Holidays at The Apollo Festive Programming for All Ages December 2 – December 30, 2023
WHAT
This December, The Apollo will celebrate the holidays with events and
programs for the entire family, with performances from BeBe Winans, Samara Joy, and Soshana Bean to Double Dutch Holiday Classic and the soul-stirring Kwanzaa: A Regeneration Celebration featuring Abdel R. Salaam’s Forces of Nature Dance Theatre. This year’s Holidays at The Apollo promises a remarkable array of live and in-person festivities that will celebrate culture, music, and community during the festive season.
Tickets are on sale now at www.apollotheater.org/holidays-at-the-apollo-2023/
Holidays at The Apollo are part of the Apollo’s Fall 2023 season and is sponsored by Coca-Cola.
WHEN
December 2 – December 30, 2023
WHERE
The Apollo (253 W. 125th Street between Frederick Douglass Blvd. and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd.)
Holidays at The Apollo Calendar
Bebe Winans
Saturday, December 2, 2023
The Apollo’s Historic Theater
Tickets start at $40
Six-time Grammy winner BeBe Winans returns to The Apollo for a historic live album recording concert backed by Donald Lawrence & Company.
Among the artists Winans has written and produced for are Whitney Houston, Eric Clapton, Stevie Wonder, David Foster, Gladys Knight, Anita Baker, Bobby Brown, and The Clark Sisters – as well his younger sisters Angie and Debbie Winans.
Double Dutch Holiday Classic
Sunday, December 3, 2023 | 1:00pm EST
The Apollo’s Historic Theater
Tickets start at $40
The National Double Dutch League returns to The Apollo for the annual Double Dutch Holiday Classic where world-class Double Dutch teams of all ages from around the world compete for the championship title of “Best of Show.”
Shoshana Bean and Friends
Monday, December 4, 2023 | 7:30pm EST
The Apollo’s Historic Theater
Tickets start at $54.95
Tony and Grammy Award-nominee Shoshana Bean returns to The Apollo with her legendary holiday concert spectacular. This annual one-night-only event has become a New York holiday tradition and features very special guests from stage and screen. Music Direction by David Cook. Produced by Shane Scheel for For The Record Live.
Winter Wonderland
Saturday, December 9, 2023 | 1:00pm EST
The Apollo’s Marquee
FREE & open to the public
Under the twinkling lights of our famous marquee, The Apollo invites audiences to bring the whole family for a wide array of holiday-themed activities including picture taking with Santa Claus and amazing performances. This event is hosted by The Apollo Tour Director and Ambassador, Billy Mitchell.
Amateur Night Holiday Special
Saturday, December 9, 2023 | 7:30pm EST
The Apollo’s Historic Theater
Tickets start at $30
The Apollo Amateur Night Holiday Special showcases talented alumni of the show’s “Stars of Tomorrow” segment, spotlighting the young performers hoping to follow in the footsteps of Apollo Legends like Ella Fitzgerald and H.E.R., whose careers were launched on the stage of The Apollo.
Samara Joy: A Joyful Holiday
Thursday, December 14, 2023 and Friday, December 15, 2023| 8:00pm EST
The Apollo’s Historic Theater
Tickets start at $59
Grammy Award-winning for Best New Artist, Samara Joy, embraces the tradition of such singers as Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald in this holiday-themed concert featuring two generations of her family including her father Antonio McLendon, uncle Laurone McLendon, and her cousins Tiera Lovell Rowe and Tommy Niblack, accompanied by the Shedrick Mitchell Trio.
Kwanzaa: A Regeneration Celebration
Saturday, December 30, 2023 | 2:00pm and 7:30pm EST
The Apollo’s Historic Theater
Tickets start at $25
Anchored by Forces of Nature Dance Theatre under the leadership of critically acclaimed choreographer Abdel Salaam, The Apollo’s annual Kwanzaa Celebration returns for a joyous celebration of Kwanzaa through dance, music and spoken word, honoring the principles of Kwanzaa and traditions from across the African Diaspora.
ABOUT THE APOLLO
The legendary Apollo—the soul of American culture—plays a vital role in cultivating emerging artists and launching legends. Since its founding, The Apollo has served as a center of innovation and a creative catalyst for Harlem, the city of New York, and the world. In 2024, The Apollo will open The Apollo’s Victoria Theaters, which will include two new theater spaces, and begin the renovation of its Historic Theater, marking the first ever expansion and renovation of The Apollo in its nearly 90-year history. Read more about the project here: www.apollotheater.org/renovation-restoration-and-transformation/
With music at its core, The Apollo’s programming extends to dance, theater, spoken word, and more. This includes the world premieres of The Blues and Its People and the theatrical adaptation of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me, and the New York premiere of the opera We Shall Not Be Moved; special programs such as the blockbuster concert Bruno Mars Live at the Apollo; 100: The Apollo Celebrates Ella; and the annual Africa Now! Festival. The non-profit Apollo is a performing arts presenter, commissioner, and collaborator that also produces festivals, large-scale dance and musical works organized around a set of core initiatives that celebrate and extend The Apollo’s legacy through a contemporary lens, including the Women of the World (WOW) Festival as well as other multidisciplinary collaborations with partner organizations.
Since introducing the first Amateur Night contests in 1934, The Apollo has served as a testing ground for new artists working across a variety of art forms and has ushered in the emergence of many new musical genres—including jazz, swing, bebop, R&B, gospel, blues, soul, and hip-hop. Among the countless legendary performers who launched their careers at The Apollo are Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, Luther Vandross, H.E.R., D’Angelo, Lauryn Hill, Machine Gun Kelly, and Miri Ben Ari; and The Apollo’s forward-looking artistic vision continues to build on this legacy. For more information about The Apollo, visit www.ApolloTheater.org.
About The Apollo
The Apollo is an American cultural treasure. It is a vibrant non-profit organization rooted in the Harlem community that engages people from around New York, the nation, and the world. Since 1934, The Apollo has celebrated, created, and presented work that centers Black artists and voices from across the African Diaspora. It has also been a catalyst for social and civic advocacy. Today, The Apollo is the largest performing arts institution committed to Black culture and creativity.
The Apollo is a commissioner and presenter; catalyst for new artists, audiences, and creative workforce; and partner in the projection of the African American narrative and its role in the development of American and global culture.
The Apollo envisions a new American canon centered on contributions to the performing arts by artists of the African diaspora, in America and beyond.
