
It's A Wonderful Life Tickets
Your favourite Christmas film comes to life in this new family friendly opera!To be confirmed.
Performance dates
25 November - 10 December 2022
Run time 2 hours 10 minutes
Includes interval
- Show info
- Accessibility
- Reviews
- News
It's a Wonderful Life comes to the London Coliseum
Redefined for today's audiences, It's a Wonderful Life is a fantastic festive family-friendly production ideal for first-time opera-goers. The classic Christmas story makes its UK debut at the London Coliseum, with dates in late November and early December.
The Story of It's a Wonderful Life
Based on the 1946 film directed and produced by Frank Capra, Jake Heggie's 2016 opera It's a Wonderful Life opens the ENO's Christmas period this year. It follows the story of humble banker George Bailey in the idyllic town of Bedford Falls at Christmastime. After years of helping others at the expense of his own dreams, George feels like life has passed him by and is ready to leave it all behind.
When things look their bleakest, Clara — a second-tier angel desperate to earn her wings — intervenes and sets out to show George that the lives of those in Bedford Falls would be a lot less wonderful without him.
It's a Wonderful Life tickets are on sale now!
Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer's operatic adaptation of the classic film is an uplifting tale of hope and redemption.
Aletta Collins makes her ENO directorial debut, as does experienced Heggie conductor Nicole Paiement, who conducts the production. The costumes are by Gabrielle Dalton, and Giles Cadle is set designer.
Bringing the story to life is a stellar cast led by Danielle de Niese, who makes her ENO operatic debut as guardian angel Clara. Alongside her is Frederick Ballentine, who sings George Bailey. Joining them are Michael Mayes, Jennifer France, Ronald Samm, Gweneth Ann Rand, and Segomotso Shupinyaneng. In addition, current ENO Harewood Artists Ossian Huskinson, Idunnu Münch, and Zwakele Tshabalala join Keri Fuge to form a quartet of angels.
With a limited run of performances, It's a Wonderful Life tickets are in high demand. So, book today to catch this magical festive classic this Christmas.
Content
Please be aware that this production contains some adult content which may not be suitable for young audiences.Special notes
Sung in English. Our surtitles system displays sung words above the stage.
Recent Reviews
Such an amazing atmosphere and show.
Amazing talent, voices, sets, production. A first class show
Love4ly theatre, Excellent seats. With words at the top of the stage it was easy to follow, you didn't miss anything. Staff friendly. Thoroughly enjoyable.
Production was too long, hard to follow as when reading words missed out on stage and what was going on. As always food and drink prices were excessive and the cost of a glass of wine was as nearly the cost of my ticket!!
This production was probably the best ever stage show I have ever seen, the singers and actors were second to none and clearly thoroughly enjoyed what they were doing they all simply shone, BRILLIANT thank you so so much.
To be honest I did not realise it was an opera till my wife told me 5 minutes before we arrived. But fear not, you could understand most of the sung lyrics and there are "subtitles" displayed. I love the film, and this was a good new interpretation. Thoroughly recommend it. Various nuances like Clarence becoming Clara. The London Coliseum is a spell binding theatre and worth going for itself.
Awfull, we could leave after the break. No christmass atmosphere at all and the play made my wife and I very nervous.
Myself and daughter were really looking forward to this show but with in minutes we realised we had made a big mistake! In fact the lady sitting next to me asked to leave during the first song. The singing, songs and scenery were a big disappointment. Not sure what happened in the first ten minutes as the curtain came down and we were left with no explanation of what was going on, it did start up again but a quick update would have been nice. We lasted until the interval when we just left the theatre, we were not alone in doing this. One excellent thing to mention was the screen giving the words which was placed above the stage, i wish all theatres could do this but probably not always practical.
Very beautiful performance Great cast Beautiful music
Interesting take on frank capra. Missed the best part with the pharmacist drug error. Warmed up in second half. Glad I saw it, a good attempt overall
Not impresssed, worst theatre visit I’ve had in a long time to be honest!!!
Wonderful adaptation of the traditional movie. The set was great and the atmosphere in The Coliseum fabulous x
Latest It's A Wonderful Life News

News / Celebrities / New Shows + Transfers
Paul McCartney adapts It’s A Wonderful Life into a stage musical
It’s fair to say that Paul McCartney has written some of the most iconic pop songs of all time. He is, of course, most well known for being 1 of 4 of the legendary pop group The Beatles but has a range of songwriting that spans further than the Liverpudlian band. Initiated by the highly reputable theatre producer Bill Kenwright (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) and along with writer Lee Hall (Billy Elliot), this dream team are set to take It's a Wonderful Life — one of the world’s most beloved Christmas films — and turn it into a stage musical.
24 Jul, 2019 | By Jade Ali
Keep me updated
We'll tell you as soon as tickets go on sale: