inspired by Scotland’s great outdoors. The cast includes Maddie Moate who also has a West End residency this season with her Very Curious Christmas show.
Spreading the News
A celebration marking 120 years of Dublin’s Abbey, the National Theatre of Ireland. Named after the play by Lady Gregory, performed on its opening night in 1904, this special event will bring together a collection of speeches capturing its rich history, accompanied by live music. On RTÉ Radio 1 on 27 December.
The Warriors
Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eisa Davis have turned Walter Hill’s cult 1979 New York thriller into a blistering 26-track concept album with all-star rapper cameos, diversions into ska, screamo and salsa, blissful R&B and a compelling grindhouse vibe. The film’s all-male street gang become a unit of seven women battling their way home overnight to Coney Island. From Atlantic Records.
Macbeth
Simon Godwin’s site-specific tragedy, staged in warehouses in Liverpool, Edinburgh and London, comes to National Theatre at Home with some arresting closeups of stars Ralph Fiennes and Indira Varma as well as a closer view of set designer Frankie Bradshaw’s scorching installations.
Jack and the Beanstalk
Nottingham Playhouse has made it a welcome festive tradition to stream the annual pantomime. This year marks musical director John Morton’s 35th anniversary of panto at the theatre. His exuberant accompaniment will send audiences headfirst into a frothy fantasy with John Elkington playing the dame. Available from 17 December.
Walk on Through
A musical of the Metropolitan Museum of Art? Essentially, yes. New Yorker Gavin Creel had never visited the famous collection before he strolled in to create a show inspired by some of its paintings. Walk on Through ran off-Broadway a year ago. After Creel’s death from cancer aged 48, the Met has now released it on YouTube. Creel’s memorial celebration in New York will be live-streamed on 2 December.
Bellringers
After runs at Edinburgh fringe’s Roundabout and Hampstead theatre, Daisy Hall’s apocalyptic play is streamed by Original Theatre. A finalist for the 2023 Women’s prize for playwriting, it’s a two-hander set in the steeple of a church in rural Oxfordshire with Paul Adeyefa and Luke Rollason awaiting a fearsome storm.
Mischief Movie Night (In)
Mischief Theatre’s Christmas TV specials for The Goes Wrong Show (on iPlayer) are an evergreen comic delight. But this year, there’s also the chance to live-stream their “movie nights” in which they improvise a film on stage using suggestions from the audience. Eight performances will be available to watch from 20-23 December.
Message in a Bottle
The songs of Sting, arranged by Hamilton’s Alex Lacamoire with choreography from ZooNation’s Kate Prince, are used to explore the refugee crisis in this hit Sadler’s Wells show. It is available on their Digital Stage from 8 December-7 January, with a first-night “watch party” including behind the scenes interviews.
