After all the shopping, errand running and present wrapping this holiday season, enjoy one of 10 holiday classics from the Louisville theater groups.
Christmas Classics
Several groups will bring standing favorites back to the stage when the Louisville Ballet brings forth the Brown-Forman Nutcracker and Actors Theatre and Bellarmine present versions of A Christmas Carol.
The Louisville Ballet will bring back a holiday classic in the form of the Brown-Forman Nutcracker. Nutcracker features a girl who receives a nutcracker, carved like a person, for Christmas. The girl will soon find herself literally shrinking into a world that includes a mouse king and a handsome prince.
Nutcracker will run from Dec. 4-19 in Whitney Hall at the Kentucky Center for the Arts. Tickets range from $25-$95. More information on the show can be found here.
Actors Theatre of Louisville will present its annual adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol from Dec. 7-23 in the Pamela Brown Auditorium. Ticket prices range from $27-$49. Information on the show can be found here.
Bellarmine University, meanwhile, will present its A Christmas Carol, A Radio Show. Ebanezer Scrooge will meet with the ghosts of past, present, and yet to come as his heart is transformed from a Scrooge into a kind, giving person. Those in attendance will get to see the creation of a radio show, including live music, effects, and acting.
Performances will take place from Dec. 2-5 at Bellarmine's Wyatt Center for the Arts. Tickets are $5 per person. More information can be found at the Bellarmine website.
Also along the radio front comes Music Theatre Louisville's It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play. The production brings audiences into the 1940s, where George Bailey, seemingly down and out in his life and spirit, learns the true meaning of the season and life.
MTL will present the show from Dec. 3-17 at Kentucky Center for the Arts. Tickets are $18 per person. More information can be found at the Music Theatre Louisville website.
Christmas Classics Closing
Two well-known Christmas shows will be ending their runs this weekend, including Actors Theatre's A Christmas Story and As Yet Unnamed Theatre Company's White Christmas.
A Christmas Story deals with a young child's constant quest to obtain a Red Ryder BB Gun despite adults and even a store Santa telling him he'll shoot his eye out.
The remaining shows will take place at Actors Theatre through Sunday. Tickets will range from $25 to $59 per person. More information on the show can be found in this article.
AYUTC's White Christmas presents two soldiers beginning lives as Broadway producers following World War II. Many famous songs, including the title song, "The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing," and "Blue Skies," will be performed.
Performances of White Christmas will continue until this Sunday at Kentucky Center for the Arts. Tickets are $16 per person. More information on the show can be found in this article.
Christmas soon-to-be classics
A continuing series and belles will make up what's to come with Bunbury Theatre's A Salvage Yard Christmas and Shelby County Community Theatre's Christmas Belles.
Bunbury's A Salvage Yard Christmas is the third in a series of Salvage Yard plays. In this production, the gang at the salvage yard find out the property will be shut down and taken over by a factory chicken farm. However, that doesn't prevent the gang from remembering the good times.
Salvage Yard Christmas will run from Dec. 2-19 at Burbury Theatre. General admission tickets are $21 per person. More information about the show can be found at the Bunbury Theatre website.
Meanwhile, Shelby County Community Theatre will present Christmas Belles, which features a zany Christmas program, complete with a Santa, sheep seeking vengence, and an Elvis impersonator.
Christmas Belles will run from Dec. 3-12 at the Shelby County Community Theatre. More information can be found at the community theatre's website.
Dinner with carols . . . or murder
Those wishing to have dinner with their holiday show will have two options as Derby Dinner Playhouse presents Plaid Tidings and Whodunnit Murder Mystery Theatre presents A Carroll's Deadly Christmas.
Plaid Tidings showcases four male singers who were killed in a car accident, then reincarnated and instructed, via a phone call from Rosemary Clooney, to entertain audiences with a Christmas special.
The production will run until Dec. 31. Tickets range from $34-$43, depending on the day and will include a buffet dinner in the ticket. More information on the show can be found in this article.
While the reincarnated souls perform Christmas music, Whodunnit will investigate a murder in A Carroll's Deadly Christmas. The production features a strange family and one of its members getting killed on Christmas Eve, possibly by another member of the family. The audience must figure out the correct suspect.
A Carroll's Deadly Christmas will run on Saturdays and some Fridays until Dec. 18. Tickets, which include dinner, are $43.95 per person. More information about the show can be found in this article.
Christmas for Kids
Stage One and Derby Dinner Playhouse will round out the Christmas season with shows aimed at kids.
Stage One will present The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, which shows the worst kids in the world getting involved in, and being changed by, a church Christmas production.
The production will take place at the Kentucky Center for the Arts from Nov. 27-Dec. 18. More information, including ticket information, can be found in this article.
Derby Dinner, meanwhile, will showcase Christmas in Candyland, which features two kids who travel into Candyland and attempt to defeat Lord Licorice.
The show will run from now until Dec. 18 at Derby Dinner. More information, including ticket pricing and availability, can be found in this article.
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(Image from The Kentucky Center)
