Illustration by Raymond Briggs © Snowman Enterprises Limited 2026. THE SNOWMAN™ Snowman Enterprises Limited
By Grace Hatchell
There are certain things you can rely on at Christmas.
Someone will buy you socks. Someone will insist they do not want anything and then look disappointed when you believe them. And somewhere, a small boy will build a snowman who turns out to be considerably more adventurous than expected.
Now The Snowman™ is getting a brand-new production, and Birmingham Rep has announced the full cast who will be bringing Raymond Briggs’ much-loved story back to the stage this autumn.
The new production opens at Birmingham Rep’s main stage, The House, from 20 October to 1 November 2026, before packing its scarf and heading south to the Peacock Theatre, Sadler’s Wells’ West End home, from 21 November 2026 to 3 January 2027.
And this is not simply a case of dusting off the old snowman and hoping nobody notices.
Olivier Award-winner Will Tuckett is directing and choreographing a completely new staging of the story, with Felix Anderson, Jake Durant, Tristan Marwa and Tate Masuku sharing the role of The Boy.
Four boys.
One snowman.
I have delivered Christmas post in Yorkshire under less complicated arrangements.
Joining them is an ensemble of dancers featuring Teague Applegate, Andrew Ashton, Serafina Sofia Barbieri, Ross Black, Tasha Chu, Eleanor Copping, Kynda Ng, Alice O’Brien, Andrii Osadchyi, Suzy Osadchyi, Ben Randall and Aaron Smyth.
But there is another particularly interesting name joining the production.
Tahra Zafar will design the Snowman costume, and if you are going to entrust anybody with one of the most recognisable snowmen in Britain, her CV is a fairly convincing argument.
Zafar recently created Paddington Bear for Paddington The Musical at the Savoy Theatre, winning an Olivier Award for her work. Her career spans more than 30 years across theatre, film, television and major live events, with credits including Ant-Man III, Star Wars VII and In the Night Garden.
She also worked on an astonishing 23,000 costumes for the opening and closing ceremonies of the London 2012 Olympics, including the costume worn by Queen Elizabeth II’s sky-diving double.
Frankly, after that, making a snowman fly seems almost straightforward.
And yes, he had better fly.
This is The Snowman.
The rest of the creative team is equally impressive.
Multi award-winning production designer Anna Fleischle, whose credits include Punch, 2:22 A Ghost Story, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie and Hangmen, joins video designer Nina Dunn for PixelLux.
Chris Fisher, whose illusion work includes Stranger Things: The First Shadow, Back to the Future, The Hunger Games on Stage and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, is creating the illusions, while Daisy Beattie, whose credits include the RSC’s The BFG and Spirited Away in Tokyo, is puppet designer.
Matt Daw is lighting designer, Kelsh Buckman-Drage is sound designer, with Floyd Hughes and Adam Bailey of Flying by Foy serving as flying directors.
Amy Beadel CDG handles casting for Grindrod Burton Casting, Emma Brunton is Associate Puppetry Director, Keziah Ferguson is Associate Production Designer and Paul James Rooney is Assistant Director and Choreographer.
It is quite the team for a story which began without anybody saying a single word.
That, of course, has always been part of The Snowman’s magic.
Raymond Briggs’ wordless picture book was first published in 1978, with the famous animated adaptation following in 1982. Howard Blake’s score — including Walking in the Air — subsequently became inseparable from the story.
Birmingham Rep first brought The Snowman to its audiences in 1993.
That production went on to become the theatre’s longest-running show, toured across the UK and established an extraordinary 29-year seasonal residency at the Peacock Theatre, becoming the West End’s longest-running festive show.
Thirty-two years later, Birmingham Rep is starting again.
Not replacing the magic, hopefully, but finding a new way of creating it for children who are discovering The Snowman for the very first time.
Director and choreographer Will Tuckett says the new cast and creative team will help shape Raymond Briggs’ world into a “truly spectacular new staging”, while Birmingham Rep Artistic Director Joe Murphy describes The Snowman as having a very special place in the theatre’s history.
And I think that history is precisely what makes this new production so intriguing.
There will be adults sitting in The House this October who first saw The Snowman when they were children themselves.
Some will now be bringing their own children.
Those children may eventually bring theirs.
That is how a piece of theatre quietly becomes something bigger than a production.
It becomes a tradition.
And somewhere above all of them, a boy and a snowman will hopefully still be flying through the air.
The Snowman™ runs at Birmingham Rep from Tuesday 20 October to Sunday 1 November 2026, with press night on Thursday 29 October at 6pm.
It then transfers to the Peacock Theatre in London from Saturday 21 November 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027.
I shall be keeping an especially close eye on the snowman.
You cannot trust anyone who can fly without explaining how.
— Grace
To book for the Birmingham Rep run, visit birmingham-rep.co.uk or call the Box Office on 0121 236 4455 (Monday to Friday from 12pm to 6pm. Saturdays 12pm to 6pm, or 4pm if there is no evening performance scheduled). For tickets at the Peacock Theatre, please visit sadlerswells.com
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