Birmingham Rep has opened up the rehearsal room on its new The Snowman, releasing photographs and a short film less than three weeks before the premiere. Press night is Thursday 29 October 2026.
This is the one Birmingham has been waiting on. The Rep’s original The Snowman opened in 1993 and became the longest-running production in the theatre’s history, so a brand-new version was always going to be watched closely. Today brought the first proper look at it: rehearsal photographs by Johan Persson and a video shot in the rehearsal room.
The production is directed and choreographed by Olivier Award winner Will Tuckett. Four boys share the role of The Boy — Felix, Jake, Tristan and Tate, whose casting we reported last month — and they are backed by an ensemble of twelve dancers.
The look of the piece is in the hands of production designer Anna Fleischle, video designer Nina Dunn for PixelLux and puppet designer Daisy Beattie. The illusions come with a pedigree of their own: Tony Award-winning illusions designer Chris Fisher also worked on Stranger Things: The First Shadow, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and The Hunger Games on Stage.
The Snowman himself is being built by Tahra Zafar, who won an Olivier for the bear in Paddington: The Musical at the Savoy Theatre. She first worked with Tuckett on In the Night Garden, and her costume career runs from Star Wars VII to the 23,000 costumes made for the London 2012 Olympic opening and closing ceremonies.
Completing the team are lighting designer Matt Daw, sound designer Kelsh Buckman-Drage, flying directors Floyd Hughes and Adam Bailey for Flying by Foy, casting director Amy Beadel CDG for Grindrod Burton Casting, associate puppetry director Emma Brunton, associate production designer Keziah Ferguson, and assistant director and choreographer Paul James Rooney.
The source is unchanged: Raymond Briggs’s wordless picture book, with music and libretto by Howard Blake, whose score includes Walking in the Air.
After its Birmingham run the production heads to London, where the old staging spent 29 seasons. The Snowman runs at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre from Tuesday 20 October to Sunday 1 November 2026, with press night on Thursday 29 October at 6pm, and then at the Peacock Theatre, Sadler’s Wells’ West End home, from Saturday 21 November 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027.
