by Tracey Cusick
Like an updated Shakespeare play, BalletRox’s Urban Nutcracker puts a familiar story in a different setting. The story follows the same outline as the “traditional” Nutcracker story: a fancy party, the gift of a nutcracker, a young girl dreaming, and the nutcracker coming to life in the dream. The Urban Nutcracker takes place in a city brownstone rather than in a winter palace, the party hosts and guests are upper middle class rather than nobility, and the settings are late 20th century American rather than 19th century Russian. There’s not a ballroom to be seen, the presentation of the nutcracker takes place in a living room familiar to most modern Americans: it has a television and sofa along with the Christmas tree.
The dream sequence includes children on Hoppity Hops and hula hoop twirling dancers. Most of the dance is ballet, but tap, hip hop, and swing are also included. This production has the traditional music of Tchaikovsky from the original, but also features Duke Ellington. The cast members, especially the younger children, were terrific dancers and exuberant, there’s much energy in this show. Even the costumes are vibrant.
I was fortunate to be able to attend the final dress rehearsal. The working out of a few final kinks slowed the show a few times, but it was fun to see cast members watching the performance when they were not on stage themselves. Because it was a dress rehearsal, those of us in the audience entered by way of the stage door. We got to see piles of Hoppity Hops, hula hoops and boxing gloves, and wonder how these items would be incorporated into the performance. It all worked!
See the Urban Nutcracker on Dec. 12, 18 & 19 at 7:30 p.m. and Dec. 13, 19, & 20 at 1:30 p.m. at John Hancock Hall, 180 Berkeley St. It is accessible via the Green Line to Arlington Station or Orange Line to Back Bay Station.
Tracey Cusick lives in the East Fenway.
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