Time to once again roll out that perennial favorite, the dancyprancy sugary tale of wooden soldiers in tights battling evil
giant rodents in tights, for the honor of little girls in ballet slippers. Featuring illustrious guest artists from the American
Ballet Theatre, the Joffrey Ballet and Ballet West, the Barclay’s Nutcracker is always the glitteriest wet dream in town,
but what you won’t be seeing, as usual, are any remnants of the original 1816 story by E.T.A. Hoffmann upon which
Tchaikovsky’s tale is based. In that Grimmsy world, a ruthless mouse queen seeking revenge for the murder of her
babies casts a spell on a princess and gives her a ginormous head, a big old nutcracking mouth and a cottony beard—
all of which are super unprincessy. It gets even worse and convoluted, of course, so best stick with the super fey
musical turn and leave the gothic tormenting of children to Jenny McCarthy.
Saturdays, Sundays. Starts: Dec. 14. Continues through Dec. 22, 2013
