The world premiere production of The McOnie Company’s Nutcracker, directed and choreographed by Olivier winner Drew McOnie, will play London this winter.

Featuring a reimagining of Tchaikovsky’s score for an onstage jazz band led by Cassie Kinoshi, Nutcracker will be co-composed by Kinoshi and Rio Kai, with venue and set design by Soutra Gilmour, costume design by Ryan Dawson Laight, music supervision by Benjamin Kwasi Burrell, lighting design by Joshie Hariette, sound design by Simon Baker, and casting by Will Burton.

Said Drew McOnie, the artistic director of The McOnie Company: “Creating a jazz adaptation of the Nutcracker for my own company is exactly the sort of wild impossible thing I would daydream about constantly as a young boy. I spent hours devising colourful worlds in my head where great theatre dancers and great musicians would tell stories that made me feel like I belonged somewhere. It’s my desire to fill this Nutcracker with heaps of that childlike wonder but with the added free spirited mischief we all crave at Christmas time. To be creating this production with such an exceptional group of artists is truly thrilling and I cannot wait to introduce this Nutcracker to you… an old friend you are about to meet for the first time”.

The cast for Nutcracker will include Amonik Melaco as Action Man, Sam Salter as Clive, and Patricia Zhou as Sugarplum, with Chanelle Anthony, Christie Crosson, Tim Hodges, Lukas Hunt and Rachel Muldoon.

Nutcracker will open at London’s Tuff Nutt Jazz Club at the Southbank Centre on November 4, and play until January 6, with previews beginning October 28. Nutcrackeris a McOnie Company production, produced by Underbelly, Francesca Moody Productions and Southbank Centre with Rachel Edwards and Winkler Smalberg.