The Dandelion Chandelier Luxury Entertainment Calendar highlights notable new events in books, theater, podcasts, film, popular music and television in December 2017. It’s your one-stop destination to be culturally literate all month — after all, you’re going to need something to talk about at all of those holiday parties! For the rest of the Luxury Calendar, click here. For other Entertainment events, click here. And don’t forget to check out our list of the perfect books to read in the month of December.
With the culture and entertainment offerings on tap, it’s an absolute guarantee that no one will be bored this December. The month will see posthumous new fiction releases from playwright Sam Shepard and writer Jenny Diski, plus a wedding guide for millennials. Hamilton the Musical arrives in London and SpongeBob Square Pants the Musical arrives on Broadway. There’s a convention in LA of comedians with popular podcasts, and plenty of cool podcasts to tune into. The slate of new film releases this month is incredible: Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep join Steven Spielberg in a film set during the (first) heyday of The Washington Post; Matt Damon gets downsized; Margot Robbie is disgraced former figure-skater Tonya Harding; and Hugh Jackman is P.T. Barnum. Oh, yeah, there’s also a new Star Wars installment that you may have heard something about. In television, The Crown is back for season two! Get your tiaras polished. This is going to be big.
New Books This Month.
The Vanishing Princess: Stories (Art of the Story) by Jenny Diski is the prolific writer’s posthumous collection of short stories – Dec 5
Improv Nation: How We Made a Great American Art by Sam Wasson makes the claim that improve is a purely American art form – like jazz – and provides a comprehensive history of American comedy – Dec 5
Natural Disaster: I Cover Them. I AM One. Is a memoir from ABC News Chief Meteorologist Ginger Zee – Dec 5
Anyone Who’s Anyone: The Astonishing Celebrity Interviews, 1987-2017 by George Wayne is book’s worth of gossip and interviews from a veteran entertainment reporter – Dec 5
Three Daughters of Eve by Elif Shafak – Dec 5
The Ice House by Laura Lee Smith follows the beleaguered MacKinnons as they weather the possible loss of the family business, a serious medical diagnosis, and the slings and arrows of familial discord – Dec 5
No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters by Ursula K. Le Guin and Karen Joy Fowler – Dec 5
Stone Fox Bride: Wedding Planning for the Wild at Heart is the first book from blogger Moly Rosen Guy — Dec 5
In the Fall They Come Back by Robert Bausch – Dec 12
The popular Times Litfest in Mumbai features a range of discussions and book launches; the theme this year is “That Man-Woman Thing,” exploring the relationship between men and women “across time, place, space, profession, family, and literature” – Dec 15-17
The Last Suppers by Mandy Mikulencak – Dec 26
Why You Eat What You Eat: The Science Behind Our Relationship with Food by Rachel Herz PhD – Dec 26
In the months before his death, and while living with Lou Gehrig’s disease, Sam Shepard wrote a novel about a man with a debilitating medical condition reflecting on his past; the novel, titled Spy of the First Person, will be published by Knopf this December.
Theater Openings This Month.
Once on this Island at Circle in the Square Theater is a revival of the 1990 musical about star-crossed lovers on opposite sides of a Caribbean island – Dec 3
Downtown Race Riot at the Pershing Square Signature Center by Seth Zvi Rosenfeld recounts the true story of a hot late summer day in 1976, when a mob of young men descended on Washington Square Park in New York City with pipes and bats, and attacked any people of color they could find – opens Dec 3
SpongeBob SquarePants the musical, with original music from David Bowie, Cyndi Lauper and John Legend, opens at the Palace Theater; Tina Landau directs, and Ethan Slater makes his Broadway debut as Bob – Dec 4
Describe the Night by Rajiv Joseph at the Atlantic Theatre Company crosses three time zones: 1920, when the Russian writer Isaac Babel wanders the countryside with the Red Cavalry; 1990, when a mysterious KGB agent spies on a woman in Dresden and falls in love; and 2010, when an aircraft carrying most of the Polish government crashes in the Russian city of Smolensk. epic new play traces the stories of seven men and women connected by history, myth and conspiracy theories – opens Dec 5
A Room in India is performed at the Park Avenue Armory by Theatre Du Soleil – Dec 5-20
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony Award-sweeping modern musical masterpiece Hamilton makes a long-awaited London premiere at the refurbished Victoria Palace Theatre – previews begin Dec 6 for an opening on Dec 21
Following a sold-out run on the West End, Mark Rylance returns to Broadway for 16 weeks at the Belasco Theater in Farinelli and the King, a comedy based on the true story of Philippe V, the 18th-century king who suffered from depression that was held at bay by the performances of the castrato Farinelli; it features 7 arias accompanied by period instruments – previews begin Dec 5 and the run ends on March 25
London’s Young Vic will present The Jungle, directed by Stephen Daldry, which takes place in the “jungle,” Europe’s largest refugee camp in Calais, France – Dec 7-January 9, 2018
The Acting Company will host a benefit reading Dickens’ A Christmas Carol at the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College; David Hyde Pierce is Scrooge, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus performs – Dec 11
The Children is a dystopian story of two retired nuclear engineers driven from their homes by a nuclear disaster who are asked for a favor by an old friend; written by Lucy Kirkwood, this Royal Cort production transfers to the Samuel J. Friedman Theater – Dec 12
Classic Stage Company presents Twelfth Night, Shakespeare’s classic comedy, in which twins Viola and Sebastian are shipwrecked on the island of Illyria, and are separated, each fearing the other lost to the sea. Viola disguises herself as a boy and wades into a complex romantic triangle with Duke Orsino and the Countess Olivia – opening Dec 14
Cool Podcasts to Check Out.
Pee Cast Blast ’17 at the Theatre at the Ace Hotel in LA will feature some of podcasting’s funniest comedians; the lineup includes Comedy Bang! Bang!, How Did This Get Made?, Improv4Humans, Hollywood Handbook, Who Charted? and Playing Games with Jimmy Pardo – Dec 10
Tiny Desk Concerts from NPR’s All Songs Considered features musicians performing at Bob Boilen’s desk in the NPR Music office; guests have included Passion Pit, The xx, Wilco, and Adele
More Perfect is in its second season on Radiolab; this popular series focuses on past and present Supreme Court cases
The second season of First Day Back by Canadian documentarian Tally Abecassis follows the story of Lucie and Gerry – lovebirds who were together for 13 years – until the fall of 2010, when Lucie accidentally shot and killed him; the podcast picks up the thread as Lucie is released from prison and tries to rebuild her life and explores the theme of trying to get your life back after a life-changing event
The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds is a history lesson with a twist: in each episode, Anthony reads a story from American history to Reynolds, who has no idea what the topic will be.
Code Switch focuses a sharp eye on race in America, exploring issues like advertising images, identity and cultural norms. It’s produced by NPR and written by a team of 7 journalists.
The Tip Off asks journalists to explain how they got the leads for their biggest scoops; the Panama Papers are one of the case studies this season.
The format for Beautiful Stories from Anonymous People is definitely unusual: every week, host Chris Gethard opens his phone line to one caller, and he cannot hang up first, no matter what the caller says. Confessional, intimate and surprising, the format drives the conversation to intriguing places.
S-Town is from the team who created This American Life; hosted by Brian Reed, the show is the story of a man named John who asks the host to investigate someone in his Alabama town who is bragging about getting away with murder.
Sound Matter is about how the sounds of the world around us affect us: our memories, ideas and sense of well-being.
New Films This Month.
Wonder Wheel is the latest from Woody Allen, starring Kate Winslet as a waitress in a clown house and Justin Timberlake as a charismatic lifeguard in 1950s Coney Island – Dec 1
The Disaster Artist was directed by and stars James Franco, with Seth Rogan and Alison Brie; it’s based on the true story of director and actor Tommy Wiseau’s production of the low-budget film The Room – Dec 1
In The Shape of Water, Elisa is a mute, isolated woman who works as a cleaning lady in a hidden, high-security government laboratory in 1962 Baltimore; she discovers the lab’s classified secret — a mysterious, scaled creature from South America that lives in a water tank — and falls in love with it; Guillermo del Toro directs, Sally Hawkins stars, and Octavia Butler delivers a luminous performance as her friend and coworker – Dec 1
Loveless, Andrey Zvyagintsev’s film about a divorcing Russian couple arguing over who will take custody of their 12-year old son – neither wants him, and when he overhears this, he vanishes – will have a week-long Oscar-qualifying run in New York and Los Angeles before a wider opening in February – Dec 1
Michelle Williams and Mark Wahlberg star in All the Money in the World, based on the true story of the 1973 kidnapping of John Paul Getty III, whose grandfather was the richest man in the world, but who didn’t want to pay his ransom – Dec 8
I, Tonya revisits the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan figure skating scandal – Margot Robbie stars in the title role, and Allison Janney is said to give an Oscar-worthy performance as her mother, LaVona – Dec 8
Star Wars: The Last Jedi –Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac, John Boyega, Mark Hamill, and, in her final performance, Carrie Fisher – what more need be said? – Dec 15
Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool is based on a memoir by British actor Peter Turner, which tells the story of his 1970s romance with Hollywood star Gloria Grahame, who was 29 his senior – Annette Bening plays Grahame and Paul McGuigan directs – Dec 15
Ferdinand is an animated feature from the makers of Ice Age based on a best-selling children’s book about a bull who longs to escape his captors for greener pastures; it features the voices of John Cena, Daveed Diggs, and Kate McKinnon – Dec 15
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle follows four high-school students who get sucked into a video game, starring The Rock, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, and Jack Black as their avatars – Dec 20
In The Post, Steven Spielberg directs a historical drama about the Pentagon Papers: the 1971 fight by The Washington Post to secure the right to publish classified information; the episode has current topical relevance and the film is garnering huge buzz – Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep star, with Alison Brie and Sarah Paulson – Dec 22
Pitch Perfect 3 sees the Barden Bellas reunite for a post-graduation USO tour – Dec 22
Bright is a Netflix film starring Will Smith and Joel Edgerton as LA cops living in an alternative reality where elves, fairies and orcs coexist with humans – Dec 22
Downsizing is a sci-fi satire set in the near future, when scientists learn how to shrink people to a few inches in height in order to reduce humanity’s footprint on the Earth; Matt Damon stars as an Omaha therapist who volunteers to be shrunk – Alexander Payne directs and the cast includes Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis, Christoph Waltz, and Hong Chau (in what’s being buzzed-about as a breakout performance) – Dec 22
The Greatest Showman is an original musical inspired by the story of P. T. Barnum, celebrating the birth of show business; Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron and Zendaya co-star, and Oscar-winning song composers (La La Land) Pasek and Paul return to big screen – Dec 25
In Phantom Thread screenwriter and director Paul Thomas Anderson explores the fashion world of 1950s London; Daniel Day-Lewis (who says this will be his last performance before he retires) plays a dress designer; Lesley Manville is his sister and Vicky Krieps is his inamorata and business partner – Dec 25
Popular Music Happenings This Month.
Songs of Experience, the new U2 album (their 14th studio album), is a reaction to Brexit and the 2016 Presidential election; it’s scheduled to drop Dec 1
Morrissey is on tour promoting his latest album Low in High School; he plays Madison Square Garden – Dec 2
The Rennes Trans Musical Festival in Brittany, France showcases experimental music – Dec 6-10
LCD Soundsystem settles in for a 10-night run at Brooklyn Steel – Dec 11-15; 17-19; and 22-23
Yo La Tengo’s annual Hanukkah concert series delivers eight nights of intimate performances and surprise appearances; this year the party moves to the Bowery ballroom – Dec 12-19
Grizzly Bear, the Brooklyn-now-L.A.-based indie rock band returns with a new album – Dec 13
The Magnetic Fields Music Festival is India’s newest music festival; it’s limited to 500 people, and will be held on two stages at a restored 17th century palace hotel in Rajasthan. On offer will be cutting-edge music from bands and DJs, fashion, art, and food. Attendees can either camp in luxury tents or stay in rooms at the hotel – Dec 15-17
Rhythm & Vines is 3-day music festival in New Zealand; named for the family vineyard it takes place in, at Waiohika Estate, Gisborne, the line-up is spread across five stages and in addition to the performances, there are pool parties, volleyball on the beach, boat trips to Taumotu Island for surfing, and the chance to spot dolphins – Dec 29 – Jan 1, 2018
New Television This Month.
Easy, the anthology series from Chicago-based independent filmmaker Joe Swanberg featuring characters at a significant moment of doubt, realization or longing, returns to Netflix for season 2 – Dec 1
Dark is Netflix’s first German-language original series; the dystopian 10-part thriller sees four families traveling through a forest in the shadow of a nuclear power plant – then they’re propelled through a matrix that takes them from 2019 to 1986 – Dec 1
Vanderpump Rules follows the continuing adventures of Lisa Vanderpump (former cast member on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” and co-owner and boss at West Hollywood, Calif., restaurant SUR, which stands for Sexy Unique Restaurant); Season 6 launches on Bravo – Dec 4
Cash Cab on Discovery is a game show for a new era: players picked up in the Cash Cab have to answer trivia questions with mounting cash values before they reach their destination in order to win a cash prize; if a player answers incorrectly, they’re kicked out of the cab without any money. Season 2 begins – Dec 4
Shut Eye – starring Burn Notice alum Jefferey Donovan as Charlie Haverford, a man who runs a chain of fortune-telling parlors, one of which occupies a room in his LA home – returns to Hulu for season 2 – Dec 6
Knightfall premieres on the History Channel; it’s set in 1306, and follows the Knights Templar during the Crusades as they fight to protect the Holy Grail – Dec 6
The series premiere of Happy! on Syfy is based on a graphic novel of the same name; a corrupt, intoxicated, ex-cop turned hit man finds his world changed forever by a tiny, imaginary, blue-winged horse with a relentlessly positive attitude named Happy – Dec 6
The Great American Baking Show returns to ABC – Dec 7
Psych: The Movie on USA is a two-hour film that picks up three years after the series finale – Dec 7
The second season of Netflix’s The Crown explores the next decade of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign (the 1960s) and her marriage to Prince Philip – Dec 8
Former Top Gear hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May jumped from the BBC to Amazon Prime, and the first season of their new show The Grand Tour about traveling the world and driving cool machines was a big hit; now they return for Season 2 – Dec 8
The Librarians on TNT is a new series centered on an ancient organization hidden beneath the Metropolitan Public Library dedicated to protecting an unknowing world from the secret, magical reality hidden all around; they solve mysteries, fight supernatural threats and recover artifacts, including the Ark of the Covenant, the Spear of Destiny and Excalibur – Dec 13
Wormwood is a six-part documentary/fiction mash-up on Netflix that explores LSD, government conspiracies, and unsolved mysteries as it unravels the mysterious death of a U.S. scientist entangled in a secret Cold War program known as MK-Ultra; Errol Morris directs, Peter Sarsgaard stars – Dec 15
The second half of Season 2 of The Ranch on Netflix arrives; the comedy stars Ashton Kutcher, Danny Masterson, Debra Winger and Sam Elliott as members of the dysfunctional Bennett family, and takes place on the fictional Iron River Ranch, Colorado – Dec 15
Jean-Claude Van Johnson on Amazon is a comedy about a retired martial arts and action movie star (Jean-Claude Van Damme, playing himself), who begins working as a private undercover agent; Phylicia Rashad is also in the cast – Dec 15
Gunpowder on HBO is a three-part thriller based on the 17th century events that led to Guy Fawkes Day; it stars Kit Harington (Game of Thrones) as Robert Catesby, who was the driving force behind the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 London – Dec 18
Ordeal by Innocence is a three-part TV adaptation of Agatha Christie’s novel – it’s set at Christmastime in 1954, and is a subversive murder-mystery; Bill Nighy and Anna Chancellor star and Sandra Goldbacher directs – BBC Dec 25; early next year on Amazon
Call the Midwife on PBS takes place in the winter of 1963, during what was popularly dubbed the Big Freeze; blizzard-like conditions form the backbone of the story, as the midwives struggle to care for their patients while facing ice, snow, frozen pipes and sporadic blackouts – Dec 25
See other December 2017 Events:
— Travel
— The Arts
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