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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

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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

3.5
19 reviews
Anna

Such an amazing atmosphere and show.

SMcS

Amazing talent, voices, sets, production. A first class show

Tenor

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.

MR. RUSSELL A CARTER

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!!

Penny

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.

Kappacino

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.

Rene Kroondijk

Awfull, we could leave after the break. No christmass atmosphere at all and the play made my wife and I very nervous.

Julie Gibson

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.

Vasileia Panagiotou

Very beautiful performance Great cast Beautiful music

Siobhan Hicks

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

Mr Gary Miller

Not impresssed, worst theatre visit I’ve had in a long time to be honest!!!

Julie Anderson

Wonderful adaptation of the traditional movie. The set was great and the atmosphere in The Coliseum fabulous x

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