Lyceum theatre, Sheffield
Beautifully staged and danced with bonneted and bewhiskered brio, Dickens’s classic dose of festive escapism is the gift that keeps on giving

Directed by Christopher Gable and choreographed by Massimo Moricone, Northern Ballet ’s A Christmas Carol was a hit when it premiered in 1992, but has been presented only sporadically since then. Now it’s back, 11 years after its last outing, though this time without a live orchestra (the company’s Sinfonia has been cut ). Does it still work, four decades on?

Well yes – but allow me a quick Scrooge moment, if you will. A Christmas Carol is a snow-globe, Victoriana vision of a world reassuringly sealed from our present and our future; that is why it works, and perhaps why we need it now.