Count Down To Christmas With The BroadwayWorld Advent Calendar!

Happy December! Are you counting down the days to Christmas? At BroadwayWorld, we've decided to recount (pun intended) our favourite shows of a numerical theme - some of which you can currently see around the UK - over the course of advent.

1 December: It's no longer "One Day More" to December - advent has officially started! Did you know Once is embarking on a new UK tour? Plus, if you're a dog fan, a musical adaption of 101 Dalmations is coming to Regent's Park Open Air Theatre...

2 December: "It Takes Two" is a ballad sung by Link Larkin in Hairspray, which is coming to the London Palladium in 2020! While we don't know who our Link is yet, don't miss Michael Ball reprising his award-winning performance as Edna Turnblad, joined by Lizzie Bea as Tracy Turnblad and Marisha Wallace as Maybelle Motormouth.

3 December: If you remember your times tables, you'll be aware that the number three is Half a Sixpence. The Julian Fellowes adaptation of the novel Kipps can be seen in 2020 at the Kilworth House Theatre. Ebenezer Scrooge is also visited by three ghosts, and you can catch the classic A Christmas Carol at the Old Vic.

4 December: The music of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons was recreated on stage in Jersey Boys and New Jersey Nights. Four days is also the length of time a whirlwind romance took place in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Hear her side of the story in brilliant new musical & Juliet, currently playing at the Shaftesbury Theatre.

5 December: Mischief Theatre's The Play That Goes Wrong celebrated five years in the West End this year. Jason Robert Brown fans will be also be all too familiar with the timeline-swapping heartache that is The Last Five Years. One must also remember to leave Box 5 empty for the Phantom of the Opera...

6 December: There could only be one show to mark the sixth day of advent: SIX reunites the ex-wives of Henry VIII in a pop-tastic concert. The queens are taking the world by storm with West End and UK touring productions, and a Broadway, Australian and cruise liner tour in the works. Just one more and there'll be six productions of SIX!

7 December: Day seven of advent brings to mind a show that has the number twice in its title: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. The show ran at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre in 2015.

8 December: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is technically the eighth story in the magical series, so it is behind door number eight in our advent calendar. Head to the Palace Theatre to find out what happens 19 years later to your favourite characters from Hogwarts.

9 December: Dolly Parton's spectacular 9 to 5 is currently running at the Savoy Theatre. David Hasselhof is soon to join the employees at Consolidated Industries. The number nine is also associated with the National Theatre's production of Nine Night that ran in 2019.

10 December: It's day ten of our BroadwayWorld advent calendar! How well do you know the "Ten Duel Commandments" in the revolution that is Hamilton, entering its third year at the Victoria Palace Theatre? Or, what about the ten plagues that Moses and his fellow Israelites and Egyptians faced in The Prince of Egypt, coming to the Dominion Theatre for a strictly limited run in February 2020?

11 December: Jamie New is our favourite and most fabulous Year 11 student. Catch his story of self-discovery in Everybody's Talking About Jamie at the Apollo Theatre and on tour next year! Also, immerse yourself in the unusual goings on with Eleven and the Hawkins residents, in the Stranger Things Secret Cinema Experience.

12 December: We're almost halfway through advent! On day 12, we want to highlight the twelve songs of Jacob who appeared in the larger than life revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the London Palladium this summer. Don't worry if you missed out as it is coming back in 2020! The Dominion Theatre also played host to the stage adaption of 12-going-on-30 Josh Baskin in Big the Musical. We also can't forget Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.

13 December: Thirteen may be unlucky for some but it's the number of years Wicked has been defying gravity in London at the Apollo Victoria Theatre. Jason Robert Brown also tapped into the minds of teenagers in his 2008 Broadway hit, Thirteen the Musical. A National Youth Music Theatre production played the Apollo Theatre in 2012.

14 December: Sue Townsend's cult book series The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 and ¾ was adapted for the stage and has enjoyed runs at the Leicester Curve Theatre, the Menier Chocolate Factory and most recently, the Ambassadors Theatre in London. Forgive us for rounding, but we thought it was the perfect pairing for the fourteenth day of advent.

15 December: The Prince Edward Theatre said goodbye to Aladdin over the summer this year but has welcomed back Mary Poppins, which originally opened in the same theatre 15 years ago in 2004. Catch the magical cast for a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious time!

16 December: Who loves a bit of Rodgers and Hammerstein? The number sixteen reminds us of their charming duet "Sixteen going on Seventeen" from The Sound Of Music which has just announced a 2020 UK tour. We promise we won't use the lyric "seventeen going on eighteen" tomorrow!

17 December: There's a new seventeen-year-old in town. Sam Tutty recently made his West End debut as the titular teenager in Dear Evan Hansen. Catch the tale of friendship and honesty in this digital age at the Noel Coward Theatre.

18 December: A Broadway show that hasn't made it over to the UK is an adaption of War and Peace, Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812. The number eighteen can also be linked to Amelie the Musical, which did transfer over the Atlantic to tour the UK. Based on the cult film that came out in 2001, eighteen years ago, the show can currently be seen at The Other Palace.

19 December: We love a new musical at BroadwayWorld, especially ones with the number nineteen in them. The In-Between debuted at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and features the song "When I was 19". Nineteen is also the number of animals found on the grounded flights at Gander Airport during the days surrounding 9/11 in one of London's biggest hits of the year, Come From Away.

20 December: Two musicals celebrated their 20th anniversaries this year. Rent, Jonathan Larson's rock musical about bohemian life in New York opened in 1999 and Disney's The Lion King marked their double decade with gala performances at the Lyceum Theatre in London and the launch of a UK tour.

21 December: Lin-Manuel Miranda's musicals In the Heights and Hamilton are well-loved by London audiences but fans of the composer/performer may also be aware of the fourteen-minute musical adaption he did of 21 Chump Street, narrating the antics of a high school class.

22 December: We are in the last few days of Advent before Christmas and that means Raymond Brigg's classic, The Snowman, will soon grace our TV screens. It is also the 22nd consecutive year that a theatrical version of the tale, created by Birmingham Repertory Theatre has graced the West End stage. Catch 22 was also adapted for the stage in 1971.

23 December: Happy Christmas Eve Eve! Did you know that Me and My Girl is currently London's 23rd longest running show? 23 was also the age of Beulah Annan when she was accused of murder. You may be more familiar with the character she inspired, Roxie Hart in Chicago.

24 December: On Christmas Eve, the final day of our advent calendar, we give a nod to the Old Vic's 24 hour plays endeavour. The project gives emerging creatives and actors the opportunity to write and perform six new plays in just 24 hours. And it would be a crime for us to miss out Les Mis on our stage advent calendar currently starring Jon Robyns as prisoner 24...601 in the newly refurbished Sondheim Theatre. Rent also gets another mention because the show starts on "December 24th, 9 pm, Eastern Standard Time...".

Thank you for tolerating our stagey numerical nonsense in the count down to Christmas at BroadwayWorld UK!

What is your number one show? Are you catching a Christmassy production over the festive period? Let us know on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

Photo credit: miu_miu

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