Nutcracker Tickets at the London Coliseum
It is Christmas Eve in Edwardian London, and Clara is given a Nutcracker doll by the man who keeps the sweet shop. Before the night is out she has fought off the Rat King herself, crossed an ice realm and been thrown a party by the Sugar Plum Fairy. English National Ballet bring it back to the London Coliseum every December, for a Christmas run, with over 100 dancers and musicians and Tchaikovsky's score played live in the pit.
About 2 hours, with an intervalAges 5 and up
At the London Coliseum, near Leicester Square and Charing CrossCloses 10 January 2027
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020 7193 9050 · Monday to Saturday 8am to 8pm, Sunday 10am to 8pm
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The Story
Christmas Eve in Edwardian London. Clara and her mother are shopping at Drosselmeyer's Sweets & Delights Emporium, where Clara meets an enchanted Nutcracker doll. They take home liquorice allsorts, nougat, marzipan and sugarplums for that evening's party.
Act one is the party and the battle. After the guests have gone, Clara has a sugar plum vision: the Nutcracker doll comes to life, the Rat King attacks, and Clara sees him off herself.
Act two is the reward. She passes through an ice realm and its Queen, then arrives in the Land of Sweets & Delights, where the Sugar Plum Fairy throws a celebration for her. The whole second half is that party, danced by the sweets one after another and finishing with the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier.
Then Clara wakes up.
The Characters
| Character | Who they are |
|---|---|
| Clara | The girl whose Christmas Eve this is, and who carries the whole ballet |
| Drosselmeyer | The shopkeeper who gives her the doll and sets everything moving |
| The Nutcracker Doll | The toy that comes to life |
| The Nutcracker Prince | What the doll becomes |
| The Rat King | The villain, and the one scary bit |
| The Ice Queen | Rules the realm Clara passes through between the two worlds |
| The Sugar Plum Fairy | Hosts the second half. The most famous dancing in the piece |
| The Sugar Plum Cavalier | Her partner in the final duet |
Is he the Rat King or the Mouse King? Both names are correct, depending on which Nutcracker you are watching. In this production he is the Rat King. Other companies use Mouse King, which is closer to the original story, and the confusion is entirely reasonable.
Is This the Nutcracker You Remember?
Probably not, if it has been a few years. This is a new production, first seen in December 2024, choreographed by English National Ballet's Artistic Director Aaron S. Watkin with Olivier Award winner Arielle Smith. It replaced the staging the company had danced for years.
The setting is Edwardian London rather than the usual German or Russian one, and the designs are by Dick Bird. The production also credits an illusion designer, John Bulleid, alongside a video designer, which tells you how much of the magic is built rather than mimed.
The Music
Tchaikovsky, played live by the English National Ballet Philharmonic. You will know more of it than you expect: the Waltz of the Flowers, the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy with its glassy celesta, the Russian Dance, the Waltz of the Snowflakes.
Performance Schedule
| Date | Day | Times |
|---|---|---|
| 17 Dec | Thursday | 7:30pm |
| 18 Dec | Friday | 7:30pm |
| 19 Dec | Saturday | 2:30pm and 7:30pm |
| 20 Dec | Sunday | 1:30pm and 6:30pm |
| 22 Dec | Tuesday | 1:30pm and 6:30pm |
| 23 Dec | Wednesday | 2:30pm and 7:30pm |
| 24 Dec | Christmas Eve | 1:30pm |
| 27 Dec | Sunday | 1:30pm and 6:30pm |
| 28 Dec | Monday | 7:30pm |
| 29 Dec | Tuesday | 2:30pm and 7:30pm |
| 30 Dec | Wednesday | 2:30pm and 7:30pm |
| 31 Dec | Thursday | 1:30pm |
| 2 Jan | Saturday | 2:30pm and 7:30pm |
| 3 Jan | Sunday | 1:30pm and 6:30pm |
| 5 Jan | Tuesday | 7:30pm |
| 6 Jan | Wednesday | 7:30pm |
| 7 Jan | Thursday | 1:30pm and 6:30pm |
| 8 Jan | Friday | 7:30pm |
| 9 Jan | Saturday | 2pm and 7pm |
| 10 Jan | Sunday | 1pm, final performance |
31 performances. There is no performance on 21, 25 or 26 December, or on 1 or 4 January.
Watch the start times. Matinees run at 1:30pm, 2pm and 2:30pm depending on the date, and evenings at 6:30pm, 7pm or 7:30pm. The 9 January performances are half an hour earlier than the pattern, and the last one on 10 January starts at 1pm.
Cast
Principal casting for the opening performance on 17 December:
| Role | Dancer |
|---|---|
| Clara | Chloe Keneally |
| Drosselmeyer | Junor Souza |
| Nutcracker Prince | Gustavo Carvalho |
| Nutcracker Doll | Rhys Antoni |
| Sugar Plum Fairy | Sangeun Lee |
| Sugar Plum Cavalier | Gareth Haw |
Casting changes from performance to performance. English National Ballet publish principal casting a few months ahead and the full cast on the day of each performance, so the dancers on your date may not be the ones above. Call us on 020 7193 9050 and we will tell you what has been announced for your date.
Book Your Tickets
Three and a half weeks, once a year. The dates that go first are the weekend matinees and the run between Christmas and New Year, and the two named at the top of this page have no alternative at all.
Tickets start from around £25, and the top end depends on the date: the performances between Christmas and New Year and the weekend matinees carry the highest prices of the run. Call us and we will tell you the real band for your date before you commit. We sell with all-in pricing, so the price you see is the price you pay. Call 020 7193 9050 and we will find seats that work for the ages in your group.
FAQs
About two hours, including a 20-minute interval. Two acts of roughly 45 minutes each.
Age guidance is 5 and over. It is built as a family ballet and it is one of the gentlest introductions to dance there is.
Only to one performance. Children under 5 are not allowed in the auditorium at the London Coliseum except at the family-friendly matinee on Saturday 9 January 2027 at 2pm. At every other performance they will not be admitted. This catches families out every year, so check the date twice.
The company's own line is that nothing in it is frightening except possibly the Rat King. Beyond that, two things.
The effects. There is a bang in the first act, plus flashing lights and large-scale projection, which matters if your child does not like sudden noise.
And the fight is not bloodless. Clara kills the Rat King herself, with a sword, and is pleased about it afterwards. One critic reviewing the production described that moment as making him "a little uncomfortable". Most children take it as make-believe and it passes quickly, but it is more than a scuffle and it is not mentioned in the age guidance.
No. Wear what you would wear to any theatre. Jeans are perfectly normal at a matinee, and plenty of people dress up for a Christmas evening performance. Neither is wrong.
Higher than you would for a play. The seat tab below has the detail, and there is more in our London Coliseum guide.
Yes. Audio-described on Saturday 19 December 2026 at 2:30pm, and a relaxed performance on Thursday 7 January 2027 at 1:30pm. Details are with the venue's own access team.
Not reliably. Only the principals are announced in advance, and only for dates ENB have got to. See the Cast and Creatives tab for how it works.
Ask the venue before you travel. There is no lift to the Upper Circle, and a matinee crowd on a narrow staircase with a pushchair is the thing that goes wrong on a family trip more than anything else.
A 7:30pm performance is out around 9:30pm. A 1:30pm matinee finishes around 3:30pm.
Where to Sit
Sit higher than you would for a play. Dance is read on the whole body and on the patterns dancers make across the floor, and both flatten out when you are close and low. The front block of the Dress Circle is the best seat in the building for this.
With children, sightline beats proximity. A child who cannot see over the person in front has a bad afternoon regardless of how good the seat was on paper. The circles are better than the rear Stalls for a short person, because the rake is steeper.
The Balcony is a genuinely good ticket here and the cheapest in the theatre. There is no surtitle screen to read and nothing you need to be near for. The trade is the climb.
The circles wrap round the Stalls rather than hanging over them, which is why the end seats sit closer to the stage than the middle ones and still cost less.
No lift to the Upper Circle, which matters more than usual on a family booking.
Seating plan
Dates & tickets
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The London Coliseum
St Martin's Lane, WC2N 4ES, three minutes from Charing Cross and Leicester Square, and a few minutes from Trafalgar Square. Around 2,380 seats over four levels, the largest theatre in the West End. Buses 24, 29 and 176 run along Charing Cross Road and stop a couple of minutes away. Full detail in our London Coliseum guide.
Arrive 15 to 20 minutes before, no later, and give yourself longer than that with children. Christmas in the West End is the busiest the streets get all year, the queue to get in is longer than usual, and there is a climb to the upper levels.
There is a pre-show dining option in the theatre itself, served in the America Bar. If you are making an afternoon of it with a family, it saves hunting for a table on St Martin's Lane in December.
For somewhere to eat, drink or stay nearby, our London Coliseum guide carries our full set of picks, all within a few minutes' walk of the front doors.
Address
St Martin's Lane, London WC2N 4ES
Nearest Tube
Leicester Square and Charing Cross
The Company
English National Ballet are one of Britain's two large-scale classical ballet companies, based in London and touring nationally. Over 100 dancers and musicians are involved across the evening, with the English National Ballet Philharmonic playing live.
Chloe Keneally dances Clara on the opening night, with Junor Souza as Drosselmeyer, Gustavo Carvalho as the Nutcracker Prince, Rhys Antoni as the Nutcracker Doll, Sangeun Lee as the Sugar Plum Fairy and Gareth Haw as her Cavalier. Casting rotates across the run.
Choreography and concept by Aaron S. Watkin, English National Ballet's Artistic Director, and Arielle Smith. Set and costume design by Dick Bird. Lighting by Paul Pyant, video by Leo Flint, and illusions by John Bulleid. Music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
English National Ballet also bring Romeo & Juliet to this stage in January.
About This Production
A new Nutcracker for English National Ballet, first performed in December 2024, and this is its third Christmas at the London Coliseum. It is the company's biggest annual fixture and it returns every December.
What Has Been Said
The production has now played two Christmases, so there is a real record rather than a launch.
On how it looks, everyone agrees. SeeingDance: "It does look absolutely terrific. It brims with colour and life at every turn." The London Standard called it "astoundingly pretty", the Financial Times "a vibrant new Nutcracker", and The Guardian judged that it "vastly improves on its previous version".
The recurring criticism is the same in two places: SeeingDance wrote that "it is a ballet where the designs have a tendency to trump the choreography". theartsdesk, giving it four stars, made a related point about the young romance at the heart of act one being underpowered.
On what is best in it, theartsdesk is specific: the Land of Sweets dances are "what ultimately sells this Nutcracker", and the closing duet is "magnificent". They singled out the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier for "poise and aplomb, not to mention technical precision and riveting speed". The same two dancers have those roles on our opening night.
Every national newspaper gave it four stars. The Stage called it "a cleverly imagined visual feast", and The Guardian closed with "familiar but fresh, colourful but still classy, sweet but not sickly."
The Telegraph put the split most usefully, having hoped for "a little more choreographic razzmatazz" but calling the production "a definite step up from the old" and "one that I can imagine my two young children finding particularly enticing". That is a critic watching with children in mind.
The reservation is the same wherever it appears, and the lowest verdict of the lot put it least kindly: "a weirdly incongruous blend of choreography which, like a bonbon which has been left in the bottom of the bowl, just doesn't quite taste right."
The Telegraph also singled out Junor Souza's Drosselmeyer, who "seized the unusually dance-filled role by the scruff of the neck". He dances it again on opening night this December.
The Times, on the second run, found it "looking even fresher and more revitalised than it did" first time out.
We will add notices from the 2026 run once it has opened.
Gallery
Nutcracker
London Coliseum