• AS the Christmas trees shed their needles and the baubles are put away for another year, it’s time to wrap up London’s festive shows.
The Lion and Unicorn’s renegade version of Dickens’a A Christmas Carol has packed the house night after night. More great things are expected from new theatre group Giant Olive in 2009, but this is the last call for the 22-man musical, which ends on January 11.
• THE chances of finding Mr Right in the middle of the war zone are slim to smithereens, but that won’t deter Tayla. Trapped in a flat in a beseiged city, the heroine of the award-winning Waiting for Romeo refuses to abandon her search for a tall, dark stranger. When one mysteriously appears, is he all he appears?
Playwright Sarah Grochala won the first Protect the Human competition for her black comedy, which runs at the Pleasance from January 13-February 1.
• THE searchlights are out for talented young actors, singers, dancers and musicians to join the Youth Music Theatre UK.
It is holding select auditions to find 250 performers aged 11-21 who can chew up the scenery in a series of forthcoming national shows. The auditions take place on February 1 and 22 at St Gabriel’s Parish House in Pimlico and on February 19 at The Rag Factory, off Brick Lane. To reserve a place, visit www.youthmusictheatreuk.org