The Snowman - Birmingham Rep Review (2026)
★★★★☆
The Snowman at Birmingham Rep has gone from a one-star Christmas catastrophe to a four-star technical triumph, and I’m beginning to suspect somebody on the creative team read my review.
Last year, I tore apart the clunky scene changes, wasted projections and flying sequence that looked like somebody moving a ladder across the stage. Thankfully, they’ve addressed almost every complaint. Yet for all this impressive new magic, I left feeling something was missing. How can a show make you believe in a flying snowman but struggle to make you feel Christmasy?
On Christmas Eve, a Boy builds a snowman who comes to life while the household sleeps. The pair explore the house, venture into the winter landscape and fly to the North Pole, where they meet Father Christmas and other snow people. By morning, the Boy returns to his garden and discovers what has happened to his new friend. We’ve all seen the animation.
I gave the previous production a scathing one-star review. Its awkward blackouts and curtain pulls had all the finesse of a GCSE Drama exam, and its projected snow felt like an afterthought. Well, somebody has been busy. Will Tuckett’s new production flows beautifully. Anna Fleischle’s revolving house moves us from the living room to bedrooms, the kitchen, the stairs, and outdoors without missing a beat. You can actually follow the characters through the space, and the whole evening feels considerably well polished.
The projections have had the biggest glow-up. When the Boy first steps into the snow, his footprints appear beneath his feet. When he makes a snow angel, it appears on the stage floor. Tiny details, yes, but they make the world respond to him. Matt Daw’s lighting uses warmer tones indoors against the cold outside, giving the story a visual language children can understand instantly. And then comes Walking in the Air. Nina Dunn’s projections surround the flight from the backdrop to the stage floor and front gauze; it feels like the audience is part of the world, like the show has spilt into the auditorium. Absolutely beautiful.
Chris Fisher’s floating fruit is my favourite new addition. Against a black background, fruit lifts itself out of a bowl and dances around the Boy and Snowman. It’s playful, technically impressive and has children and adults equally fascinated. They've even removed the fruit dancing out of the fridge! Hallelujah!
Tahra Zafar’s redesigned Snowman is another huge improvement: closer to Briggs’ animation, but far more expressive and mobile. Andrew Ashton gives the character real curiosity and personality rather than simply having it exist inside an enormous white costume.
Daisy Beattie’s woodland puppets are mostly excellent. The fox stalking rabbits and pheasants moves with astonishingly believable weight and intention, and the reindeer in Act Two were a feast for the eyes. The cat, however, is a disappointment. It snakes fluidly around the furniture rather than moving with the poise, pause and sudden pounce of an actual cat. The puppeteers give little physical or facial response to its fear of the Snowman, its excitement of play, or its comfort in the warm living room, so the scene feels flat. I preferred the dancer-led cat. Puppetry ought to have opened up more possibilities here, not fewer.
And then we reach the North Pole, where my enthusiasm starts to melt. I miss Jack Frost. I miss the Ballerina. Skadi and Frosti are mischievous enough, but Jack Frost gave the second act a clear threat and the dancing a purpose. The snow people have lost their wonderful individual characters too. Where was the cowboy, the Scottish snowman, the top hat? The North Pole once felt like a gathering of gloriously different personalities, the Village People of winter; here it feels oddly curtailed, more like a members-only social club.
Most frustratingly, Father Christmas doesn't get his moment. Teague Applegate is an excellent dancer, but Santa’s entrance has little ceremony, and the gift-giving is rushed. Children should feel the arrival of the BIG man. The staging simply doesn't give them time to. The production has moved away from a dance-heavy show towards physical theatre, and for much of Act One that improves the storytelling. In Act Two, I wanted more dance, more character, more Christmas. There’s even an extended dance during the bows that would have been better placed inside the story; where it sits now, it confuses the applause.
This new Snowman is leaps and bounds ahead of what I saw last year. The scenery, lighting, illusions and flight finally deliver the spectacle this story deserves. I’d happily recommend it to families, especially children discovering live theatre for the first time. Watching this production of The Snowman is my family’s tradition, the start of Christmas. I wanted my visit to the North Pole to feel like Christmas, and too much of its character has been cut away.
Now, could somebody please put the Christmas magic back before it melts?
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