More than 30 years after Raymond Briggs’ story became a stage show, director Will Tuckett and Paddington designer Tahra Zafar have given it a hi-tech refresh with a hunky Saint Nick
“Top of the show!” says Will Tuckett. On the grand piano, musical director Andy Massey strikes up an arpeggio that could melt the most frozen of hearts: “We’re walking in the air …” It is The Snowman, of course. Raymond Briggs’ 1978 picture book was animated for the screen in 1982 with a score by Howard Blake and became a hit stage show in 1993, an annual outing for Birmingham Rep ever since. Now it’s getting a reboot, directed by Tuckett, former Royal Ballet dancer turned choreographer and director of everything from the National Ballet of Japan’s Nutcracker to a stage adaptation of In the Night Garden.
We’re in a studio in Birmingham. As the overture plays, a large wooden box in the centre of the room opens like the cover of a book, to become a house. There’s a kitchen, a couple at the table with a pot of tea and an endearing puppet cat winding round their legs. Upstairs, a boy wakes up, looking forward to Christmas.