'Hot Santa' and Automated Flying: The Snowman Gets Its First Major Reboot

Birmingham Rep's The Snowman, an annual fixture since 1993, is getting a full reboot directed by Will Tuckett, former Royal Ballet dancer turned choreographer. The show runs in Birmingham until 1 November before moving to London's Peacock Theatre from 21 November to 3 January 2027.

Raymond Briggs published the picture book in 1978. Howard Blake scored the 1982 animation. The stage adaptation arrived in 1993 and has toured every year since. Tuckett's CV runs from the National Ballet of Japan's Nutcracker to a stage version of In the Night Garden. Now he's rebuilding a Christmas institution.

"It needed a bit of a refresh," Tuckett told reporters at a rehearsal in Birmingham. "Theatre's changed a lot in 30 years – expectations have changed."

What's actually new on stage?

• Flying. The old one-point harness forced performers to "swim back" if they drifted mid-air, Tuckett said, miming breaststroke. A new automated system lets dancers move freely against a video backdrop by designer Nina Dunn. "I was blown away," said Tuckett. "She made all the snow feel 3D, the landscape 3D."
• Puppetry. Designer Daisy Beattie has built a menagerie — a cat, two pheasants on wheels, a fox, rabbits — manipulated by the dancers, in the lineage of War Horse and the Paddington musical. Tahra Zafar, who designed for Paddington, created a Snowman costume that can blink and smile.
• Sound. "The score is the score," Tuckett insists, but the original's synth-heavy keyboard samples have given way to modern electronic sound quality.
• Casting. Dancers aged 11-14 now rotate the boy's role, four of them, replacing the actors used previously. "We tried the flying the other day and it was really fun," said one, Tristan. Jake, another, watches the film every Christmas with his mum.

Is it still the same story?

Tuckett is firm on priorities. "It's a story told through dance, it's not a ballet with a story," he clarified. And it's darker than the brand suggests: "it's a book about loneliness, and ultimately, it's a book about loss."

He's also de-gendered the household. "Could the dad not just sit in his chair smoking a pipe and falling asleep while his wife does the washing up and the ironing?" he asked.

The biggest change is more proper dancing, including new characters who are "really zoomy" and a Father Christmas who is "a beautiful classical dancer". The costume reference is unexpected. "His jacket is a bit like one of those huge North Face ones, and when he takes it off, he looks like Hot Santa," Tuckett laughed. "And it means then he can properly dance."

Why Raging Bull?

The team made multiple visits to study Briggs' original artworks, where the author used Tippex for some of the snow. Tuckett wants the show to "feel like the drawings", not a panto.

His visual model is Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull, where every boxing ring was a different size and shape to shift perspective. The projections will work similarly, alongside painted sets — a giant snowy tree currently fills the workshop.

The book runs about 30 pages; the film, 26 minutes; the show, roughly an hour. Tuckett's summary of the task: "to slow things down, but keep things moving."

He also wants the adults back. The old show had become "something for little kids", with "a bit of a disconnect with the adults in the audience". Briggs' humour "works if you're a kid, but as an adult, it's really clever".

The melted-snowman illustration still brings a lump to the throat. Asked if he's aiming for a Toy Story effect — kids laughing, parents crying — Tuckett smiled: "It's totally that."