'The Nutcracker' review — a warm and lively adaptation of the classic story

Read our review of Olivier Award-winning theatre company Little Bulb's The Nutcracker now in performances at St. Martin's Theatre through 4 January 2026.

Summary

• The Nutcracker is at St. Martin's Theatre through 4 January 2026
• Little Bulb Theatre has upended Tchaikovsky’s classical ballet
• Clara is transported to the Mousy Realm thanks to a nutcracker doll gifted by her aunt

Little Bulb Theatre’s The Nutcracker is about as far as you can get from Tchaikovsky’s classical ballet. Gone are the tutus and pointe shoes, in favour of a thoroughly irreverent take on this beloved tale, which is stuffed with scatological jokes, cardboard costumes, and good-natured, childish fun.

The ballet’s framework loosely remains for Little Bulb’s Olivier-nominated children’s show: a young girl called Clara goes on a magical journey thanks to her newly gifted nutcracker doll, and challenges a villainous Mouse King who has (in this version) four additional heads. But instead of a love story between Clara and the nutcracker, who (spoiler) comes to life as a prince in the ballet and Alexandre Dumas's 1844 short story (itself a retelling of ETA Hoffmann’s 1816 short story), the doll remains a powerful toy that transports Clara and younger brother Fritz into the Mousy Realm.

Along with their father, the siblings have relocated to a dilapidated house in London — warmly designed as a dusty old attic by Sam Wilde — following the death of their mother Maria. The Nutcracker delicately touches on more mature themes of grief, in a way that is age appropriate for its target young audience, and teaches lots of lessons about bravery, sharing, and the importance of believing in your own abilities.

Lakeisha Lynch-Stevens is spirited as the fearless Clara, and the plot trots along at an enjoyably energetic pace as she and brother Fritz (played by the lively Dominic Conway) tackle Cobweb City and the Pipes of Peril to meet the Mouse King and save their father’s prized Christmas present: a slab of their mother’s favourite cheese. Clare Beresford, who nimbly switches between the cackling Mouse King and a friendly Cockney narrator, gets the audience on side with popular Christmas tunes like “Fairytale of New York” which, of course, incorporate lyrics with a Nutcracker twist. Caroline Partridge and Shamira Turner provide plenty of humour multi-rolling as Auntie Drosselmeyer/Elder Mouse (the latter resembling Gandalf) and the Sugar Plum Fairy/Clara and Fritz’s dad, who sports an impressive 70s-style moustache.

Part of the joy of this production is how homemade everything feels. Wilde’s inventive costumes, including mouse tails made from toilet roll tubes and a giant cardboard crown for the Mouse King, could be the creations of the children sitting in the audience. And one particularly magical section leans on the vivid imagination of young children, as the Mouse King’s sad backstory is explained using shadow play.

While there aren’t quite as many jokes for adults as can be found in a pantomime, it’s hard to find fault in a show that reinvents a classic tale with so much heart.

Book The Nutcracker tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Photo credit: The Nutcracker. (Courtesy of production)