Sandi Toksvi's Christmas Cracker at the Royal Festival Hall opens tonight
Be There First: London Shows Opening
Tonight, you can see the first night of Sandi Toksvi's Christmas Cracker at the Royal Festival Hall, a cabaret featuring so many stars, we're not sure we've got space to squeeze 'em all in. There's Sara Cox, Denise Van Outen, John Humphrys, Stephen Mangan, Nicholas Parsons, Sue Perkins, June Whitfield, John Snow, Lionel Blair... seriously, we're not making this up.
Tomorrow sees the start of A Daughter's A Daughter at the Trafalgar Studios: an unusual early Agatha Christie play without a murder, starring Jenny Seagrove and Honeysuckle Weeks.
Family-friendly Dr Seuss-adaptation, The Cat In The Hat opens at the National Theatre on Wednesday. Older kids will love Into the Hoods which also opens on Wednesday at the Southbank Centre. The same day, Matthew Bourne's iconic Swan Lake returns to Sadler's Wells for a limited run (until 24 Jan); it's up against the ENB's eccentric The Nutcracker at the London Coliseum for your Christmas ballet of choice, opening the same night.
If you're looking for a murder most horrid this week, check out Rope by Patrick Hamilton at the Almeida Theatre; it too opens this Wednesday.
Thursday sees Keira Knightley's West End debut go up against the critics: The Misanthrope at the Comedy Theatre also stars Damian Lewis and Tara Fitzgerald, but no one's looking at them...
Finally, La Boheme opens at the Royal Opera House on Saturday.
Last Chance To See: London Shows Closing:
A Real Humane Person Who Cares And All That at the Arcola is over on Saturday, as is The Return of Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People at the Bloomsbury Theatre; the Drive-Thru Nativity at the Blue Elephant Theatre, and Cock at the Royal Court. And Inherit the Wind at the Old Vic closes on Sunday. Let us know if there's anything we've missed, and wrap up warm if you're headed out!
