🗞️ January Best Shows To See

Well, here we are having survived another year, and, to celebrate, I will give you the gift of brevity! I would love to waffle on in my usual manner but there is not much new to waffle about as the main theatres are continuing their festive offerings.

I was unable to see any of the Christmas shows this year as I was on an all-inclusive two-week theatre break. Sadly it was the operating theatre at Harrogate Hospital. As it was knee problem I couldn’t give a standing ovation to the surgeon. Probably just as well as I didn’t want an encore. This seems not to be the case at Leeds Playhouse where all of the reviews I have read about Oliver! Are uniformly brilliant, so, get along as it runs until 27th January, 2024. The other Yuletide show, The Enormous Crocodile runs until 6th January.

Wednesday, 31st January, 2024 sees the beginning of Leeds Playhouse’s Sensory Theatre Symposium with the staging of My Life With The Wave, created for people aged 11 and over with Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities. It is inspired by a poem by Mexican Poet Laureate, Octavio Paz, and uses movement, sound, digital technology and physical interaction to create a fully immersive sensory experience. It runs at various times on 31st January and 1st February.

Meanwhile, at Leeds City Varieties, Robin Hood The Rock’n’Roll Pantomime continues until 7th January. Tickets are limited so be quick. Should you prefer something a little more cerebral then there is a National Theatre Live Screening of Skylight by David Hare starring Bill Nighy and Carey Mulligan. It was captured live at Wyndham’s Theatre in London in 2014.

Leeds Grand Theatre is staging a series of tribute acts and shows throughout the month interspersed with a couple of theatrical events. After the Christmas pudding and cake, comes pi. Don’t worry, the waistline won’t suffer, it is Life of Pi running from 10th to 13th of January and has won more awards than Taylor Swift. It tells the story of Pi, who is stranded on a lifeboat with four other survivors: a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan and a Royal Bengal Tiger. Time is against them, nature is harsh, who will survive?

The other is Peter Pan Goes Wrong from 16th to 20th January, another in the Goes Wrong series. You will know when it has really gone wrong as it will go right! Details of both, plus the one-night stands on their website.

Finally, we have Carriageworks where Snow White continues its run until 7th of January and another Christmas favourite, Jack and the Beanstalk, takes over from the 19th to the 27th January.

Whatever you go see, enjoy, the credit card bills will drop any day!