Feeling festive? Your guide to Melbourne’s Christmas events, big and small

3 months ago 4

Another year around the sun, another cracker of a Christmas guide for Melburnians looking for things to see and do over the holidays.

Lachy Hulme as Scrooge in A Christmas Carol.

THEATRE

A Christmas Carol A festive fixture in the East End theatre district, this bell-ringing, carol-singing production won five Tony Awards. It has charmed and uplifted Melbourne audiences for four years. Each year, a different celebrity plays Ebenezer Scrooge. Previously, we’ve witnessed David Wenham, Game of Thrones star Owen Teale and Erik Thomson all transform into miserable grinches for our pleasure and instruction. This time Lachy Hulme – who masked up for the mutant villain in Mad Max: Furiosa – takes a turn, and his Scrooge has more than a hint of a Santa-gone-wrong. The show is guaranteed to brighten the eyes of children, to soften the hearts of the more Scrooge-like among us, and donations to food charity FareShare are encouraged on exit – in the spirit of social conscience that Dickens sought to foster by writing his festive ghost story in 1843. Comedy Theatre, until December 24.

A Fountain Lakes Christmas Carol A drag parody play of the Scrooge story is also on offer, and I suspect once you’ve seen it, Yule never be the same again. The big gay Kath & Kim homage promises the silliest season of all. When Kim starts picking at an iffy leg of ham in the fridge, hallucinations of Christmas ghosts aren’t far away.

Kath and Kel run into trouble over a Nativity play, and Sharon hankers for a pash under the, uh, cameltoe. The show comes to us from the team of drag queens and comedians behind Fountain Lakes in Lockdown and will star RuPaul’s Drag Race veterans Lazy Susan and Art Simone, with Leasa Mann, Thomas Jaspers, and Scott Brennan in the mix. Fill your plastic glass with “cardonnay” and get ready for camp shenanigans galore. Arts Centre Melbourne, December 9-21.

BALLET

The Nutcracker Children should be enchanted as I was, to be introduced to The Nutcracker. The ballet will be danced by an international ensemble as part of a global tour. The story follows the young Clara through a Christmas Eve fantasia, with toys and fairies and armies of mice springing to life in an unforgettable dream. Tchaikovsky’s score has charmed audiences since it premiered in 1892, with the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy arguably the best-known and most popular music in ballet. Dance lovers of all ages should enjoy immersing themselves in a Christmas classic. Princess Theatre, December 11-31.

MUSICAL THEATRE

Anastasia Seldom do big-ticket musicals open at Christmastime. Melbourne has two this year. First up, the Australian premiere of Anastasia, the Broadway smash hit based on the 1997 animated film. The lavish musical play imagines the last of the Romanovs, Anastasia (Georgina Hopson), who in this romantic fantasy adventure escapes Bolshevik assassination with the help of Dmitry (Robert Tripolino), only to develop amnesia. Years later, her quest for identity and reunion and revenge begins. It should be a stunner, with a luxurious cast including Australian musical theatre royalty Rhonda Burchmore and Nancye Hayes as members of the Russian royal family. Previews from December 20.

Cats Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats comes to Hamer Hall as part of a national tour for the 40th anniversary of the musical’s first Australian production. Todd McKenney plays Gus the Theatre Cat, with Gabriyel Thomas as Grizabella, and Mark Vincent as Old Deuteronomy. Based on T.S. Eliot’s whimsical poems, the feline song cycle has its devoted fans, and this dynamic revival should wipe any lingering memory of the appalling 2019 film adaptation (and the creepiest CGI of all time). Hamer Hall, Previews from December 21.

CONCERTS

John Foreman’s Australian Pops Orchestra Holiday Concerts Whether you love show tunes or iconic divas, pop songs or Christmas carols, the inaugural Holiday Concert series has you covered. Audiences can carol along with Silvie Paladino at The Great Christmas Singalong (December 20) or marvel at Bernadette Robinson channelling Barbra Streisand, Shirley Bassey and Judy Garland in They Sang at Carnegie Hall (December 22-23). After Christmas, Foreman – the original musical director of Australian Idol – reunites with alumni Casey Donovan, Paulini and Rob Mills for The Idols of Musical Theatre (December 27-28), and there are Gala Concerts (December 30-31) with Marina Prior, Lucy Durack and Simon Gleeson to ring in the New Year.

Vika and Linda Bull perform at Vision Australia’s Carols by Candlelight at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl.

Carols by Candlelight Get your tickets early to the 88th year of Vision Australia’s Carols by Candlelight, televised live by Nine (owner of this masthead) on Christmas Eve. Pro tip: should you miss out, feel budget-conscious, or have other Christmas Eve plans, there’s a dress rehearsal the night before with cheaper tickets and the same line-up of ARIA award-winning performers. Sidney Myer Music Bowl, December 23-24.

MSO Classic Kids The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra has its annual Classic Kids: A Symphonic Christmas (Hamer Hall, December 13-14) for families, with carols and classical favourites during the day. A relaxed performance is available. And the choric splendour of Handel’s Messiah graces the same venue on both evenings.

VARIETY AND COMEDY

The usual spiegeltent outside Arts Centre Melbourne has been replaced by the newly launched Spiegel Haus on Lonsdale Street, with a bar and multiple performance venues. You can catch the adults-only fusion of burlesque, circus, comedy and cabaret at Blanc de Blanc Encore, and the Japanese magic show Maho Magic Bar through December. Or drop into the nearby Comedy Republic for A Comedy Christmas Carol (December 12 and 19), improvised by local comedians.

CHRISTMAS MARKETS

Shoppers can buy stocking-fillers of all kinds at the many Christmas markets in the city and surrounds. Queen Victoria Market hosts its Summer Night Market with live music, themed pop-up stalls, and street entertainers every Wednesday, 5pm-10pm, until March 11. You can indulge in gingerbread and pretzels at a traditional German Christmas Market (German Lutheran Trinity Church, December 14), and the Japan Christmas Fair offers Japanese gifts as well as ink art, origami and bonsai workshops (Japaneasy, December 14). At the Christmas edition of the Boho Luxe Market (The Atrium, Fed Square, December 14), shoppers can pick up jewellery, fashion, art and crafts from local designers, with vegan food trucks onsite. And if you’re wondering where the decades-old Sunday Market outside the Arts Centre has gone? It’s down by the river at Southgate, open from 10am-4pm every Sunday in December. Before Christmas, you’ll find it alongside Riverside Christmas Twilight Markets (Sundays, until 7pm) featuring more stalls from artists and artisans.

The Lego Christmas display in the Myer windows.

SEASONAL CHEER AROUND THE CBD

No family with kids will want to miss the Myer Christmas windows. It is celebrating its 70th anniversary with a Lego-themed display that’s got everything from Santa’s reindeer to Mrs Claus supervising a present-wrapping machine.

Lasers, water fountains and projections at Crown Christmas River Show will light up the Yarra with free spectacle each night from 9-11pm, until December 25. That’s part of the City of Melbourne’s Christmas Festival, the centrepiece of which is a 17.5-metre LED Christmas Tree in Fed Square, festooned with twinkling decorations. Fed Square, meanwhile, has a full program of events, including a free Outdoor Cinema (December 8-11). If that’s too packed, there’s Moonlight Cinema in the Botanic Gardens (until December 28), where you can enjoy festive films in a relaxed and picturesque setting, and if Melbourne’s weather misbehaves, you can head to the art deco picture palace at Capitol Theatre for select Christmas movies on weekend afternoons (December 6-21). And that’s a wrap, though as always, Melbourne has many secrets and surprises for those willing to hunt them down.

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