Happy families

Family affair: Jonathan Ross with his wife Jane, son Harvey and Nutcracker designer Gerald Scarfe.
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

It was just another night at the ballet, but it turned into an entertaining family lookalike show. The young audience at the new production of The Nutcracker by the English National Ballet - described as having more sauce than a Heinz factory - looked remarkably familiar.

Closer inspection provided the explanation: Jonathan Ross was there with his son Harvey, Colin Montgomerie with his three children and David Seaman with his.

Accompanying Richard and Judy to the Coliseum were their son and daughter, who also bear a strong resemblance to their parents. Actor John Thompson was also in the audience with his wife and daughter.

Before the ballet the audience met the dancers at a lavish launch party at the next door St Martin's Lane Hotel.

Former Arsenal and England goalkeeper Seaman said: "I've come along as my five-year-old daughter Georgina is very keen on ballet and has started going to classes. They say that football is working class ballet but I've never seen the connection."

Last year the ENB was relegated to the Hammersmith Carling Apollo. This year, with the Coliseumrenovated, the company returned home like a new troupe.

The production, designed by Gerald Scarfe, is weird and wacky, and according to some, the design tail is wagging the ballet dog.

However, what makes this production worth seeing is the quality of the dancing.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in