In the huge power crisis that faces the state, lighting 4,000 bulbs on a white fir looks like carelessness.On December 7th the state declared its first-ever "stage-three" emergency, meaning that 98.5% of its power reserves had been consumed and that a series of hour-long power cuts might be imposed on different regions.
At 10, Covent Garden's first-ever staging of Verdi's Les Vêpres Siciliennes, in star director Stefan Herheim's production: "ambitious and generally highly successful", Andrew Clements thought.
Far greater suspense has been hovering over "Two Thousand Years", the first play in 12 years from Mike Leigh, a British film-maker, and his first-ever staging for the National Theatre.
It's the first-ever staging on American soil of a unique new running competition called the Double Road Race (or Double for short).
Showing unbelievable strength and determination, he managed to hold on for his first ever stage win.
China's National Stadium, better known as the Bird's Nest Olympic venue, is to host its first ever stage musical.
Hannah has spent the afternoon rehearsing George Axelrod's 1950s comedy The Seven Year Itch, not just her West End debut but her first ever stage role.
And that's not all … just scraping in during mid-December came Wheeldon's first foray into the musical – the first ever stage adaptation, no less, of An American in Paris, the 1951 film, which he has directed as well as choreographed.
2.02pm: "Would you belive that this morning on my way to work, I walked past the finish line for the first ever stage in the first everTour in 1903," writes Martin Mathews.
The Sky rider's race could not have got off to a better start on Saturday when he took maximum risks over the short and challenging time-trial course in Amsterdam to claim a double personal triumph – his first ever stage win and taking the lead in one of cycling's three Grand Tours.
