English National Ballet reimagines Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker in Edwardian London, danced live by more than a hundred performers at the Coliseum this Christmas.
English National Ballet dances its own production of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker at the London Coliseum in Covent Garden from Thursday 17 December 2026 to Sunday 10 January 2027.
The ballet comes from E. T. A. Hoffmann’s The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, an 1816 story with a seven-headed rodent and a nephew under a curse. Dumas softened it for the French, Petipa softened Dumas, and the ballet reached the stage in 1892.
Aaron S. Watkin, the company’s artistic director, and Arielle Smith, an Olivier Award winner, made this version in 2024, in Watkin’s first season leading the company. They moved Clara’s Christmas Eve from Hoffmann’s Nuremberg to Edwardian London.
The evening opens on a visit to a toy emporium and travels from a battle with the Rat King to a snow kingdom and the Land of Sweets. Dick Bird designed the sets and costumes.
Every production since 1892 has had to decide how much of Hoffmann to put back. This one sets the party in a city the audience can see out of the window.
The English National Ballet Philharmonic plays Tchaikovsky’s score live at every performance, with more than a hundred dancers and musicians on and under the stage.