Four young performers will share the role of The Boy in Birmingham Rep’s new staging of The Snowman, with Olivier-winning Paddington designer Tahra Zafar making the Snowman costume.
Felix Anderson, Jake Durant, Tristan Marwa and Tate Masuku will share the role of The Boy in Birmingham Rep’s new production of The Snowman, which opens on the theatre’s main stage on 20 October 2026 before coming to London. It is the first time the show has been rebuilt from scratch since 1993, and the Rep’s longest-running production by some distance.
The four are joined by an ensemble of Teague Applegate, Andrew Ashton, Serafina Sofia Barbieri, Ross Black, Natasha Chu, Eleanor Copping, Kynda Ng, Alice O’Brien, Andrii Osadchyi, Suzy Osadchyi, Ben Randall and Aaron Smyth.
The Snowman costume itself goes to Tahra Zafar, who won an Olivier Award this year for the title character in Paddington the Musical at the Savoy. Her thirty years of work spans Star Wars VII, In the Night Garden — her first job with this production’s director — and the 23,000 costumes made for the London 2012 Olympic ceremonies, the Queen’s sky-diving double among them.
Will Tuckett directs and choreographs, with production design by Anna Fleischle, video by Nina Dunn for PixelLux, illusions by Chris Fisher and puppets by Daisy Beattie. Lighting is by Matt Daw and sound by Kelsh Buckman-Drage, with Floyd Hughes and Adam Bailey directing the flying for Flying by Foy.
The staging keeps Howard Blake’s score, Walking in the Air included, and works from Raymond Briggs’s wordless 1978 picture book rather than the animation. Tuckett called the company “absolutely first-class” and said the team was in place “to shape this magical world into what will be a truly spectacular new staging”.
The Rep’s artistic director Joe Murphy said the show “has a very special place in the history of The Rep”, having introduced generations of Birmingham audiences to theatre over three decades. Sir Alistair Spalding, artistic director of Sadler’s Wells, said it “heralds the start of the festive season” at the Peacock, where the production has run for 29 consecutive years — the longest-running Christmas show the West End has had.
The Snowman runs at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre from Tuesday 20 October to Sunday 1 November 2026, with press night on Thursday 29 October, then at the Peacock Theatre from Saturday 21 November 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027.
