The pandemic holidays are upon us. Shopping online, gathering with loved ones on Zoom, dinners at home for two, AND holiday entertainment streaming onto your screens.
Most performances won’t take place in person, but we can catch recorded versions at home. The renowned Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis will present a virtual adaptation of A Christmas Carol from December 19th to the 31st. Oregon Contemporary Theatre is now streaming Estella Scrooge, a new musical twist on the classic with a cast of Broadway actors.
How about a ballet based on A Christmas Carol? Ballet Fantastique, which usually performs at the Hult Center, has created American Christmas Carol: A Ballet Movie. Yes, it’s a real movie, beautifully produced, and running online through December 28th.
Eugene Ballet’s lavish production of The Nutcracker is scheduled as a virtual event on December 23rd. This newly edited version of a previous production will include backstage interviews.
The Hult Center has added two virtual shows for the holidays, an innovative Christmas Carol with puppets running December 11th and 12th, and a Broadway Reunion Concert on December 13th.
There’s plenty more first-rate entertainment for children at lincolncenter.org. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival also offers fun for kids.
Opera lovers: While you’re at the Lincoln Center website, click on the link to the Metropolitan Opera. Every week throughout the pandemic the Met has been streaming different productions for free, the same ones you pay handsomely for at movie houses. Our own Eugene Opera will captivate you with a New Year’s Eve Special, featuring operatic hits, Viennese operetta, and American standards. That’s how I plan to ring in the new year.
This is Dorothy Velasco with KLCC’s Theater Review.
Copyright 2020 KLCC.