The holidays are high season for theater-going. It is the primetime for getting primped, gathering some friends or family and spending an evening watching talented performers do what they do best. This season you can escape into frothy takes on affable movies or experience a musicalization of a dark chapter in American history. The theater can do it all.
'Elf the Musical'
'Life of Pi'
What better story to adapt for the stage than one that turns on an analysis of what is real and what is not. "Life of Pi," as depicted in the theater, is an unabashed celebration of the magic of the theater, with multiple actors voicing and playing the tiger Richard Parker. Get lost in the storytelling and the stagecraft.
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'Parade'
The winner of the 2023 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, "Parade" tells the story of the Jewish American couple, Leo and Lucille Frank, and Leo's arrest for an "unspeakable crime" at the start of the twentieth century. It is a dark, very American tale, but one filled with hope. It also features a lush score by the composer Jason Robert Brown.
'Mystic Pizza'
"True Colors"; "Manic Monday"; "Hit Me with Your Best Shot": This stage incarnation of the 1988 movie loads the evening with some of the biggest pop hits of the 1980s and '90s. Even if you are not a "Mystic Pizza" loyalist like many fans of the movie are, you are bound to have a transporting time.
'Back to the Future'
Yup, the DeLorean does indeed travel back in time — onstage — in this musicalized take on the '80s classic. A lot of lighting, visual and sound effects are required to pull off the coup de theatre. "Back to the Future" kowtows to our basest nostalgic impulses. Still, the show is an absolute romp.
'Annie'
Every few years, it seems, a certain red-headed orphan reappears to belt out some ditty about tomorrow and the sun coming out. Well, Annie — both the character and the show — are back in 2024 with tour dates running through the middle of 2025. Bonus: Whoopi Goldberg will be stepping into the role of Ms. Hannigan for part of the tour's stop at Madison Square Garden in December 2024 and January 2025.
'The Lion King'
The Disney behemoth just will not quit. Nor should it. Because nearly 30 years after its Broadway debut, director-designer Julie Taymor's singular vision of "The Lion King" still makes a good movie into a startling, inspired piece of live theater.
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