Seattle's Top 5 Holiday Events of 2018
Image: Courtesy Angela Sterling
Dance
George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker
Thru Dec 28 Every other holiday event feels like a footnote to George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker. Tchaikovsky’s triumphant score, Balanchine’s choreography, Ian Falconer’s costumes, McCaw decorated to the nines, the snowswept sets and company encompassing cast—all that evergreen grandeur only cements it as the city’s epitomic tradition. McCaw Hall
Image: Courtesy Angela Sterling
Dance
Land of the Sweets: The Burlesque Nutcracker
Dec 7–30 If you like PNB’s take on The Nutcracker well enough but think it needs something—maybe that’s table-side food and drink, or a grinding jazz band, or pasties and glitter—Verlaine and McCann’s annual Land of the Sweets: The Burlesque Nutcracker has you covered, even as its spirited cast takes it all off. The Triple Door
Image: Courtesy Dan Lim
Classical
The Tenors
Dec 2 The Tenors are likely what you’d get were you to cross the Three Tenors (a whole different group) with the Backstreet Boys. When the Canadian vocalists come to Benaroya in support of last year’s Christmas Together album, expect a fair amount of hair gel, at least one fedora, and blessedly glossy seasonal harmonies. Benaroya Hall
Special Events
A John Waters Christmas
“The Christmas tree fell over on my grandmother when I was young, and it’s become a holiday memory we all share.” —John Waters
Dec 2 The Father Christmas of Filth returns with his yearly one-man show, A John Waters Christmas. Gird yourself for festive transgressions. The Neptune Theatre
Image: Courtesy Chris Bennion
Theater
A Christmas Carol
Thru Dec 28 Why is it that the greatest holiday art—see It’s a Wonderful Life or Elvis’s “Blue Christmas”—is so eager to bum you out? Is it just that, to truly accept redemption, you must first have your happiness razed? Well, if so, A Christmas Carol, returning for its 43rd time, is a damn bulldozer. The Allen Theatre
