Still think Christmas is only for Nutcrackers and Dickens fans? Check out the D.C. theater scene this month, when you can storm the barricades, giggle with Elle Woods or just keep cool, boy.

D.C. will be the first to see the highly anticipated revamping of West Side Story by Arthur Laurents before it heads to Broadway. Why us? The National Theater is where the show was born. (Dec 15).

Signature Theater is only the second theater to tackle its own regional production of Les Miserables, and it will do so in much smaller quarters than usually house the famous turntable-style set (Dec. 2).

Legally Blonde: The Musical is hardly Broadway at is most innovative, but those looking for some frothy musical fun could do worse than head to the Kennedy Center (Dec. 16).

Also This Month

• Forget the date discrepancy; Shakespeare Theater's Twelfth Night opens Dec. 2, starring Chris Innvar and Veanne Cox.
• If you're off to see the Wizard, make sure to get to the Warner soon, as its Wizard of Oz production only lasts about a week (Dec. 2).
• For the purists, the Ford's Theater A Christmas Carol, this year is at the Lansburgh (Dec. 2).
• Nothing says the holidays like a meditation on an inappropriate relationship: Blackbird at Studio (Dec. 3).
• Winner of the "Assassination of Jesse James Clunky And Pretentious Title" award goes to Rep Stage's The Butterfingers Angel, Mary & Joseph, Herod the Nut, & The Slaughter of 12 Hit Carols in a Pear Tree (but blame William Gibson, not them) (Dec. 3).
• Forum Theater's brilliant production of The Last Days of Judas Iscariot gets a reprisal this month (Dec 5).
• The Neo-Futurists are back: the troupe returns to Woolly for a limited engagement (Dec 15).
• Theodore Bikel in Sholom Aleichem: Laughter Through Tears is Theater J's one-man show (Dec. 17).
• Catch a number of Landless favorites, as the company reprises both Gutenberg The Musical and A Very Merry Unauthorized Christmas Scientology Pageant for the holidays.

Still playing
This weekend's your last chance to see Washington Shakespeare Company's take on All's Well That Ends Well and Woolly's apocalyptic Boom; On Dec 20, Keegan Theater's Glengarry Glen Ross closes; the following weekend marks the end for Round House Theater's Alice; you've got until January to catch the fun Altar Boyz in Bethesda, the fascinating Grey Gardens at Studio, Forever Plaid at Toby's Dinner Theater, Arena Stage's Next To Normal, Isn't It Romantic at MetroStage and Olney's Peter Pan.