Nutcracker at a glance

Show
Nutcracker
Company
English National Ballet
Venue
London Coliseum
Address
St Martin's Lane, London WC2N 4ES
Nearest stations
Charing Cross (3 min), Leicester Square (5 min)
Genre
Ballet (classical / family festive)
Running time
Approximately 2 hours 5 minutes, including one 20-minute interval
Age guidance
5+ (under-5s only at the Family-Friendly performance on Sat 9 Jan 2027 at 2.30pm)
Dates
17 December 2026 – 10 January 2027
Schedule
Mon–Sat evenings 7.30pm; matinees Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri, Sat 2.30pm and Wed 1pm (times vary)
Price range
From £30 (typically £30–£174); 25% discount for under-16s
Music
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, performed live by English National Ballet Philharmonic
Choreography
Aaron S. Watkin and Arielle Smith
Designer
Dick Bird (sets and costumes)

Expert Review: Nutcracker at the London Coliseum

4.6
★★★★★

LTH Expert Rating

Reviewed by the London Theatre Hub editorial team. Last updated: 12 May 2026.

The Verdict

English National Ballet has performed Nutcracker every year since 1950 — bar the covid closures — and the 2026/27 run is the third outing for the company's 2024 production, choreographed by Artistic Director Aaron S. Watkin with Olivier Award-winning choreographer Arielle Smith. The production replaced a long-serving 2010 version by Wayne Eagling that many ENB regulars had grown tired of, and it arrives with the difficult job of being both a brand-new piece of choreography and a Christmas tradition that has to land for first-time ballet families. After two seasons in front of an audience, the production has settled.

What works best is Dick Bird's design — a vivid, generous, properly festive visual world that carries Clara from a snowy Edwardian London street scene through a glittering Ice Realm to a Land of Sweets & Delights done as a kind of circus-tent fairground. Tchaikovsky's score is played live and well by the ENB Philharmonic, which is non-negotiable for this ballet and is one of the things ENB consistently delivers. Act II's classical pas de deux for the Sugar Plum Fairy is, in the hands of dancers like Emma Hawes or Precious Adams, a genuine highlight. As a family booking — particularly for children seeing their first ballet — it lands cleanly.

What Makes It Special

  • Tchaikovsky performed live by the ENB Philharmonic. Watching Nutcracker with a real orchestra in the pit is fundamentally different from seeing it on screen or with recorded music. The Coliseum's acoustics carry the score beautifully, and the playing — under Music Director Maria Seletskaja and Principal Guest Conductor Gavin Sutherland — is one of the central pleasures of the evening.
  • Dick Bird's design. Bird's sets and costumes are the production's strongest single element. The snowy London streetscape, the Edwardian Stahlbaum drawing room, the Ice Realm with its silvery bauble moon, and the Land of Sweets & Delights as a circus-tent fairground are all properly imagined. Costumes for the divertissement — Spanish turrón, Egyptian sahlab, Chinese tanghulu, German marzipan, Ukrainian makivnyk — are exuberantly detailed.
  • Over 100 dancers and musicians. ENB stages Nutcracker on the scale it deserves, with the company's full corps, principals, students from English National Ballet School and Central School of Ballet, plus the live Philharmonic. This is the production's commitment to size and tradition, and it makes a difference on stage.
  • An entry point to ballet. The Edwardian setting, the clear narrative, the family-focused tone and the 25% discount for under-16s make this one of the best routes into ballet for new audiences. Many children in the audience attempt sections of the choreography in the foyer at the interval — a reliable sign the production is doing its job.
  • The Sugar Plum pas de deux. Watkin's classical Act II is the production's most assured choreographic stretch, and the central pas de deux between the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier is genuine ballet pleasure of the kind the company built its reputation on. Casting varies through the run — principal casting is published in advance, full casting on the day.

You'll love this Nutcracker if you...

  • Are looking for the central Christmas booking for the family — particularly with children aged 5 to 12
  • Want to introduce someone to ballet for the first time
  • Love Tchaikovsky's score and want it played live by a full orchestra
  • Enjoy lavishly designed, visually generous productions
  • Prefer narrative ballets with a clear story and a happy ending

It might not be for you if you...

  • Strongly preferred the previous Eagling production (this one is a deliberate break)
  • Are a purist who prefers minimal video projection and scrim effects
  • Are looking for a fast-moving evening — there is a 20-minute interval and the running time is just over two hours
  • Are bringing a child under 5 outside of the Family-Friendly performance — the auditorium policy is strict
  • Want a darker, more grown-up Nutcracker (this is firmly festive and family-facing)

Best for

  • Families with children 5–12
  • Christmas tradition
  • First-time ballet audiences
  • Tchaikovsky fans
  • Tourists in London at Christmas
  • Grandparent / grandchild outings
  • Date night with a festive twist

Not the strongest fit for under-5s outside the Family-Friendly performance, ballet purists who preferred the previous production, or audiences seeking a darker reading of the story.

Critical Reception

The 2024 premiere production drew genuinely divided notices, with broad praise for Dick Bird's design and the live orchestra balanced against more mixed reactions to the choreography itself. The Financial Times called it "vibrant" and the London Standard described it as "astoundingly pretty"; The Stage called it "a cleverly imagined visual feast"; Bachtrack described it as "a distinct improvement on its predecessor." Some publications were more reserved. Indicative ratings from major UK publications and dance press:

  • The Stage ★★★★
  • Financial Times ★★★★
  • London Standard ★★★★
  • Bachtrack ★★★★
  • The Arbuturian ★★★★
  • Ballet Herald ★★★★★
  • Seen and Heard ★★★

Source: published reviews of the December 2024 premiere production at the London Coliseum. Notices on subsequent seasons have been similarly positive on design and orchestra, more divided on choreography.

Everything You Need to Know

What happens in Nutcracker

Nutcracker is a two-act narrative ballet, told without dialogue through dance and Tchaikovsky's score. The story follows a young girl named Clara through a magical Christmas Eve and into her dream world. The Watkin / Smith production sets the action firmly in Edwardian London, with snowy streets, Suffragette marchers, chimney sweeps and a Drosselmeyer's Sweets & Delights Emporium drawing on the spirit of the era.

Act I — Christmas Eve in Edwardian London

The curtain rises on a bustling London street scene, complete with market stalls, snow falling, chimney sweeps, suffragettes carrying "Votes for Women" placards, and the magical workshop of Drosselmeyer, the toymaker. Clara and her mother visit Drosselmeyer's Sweets & Delights Emporium, where Clara is enchanted by a Nutcracker doll. They take liquorice all-sorts, nougat, marzipan and of course sugarplums home for the family's Christmas Eve party.

At the party, Drosselmeyer arrives and gifts Clara the Nutcracker doll. Her siblings break it in a squabble, and Drosselmeyer magically mends it. When the guests have gone and the family retires to bed, Clara creeps downstairs to sleep on the sofa with her precious doll. Then the magic begins. The Christmas tree grows enormous, an army of rats led by the Rat King (based on Uromys Grimsewer, the sinister cheese-seller from the street earlier) attacks, and Clara — joined by the Nutcracker, now grown to life-size, and by the Suffragettes — defends her home. The battle won, she is whisked into the Ice Realm of the Ice Queen, with snowflakes and icicles dancing around her.

Act II — The Land of Sweets & Delights

Clara and the Nutcracker Prince travel by ice-sleigh — drawn by a seahorse — to the Land of Sweets & Delights. There the Sugar Plum Fairy welcomes Clara and stages a divertissement in her honour. The Watkin / Smith production reimagines the traditional national dances as confections from around the world: a box of Spanish turrón, Egyptian sahlab (hot orchid root milk with cinnamon), Chinese tanghulu (sugar-coated fruit), German Marzipan, and Ukrainian makivnyk (poppy seed roll), each with its own visual identity tent in Dick Bird's circus-tent fairground set.

The act builds to the Waltz of the Buttercream Roses and the central pas de deux for the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier — the showpiece of the ballet, where Watkin's classical training as choreographer is most clearly on show. The Sugar Plum solo, performed to Tchaikovsky's celesta theme, is one of the most recognisable moments in any ballet.

The ending

After the celebration, Clara is gently returned home. She wakes on the sofa where she fell asleep, the Nutcracker doll still in her arms. The audience is left to decide how much of what they saw was Clara's dream and how much was real magic. It is the most generous of endings — and the moment most likely to recruit a new generation of ballet-goers from the audience.