The Pennsylvania Ballet's "The Nutcracker"

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Ever since 2011 I have made it a point to see a performance of The Nutcracker every year. I normally see it at the Kennedy Center, but this year the show was only held during the Thanksgiving holiday, and I was out of town. So instead I went up to Philly to see the Pennsylvania Ballet perform this famous piece.

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First of all, the Academy of Music in Philadelphia is BEAUTIFUL! The whole place felt like a Sugarplum Fairy land, with pink walls, pink marble, and pink everything else everywhere. Inside the theater the ceilings are painted with images of peacocks and Greek/Roman gods, and there were gold statues throughout. And of course the chandelier was magnificent!

Now for the show. The conductor was a woman (Beatrice Jona Afron), so that was neat. The music was incredible as usual, and the sounds will never fail to remind me of Fantasia's Nutcracker Suite. The scenery/set was amazing:

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In general I thought this version was much like the ones I've seen before. But here are a few things that were different:

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1. Frau Stahlbaum, the mother in the story, has the prettiest outfit: a lovely, bejeweled red dress.

2. The main little girl is named Marie, not Clara. Why would they change her name?!

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3. The biggest difference that was great was the Herr Drosselmeier's nephew (i.e. the Nutcracker Prince) was actually the little girl's age! No more creepy pervert who's twice her age. The little boy who I saw play this part, Rowan Duffy, was SO cute and did a really good job, especially when miming his fight with the rat king.

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4. The wind-up toys walked on their own in and out of their boxes, so they weren't as toy-like as I've seen in other shows. But at least they were better than the bear from the Cincinnati Ballet last year.

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There's a piece of cheese on his helmet! Image found here

5. The mice were dressed (usually they're just furry), and the rat king had red shoes with little mouse faces on them. Their outfits were pretty fun.

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6. There was a bunny with the toy soldiers. Not sure why...

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7. The program called the Spanish Chocolates "Hot Chocolate," didn't specify that the coffee is Arabian or the tea as Chinese, and completely replaced the male Russian Dance with a silly candy-cane dance with hula hoops.

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 8. While Oksana Maslova is a very good ballerina, I felt like she was just going through the motions the entire evening. I never felt a connection between her and her Cavalier (Sterling Baca), and she almost seemed nervous, just focusing on each movement rather than the dance as a whole. But they did do a cool move where Baca pulled Maslova while she was on pointe (on a small beanbag or some piece of fabric) across the stage. I'd never seen that before!

9. At the end when the children fly off, they were in a sailboat with a walnut hull. How cute!

I love this ballet, and I'm so glad I made the trek up to Philadelphia (in the snow!) to see this performance. They're doing this show through December 23, so there is still time to see it if you want to go!